An automatic stop gauge used in woodworking to facilitate the cutting of multiple workpieces to the same length, or working of the pieces at equal positions along each, quickly and accurately has a plurality of stops, moveably mounted on a beam-like fence, which is in turn aligned with and connected to the existing top fence of a cutting or drilling tool when present “Pin” type stops deploy in succession by means of gravity from holes drilled in the beam at incremental spacings of one or more inter-hole distances. An operator presses a work piece against the beam which retracts one or more of the pins from its stop-defining position projecting from the beam, and with lateral movement of the work piece toward the working member of the tool, as guided by the beam, pins redeploy one at a time, to each provide a new stop position for the workpiece.