Tricks for measuring with calipers?

[danielbuck]

I generally measure pretty simple things with calipers and mics, and not every day. I'm not a machinist.

I just had a part to measure and make CAD drawings that was much larger than my calipers, so after a bit of thinking I stacked 1-2-3 blocks and gauge blocks (and sometimes leap-frogging them for even longer distances), and then measuring from the end of the blocks to the actual end of the features. Using drill bits to help approximate radius of fillets, and what not. The largest calipers I had were 6" (but the part was almost 7 feet long). Perfect accuracy for all of the measurements wasn't extremely critical, but I wanted to make sure I was as close as I could reasonably be. Any challenge is a learning experience This did work out pretty well I think. I did spend about 5 hours measuring though, haha!

But it got me thinking about what other ways calipers can be used to measure things, and other ways of measuring in general. It has me wanting to learn more about measuring with confidence, parts with features that aren't simple to measure. Like maybe there's a step in the part, or something in the way and you don't have a straight shot across, and any other challenges while measuring. Ways of using blocks that might not be obvious, that sort of stuff.

Any suggestions for resources on more advanced measuring tactics? Books, videos, or websites?

 

[matt_i]

It takes some creativity and it sounds like you used a lot of it, so good job!

For a part that big I would be heavily reliant on the Stanley 25' Powerlock. If I measure it I would likely be building it, or involved in building it as well. If I expected another shop to make the part and verify it to 3 decimal places....then my part cost probably went up by 10x or more.

A height gage on a surface plate is a nice way to increase your range some if the part can be set vertical and clamped to an angle plate, and you have a tall column gage. A person could also make custom jigs or gages using something like transfer punches that could be used to setup hole centers for the final part, and/or gage another part made somewhere else.

 

[cutt]

I was a machinist for 25 years. When it came to measuring pieces your talking about we always use trammels. Maybe you could try it out and see if this helps?

 

[danielbuck]

I'm not familiar with at Trammel, I'm seeing online it looks like a way of transferring measurements to another work piece? Or is there a way of actually getting the measurement between the two?

 

[cutt]

A way to transfer measurements to a place where they can get miked.A very large caliper.

 

[californiaHank]

Hard to say without a better idea of what you're measuring or what accuracy you need. Trammels make sense for a lot of stuff and can give you quite accurate meansurements. Spring calipers, dividers, vernier calipers, machinist rules, squares - they all come in a wide variety of sizes and types and they can all be useful for particular kinds of measurements.