A Great Little Tool-Digital Caliper

[ryonker]

I remember when I first did my valve clearances last year and most of them had the sizes worn off. So I borrow my father in laws old caliper (non-metric). We had a fun time figuring out the sizes.

I just bought a digital caliper from O-reillys for 20 bucks. With a push of a button you can go metric or standard. It has a fairly large screen which is easy to see and an auto-off. It comes with a nice case and and extra set of batteries. What's not to love about this little tool! It's great for measuring shims, float height or whatever you need.

Rick

[posplayr]

A digital caliper is indispensable. Even the ones at Harbor Fright work well enough for most stuff.

[bonanzadave]

Rick,

FYI, theres a place in Burnsville called Martin Calibration. You can get all sorts of cool measuring gizmos and they will even certify them to ASTM standards.

[avastyematey]

Harbor Freight Tools is a pretty good shop for tools and gizmos too.

[Flaggo60]

I bought one a few months ago. I can't believe how cheap they are and do they ever do the job.

[knowyourenemy66]

bought the same one from o-reilly's last week--measured and labeled all my spare valve shims [24 total] last night--works great! thanks for the heads up!

[posplayr]

Harbor freight is having a sale. I got a notification in the mail for 50% off on the dial indicator and mount so you can get both for the price of one. $15.

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=623

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=05645

It worked well enough to degree my cams. Of course I was using an combo High performance degree wheel readout and gasket scraper.

[bwringer]

I've had one of those for several years, purchased for about $16. They're sold under several different brand names. Mine still works great, and I think it's on its third or fourth battery. Make sure you have a spare LR44 or SR44 battery around.

Sure, I'd rather have a Starrett or Mituyo, but for 1/10 the cost, I'll make do. So far, mine has been accurate and repeatable.

I also have a couple of $1.99 cheapo plastic sets of calipers for measuring dirty stuff, or where extreme accuracy isn't an issue -- bolt lengths, pipe diameters, etc. And the last time I ordered bolts from http://boltdepot.com I ordered a metric bolt and thread gauge. I think it was a whopping $1.99.

There's nothing like actually measuring stuff instead of guessing. "When all else fails, we'll use SCIENCE!"