....for what it's worth for the "thrifty"...drill a small hole (enough for a
sharp pencil point) in the groove at the 6" point in the your standard
tri-square which you probably already have anyway...not so sure it works for
your purpose but it works great for marking boards for re-sawing on the
band-saw. Adjustable and ruler is "built-in".

"CW" wrote in message
news
Not missing a thing. A stick in a hole with a pointy thing. That's about
it.
"Richard" wrote in message
oups.com...
I just started practicing hand cut dovetails and have been using a
square to mark the baseline. I would like to make a simple marking
gauge, but I think I may be missing something. They seem very simple to
make, but when I search online I'm finding some fairly expensive prices
for such a simple tool. It seems to me that if the pin or blade is
secure and can keep a consistant distance from the base, it would work
fine. For example, a dowel with a blade attached to one end and some
sort of sliding block (something like the collar used to hold weights
on a weightlifter's bar) would work just as well as anything else.

Is there anything about marking gauges I am missing?

Thanks,
Richard