D&R Tools Contour Gauge Set Review - Good Deal?

Hey, everyone. I am out here in the garage, and what I’m going to be doing today is reviewing this contour gauge set by D&R Tools.

Full disclosure, I was actually asked to review this set…I did not pay money for it, but still am going to do an impartial review, regardless.

Packaging

So, I’m going to start with the packaging first because as I’ve talked about before sometimes the packaging can give you a little bit of an indicator as to the quality of the tool. So, you can see here the D&R Tools logo…I like their logo a lot…that’s pretty cool. “Contour gauge duplicator with metal lock and metal core”…so a little bit of a description of the tool. Right down here “Premium ABS Material Measuring Tool”…”High Precision Profile Copy Gauge”…”Durable, Portable And Compact”…so a little bit of advertising there, I’ll say.

…and then down here “Customer Satisfaction 100% Guaranteed”…I had to go on their website to look that up to really see what that meant because sometimes when you put a stamp like this on a package, that doesn’t really tell you a whole lot. They do have a 30-day return policy on the tool…there is no other warranty that I could see other than that particular policy.

Then you can see right here: Two pieces – ten inches and five inches…so we’ve got two contour gauges in here, not just one…and this tool is actually made in China.

Closer Look

There’s the 10-inch contour gauge…there’s the 5-inch and then you also get a couple pencils for tracing…so, nice little bonus there. Measurement of duplication accuracy of these gauges: 17.2 teeth per inch.

Alright, so taking a closer look at the D&R Tools contour gauges, we’re going to start with the 5-inch…and you can see right here, we’ve got some graduation markers right there in inches and then centimeters on the bottom…same thing on the other side. We’ve also got a couple slots on the back, where I believe you can place something like magnets.

Here are a couple indicators for the lock position…so you’ve got unlock right there and lock here…and when I pull this lock lever, the one thing I noticed is that this thing is very strong…so, once it’s locked, if i push down on these teeth, they do not move.

Alright, so right there you can see that there is indeed an aluminum core and then there’s a lock lever that is attached it. Then checking the lock levers on these two tools for consistency’s sake, the lock lever on the larger tool is a bit smoother than the smaller gauge.

Checking the smoothness of the teeth operation, the smaller gauge is a little stiff, but it’s not bad. The larger gauge is a little stiffer, but it’s not terrible. The construction of the tool is pretty good it is very solid it feels like it is a tool you can use for a while. It feels like it like it won’t fall apart on you. There’s no rattling or anything like that when I shake it.

Let’s Test Them Out!

Alright, let’s put these two tools to the test by duplicating a few items. I’m going to use the 10-inch first on this door jamb to mimic how you might use it when installing flooring. So, I flattened it out, pressed it up against the door jamb then ran my fingers along it to get an accurate reproduction…and lock the teeth in place. I did notice a little bowing of both the small and large tool, but the duplication was fairly accurate

So, let’s try a piece of trim with some curves to see how the gauges handle that…I’m just going to use a small one, since they’re identical…again, a little bowing can be seen, but the duplication is pretty accurate.