Milling Tricks of the Trade (Edge & Surface Finding)

Using a cigarette paper to find the surface or edge of a piece of material.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Milling
• lathe
• edge finding
• cigarette paper
• mini-mill
• workshop
• shop
• tricks of the trade
• machining

[Jes437]

A classic method :-), Different papers are different thicknesses though, so best to sample some.

[richieT737]

You are right. These numbers are for the red packet papers the green ones are thinner I believe.

[richieT737]

You are right .02mm is 0.7 thou not 7 thou. I'm a metric man and not really used to imperial measurement so got the conversion wrong. Thanks

[applejak2000]

Thanks Richie, this will come in very handy especially since most of the work I do in Live Steam hobby I just need to find the surface or edge within .001".

[osql8]

.02 mm = .00078 thousandths of an inch

.2 mm = .0078 thousandths of an inch or rounded up ' eight thou'

[dgwbuildwright]

@garciarosa100 NO . a) could 'throw' on contact b) could damage the cutter c) damage to feeler guage. d) likely to 'grab 'the feeler guage and pull into work piece

[thedistortedguitar1]

Do the oil modify the thickness of the paper? Have you measured the difference between an oiled paper and an unoiled paper? If so, what it is?

[garciarosa100]

$3.00 feeler gauges would be better ,NO.

[underhover69]

Bloody brilliant Mate, tank you very much for this tip.

[szaki]

One can use any kind of paper, long as the thickness is known.

[pbgd3]

They look like they are just latex gloves. Its not like a mill is going to grab the latex and wrap you around it. Cloth or leather gloves ditch them before using tools (I do use them while rough cutting on things like abrasive chop saws. Cuts down on metal splinters.