RAK 10″ Contour Gauge ► Check Amazon
Hey, everyone. I’m out here in the garage and I’ve got this contour gauge by RAK Pro Tools we’re gonna take a brief look at today…so stay tuned.
So, who is RAK? From what I can tell RAK is based in Los Angeles, California and they sell a small lineup of tools for the DIY’er. Their website addresses RAKprotools.com if you want to check them out. They also sell their products on Amazon. One other thing I found is that they have a YouTube channel and a Facebook page, but both have little to no recent activity.
So, why would I buy a tool like the contour gauge…so, we’re gonna get into a little more detail as to actually how it works, but the reason why I bought this tool is because I have an immediate need possibly for using it around the tub surround…what I want to do is kind of mimic the shape of the tub so when I go to put the tile backer board in, I don’t have a lot of gaps in there. So, that’s my immediate thought – we’ll see how that works out, also.
I can use it to put in tile later on to get around certain obstacles in the floor or in the walls so that’s kind of my immediate need for this tool you can also use it for woodworking you can use it for auto body repair…so, if you want to mimic the shape of a panel or the curves of a panel you can use it for that… and also for things like hardwood flooring installation…there’s just an unlimited use for this tool, and so that’s one of the reasons why I have it on hand – just in case I need it for any other projects.
Alright so let’s take a closer look at this tool. So, there’s the contour gauge out of the package…you can see we’ve got these teeth…they say they’re about three inches long. So, if I take my tape measure and I measure the teeth – that’s the measurement. I’m not sure exactly where they get the three inches, but it appears that they’re actually longer than three inches, so I’ll take that…it’s better than being shorter than three inches.
Then also the teeth are about 1.4mm thick, which is about a little less than 1/16”…so, that’s good…then we’ve got this ruler in inches and also in centimeters and if you flip it over to the other side you’ve got the same ruler on the other side…you’ve got the centimeters on top and the inches right here on the bottom.
You probably notice the rectangular slots on the back of the gauge, and I imagine that they’re possibly used to attach magnets with double-sided tape or something of that sort…so, that’s really cool…as you can see, it’s got the same profile if you flip it over.
There’s a lock lever right here…so you make your shape and then you lock it in place…now it you can’t move it it does move a little bit but it takes a little bit of force to be able to move it when it’s locked in place. The build quality of the tool is actually pretty good I don’t feel like it’s gonna break very easily and I like the lock lever on the side being made out of aluminum as opposed to being made out of plastic like a lot of the other tools that I looked at… so I’m gonna think and get a pretty good amount of use out of this tool.
And of course it’s a tool I use it more or less as a toy, also…so, I’ve had a lot of times where I’ve gone around the house and just contoured everything under the sun just because it’s kind of fun to play with…that’s the contour gauge…a little more close-up look at it.
A couple things to add here are that the rack contour gauge includes a 1-year no-questions-asked return policy also this tool is made in Taiwan
Alright, I’m gonna do a few quick demonstrations, and I’m going to start by using the contour gauge on some random items in the garage.
I’ll start first of all with this car battery to test the ability of the teeth to mimic the finer details of the battery’s case. So, with the gauge unlocked, I flattened it out then I press it against the battery and lock the teeth in place…it seems to work best to quickly press the gauge against an item that has finer details.
Next, we’ll move on to this hammer. So, I started with the beveled edge of the teeth close to the work surface which didn’t work too well…so, I flipped the tool over so the teeth will contact the hammer higher up and there is a reproduced shape.
And lastly, I tried the contour gauge on this canopy weight. Now, I noticed that the teeth didn’t quite contour to the weight’s shape on this attempt for some reason…and I had to run my fingers along them for an accurate reproduction.
On the DIY Apprentice wrench rating scale, I’m going to give this tool a 4.5 out of 5.
Pros:
- The dimensions of this tool are very good – it appears to be a perfect size for contouring a variety of items
- I like the beveled teeth for contouring at a surface level and up to about three quarters of an inch
- And I like that the lock lever is made of metal instead of plastic
Cons:
- A couple of minor negatives are that I had to run my fingers along the teeth to get an accurate reproduction in a few instances
- Also, I would like to have seen the ruler markings produced in a contrasting color like orange or white so they’re easier to read.
Overall, this looks like a durable tool that will definitely get a lot of use.
RAK 10″ Contour Gauge ► Check Amazon
