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What measurment tools do you use?

A

Alex Ku

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Nov 24, 2008
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I am on the market for calipers to measure bowls wall thickness. There are many different types of calipers available online. What calipers do you guys use for bowls?
While I am at it what other woodturning measuring tools would you recommend?

Thanks,
Alex
 
Not Many

Keith Tompkins' new Gage't bowl gauge is excellent for bowls large and small. Very easy to use and gives direct visual indication of wall thickness. I started with the basic figure 8 type calipers but rarely use them now. I use a home made depth gauge which is a dowel in a tight hole in a board-very low tech. I also have a few metal calipers and small depth gauges which I use occaisionally. I really don't do a lot of measuring. Sorry if this was not overly helpful.
 
When I'm not using my fingers, I use a set of Versa-Cal that I got from Craft Supplies. Like Don, I also have a home-made depth gauge from a dowel, and I use the small protractor/depth gauge (also from CS) occasionally (although I use this mainly for check the bevel angles on my gouges.)

I also have a hollowing tool that has a laser guide for hollow forms (don't use it on bowls, but I probably could.

After creating a few funnels and orbiting a couple bowls when you cut through the edge, you'll start to check a bit more, or start making 'thicker' bowls.

Cheers,
 
sometimes you will need to measure an opening or how thick something is, etc

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93293

hf sells these for $9.99 i believe i caught them on sale for about $5 when i bought them, if you buy one thing from them they will send you catalogues from then on, they have a section for sale items that i always look at, i am waiting for their buffing wheels to go on sale 😀
 
It really depends on what I want to measure. For wall thickness I use the inside/outside kind mostly, until the bowl depth exceeds capacity, they I switch to the figure eight kind.

For matching wall thickness on two halves of a segmented bowl, I usually use the kind of outside calipers with the screw thingy, so once set, it stays at the same setting, and I can transfer that measurement to each half.

For segment width, and scribing diameters on turnings, I will use dial calipers...the decimal kind.

So for me at least, each one has its use. I started out with plain old 6" screw calipers, and discovered their limits pretty fast. As you progress in your turning, you will find times when the old methods and tools just don't work, and you will want something else.
 
Screw-type caliper, DIY figure-eight, DIY Fibonacci gauge.

For critical repetitive work, cardboard templates printed from CAD (pattern or half circle), sometimes progressive.

"Pi" tape: Inch marks at 3.1416" apart on one side, e.g. Stanley 33-115. IIRC, "Pi tape" is a registered TM of another company, though.

Joe
 
I use the digital kind in open forms, the type from Craft supplies for hidden places. It's not as if it is important to measure anything else. As long as you don't break through and the curves are fair you're good.

I don't generally hang around with anyone who would take out a caliper to measure something I've turned.

For things like box lids a set of insides and a set of outsides of the quick-adjust types are nice. But there you have to get something to fit, so you actually need a caliper.
 
moisture meter

i enjoy having a moisture meter, while it is not a must, and while it can be inexpensive or high price, they are interesting to me

Terry was going to make a pepper mill type piece and had a piece of black walnut, he has a electric moisture meter that you just hold beside wood. a various points the wood varied over 25 from lowest to highest moisture reading, a very twisted grain :cool2:
 
For wall thickness, I use my fingers, for the depth I use just a steel rod or a pencil. On hollow forms, sometimes I use calipers, but not very often.
 
After trying a few of what has already been mentioned, I find myself reaching for the Tompkins bowl gage because it is so precise and you can go all the way around to the bottom. It beats using two different tools for one job. I think it's best because you can watch the peg move as you slide it down the sides so you know exactly where to take off a little more wood.

I have an older one and the markings are difficult to read but I hear the new ones are more clearly marked. I think Packard Woodworks, and maybe even CS, sells them.
 
wall thickness

For wall thickness a stiff piece of wire. Bend one end at 90 degrees the other end pointing towards it. Open the ends so that they are a bit more than what you are measuring. As long as the 90 end and the other are perpendicular to each other the distance between the outside point will show you just how thick the walls are. For depth two wire rods hold one over the edges the other touch bottom and hold between fingers then transfer the depth to the bowl side. All this ala "Ellsworth" cost less than a buck for either and all. Simple and cheeeeep.
 
You mean your supposed to measure?

I use the dowel rod in a piece of wood for a depth gauge, a 6" dial caliper, the thickness calipers that captjim mentioned, a 6" ruler and my fingers and eyes. Like Michael Mouse said nobody has wanted to measure any of my turnings, yet. Even if it's an optic illusion, as long as the piece looks the same thickness is usually all I worry about.

Greg
 
Nobody else so cheap they sight across the rim and mark their gouge with an index finger for comparison with the outside? I suppose a dedicated tool would be nice, but it would get buried so regularly behind the lathe that I'd have to go back to the old way.
 
MM, my 6" stainless steel rule was free, back when they used to give away promotional stuff like that, so that makes my ruler and eyeball depth gage pretty cheap. Have never accidently made a "funnel", but there could always be a first time.
 
MM I do it like that sometimes. I bought a special tool which is an extend able magnet. Before I got it I would use the chuck key, it worked quite well. You could use your knockout rod as well.
 
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