Digital Fraction Calipers are everywhere!

[Thom2]

I installed the Wixey height gauge from Rockler today on my 15" Delta Planer. Took about five minutes total. Involved drilling one simple hole into the base of the stand. When I looked at their site people installed them on the 15" Delta with lots of aluminum angle etc. I found no need for that. Incredibly easy and accurate set up. I am very pleased with the product!

I thought you sold that thing and went 20"?????

[JimD]

I have a HF digital dial caliper. It has plenty of accuracy and resolution for woodworking IMHO. I don't use it much, however, because it eats batteries and because I get tired of converting decimal inches to fractional inches (and please don't talk to me about metric dimensions).

I bought a fractional 6 inch dial caliper from Hartville Tool for about $30 (plus shipping). The dial has markings for fractional and decimal inches. No batteries, gives me the dimensions my mind can most readily work with. I don't know which of my calipers (I also have a mechanical one that reads only decimal inches) is the most accurate. I think all are accurate enough for what I do with them. My limitation is not normally how well I can measure (but it's nice to minimize sources of error). I just like the convenience of quickly being able to measure, mostly thickness, in fractional inches. 1/64 is normally plenty good enough. For most things I do, I use 1/16 + or - as my measurement (+ 1/32 or minus 1/32). When I have to be more precise than that, I try to cut all the parts at once, measure again after partial assembly, or something.

Jim

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I have a HF digital dial caliper. It has plenty of accuracy and resolution for woodworking IMHO. I don't use it much, however, because it eats batteries and because I get tired of converting decimal inches to fractional inches (and please don't talk to me about metric dimensions).

I have a pre-emptive feeling that the Wixey will eat batteries as well. It had a little note in the box that advises there is an extra battery in case the installed one is dead. The installed battery was dead. Kind of wierd that it went dead just sitting in a box, considering it is a new item that hasn't been on the shelfs for a year. Seems clear that there will be a lot of batteries in my future. Still love the unit though!

[sbs]

No problems with batteries on the HF 6" here. It came with two, and the first one lasted more than a year. I use it a lot, and I often forget to turn it off, so I'm pretty happy with the battery life.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I thought you sold that thing and went 20"?????

I purchased 20" from a local dealer. Within 2 months 20% of the paint had popped off and showed underlying rust. In the mean time, I had approximately 14,000 people contact me on the 15" posted on Craigslist, though not a single person kept their appointment to come see it. After the dealer came and picked up the 20", I never messed with selling the 15" and upgrading to 20". The capacity is not worth the $ difference. In fact that was not the main thing I was after. I wanted iron in/outfeed tables and quieter operation of the motor in the base, but have found that the roller table system of the Delta to be quite good. Since I upgraded to a cyclone DC, I wear hearing protection 100% of the time and am not really concerned about motor noise above the base.
If you want to buy the 15" and promise to show up I may go get another 20"!

[mikeinkcmo]

I'm with you Kristofor, 0.001 is a lot smaller slice of pie than 0.016.

[eezlock]

digital calipers...

Wt Tools also has them for $24.95 part # 1266-0350
can order them at wttool.com eezlock

[Crash2510]

I am suprised our friends from overseas have not chimed in to let us know how much easier the metric system is

NO CONVERSION