Privacy
Last updated October 5, 2026
The calculator
The Gage Block Calculator at gageblockcalc.com needs no account and works without signing in.
Guest use of the Hub
- Chats, saved stacks, and your profile are stored in your browser (localStorage) on your device.
- Questions you send to the AI Machinist go to our server and then to our AI provider (xAI) to generate an answer. Don't include confidential drawings, customer data, or personal information.
- To enforce daily question limits, our server keeps a one-way hash of your IP address and a daily counter. We don't store your questions on the server.
Signed-in use
- Signing in with Google uses Firebase Authentication (Google). We receive your name, email address, and profile photo URL from Google.
- Your profile, saved chats, and saved stacks are stored in Firebase Realtime Database. Only your account can read them.
- Shop Floor posts and replies are public, along with your display name and shop role.
- Live Chat messages are public too, along with your display name and shop role. While you have Live Chat open, you count toward the "signed in here" number. You can delete your own messages.
- You can delete your saved chats, stacks, posts, and replies at any time. To delete your account data, contact us.
Visitor counter
The Hub and the gage block calculator send a random, per-tab session ID to our server when a page loads, and again every few minutes while it stays open. We use it to count total visits and how many people are online now. We keep only that ID and a timestamp: no cookies, no IP address, and no personal data. Session IDs older than a few minutes are deleted.
Affiliate links
Some links go to Amazon with our Associates tag (gageblockcalc-20). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon may set its own cookies when you click.
Third parties
Google (Firebase), Cloudflare (hosting and the chat proxy), xAI (AI answers), Amazon (affiliate links), and, if you choose to use it, Buy Me a Coffee.
Shared site hub (visit counter, passkeys, live chat)
This site also uses Nick’s shared hub at nick-sites-hub.tekjeep.workers.dev for a live/total visit counter, optional passkey accounts, and moderated visitor chat. Visits use a random session id in sessionStorage (no IP stored for counting). Passkeys store a display name and public key only. Chat messages are public, profanity-filtered, rate-limited, and only the recent ones are kept.