I'm looking for some calipers to take measurements off SUP and foils and surfboards and anything else I want to measure.

I've found surfboard shapers calipers and various engineering calipers but they don't look big enough for SUP, or are too expensive or whatever.

I am assuming all you sailboard and SUP makers have this sorted already. What are you doing for calipers? Making them? Buying them from somewhere?

I'm not after tips for using levels and squares and stuff. I've been doing that for ages. I want something convenient and reasonably accurate that won't damage or scratch whatever I'm measuring.

I've made mine from 5mm plywood, I can use it on 13kg foam without damaging it, maybe make a slight mark if I press too hard.

I made mine from 5 mm ply too.

If I was to make my own I'd use 5mm ply

I've always thought 5mm ply wood would make good callipers.

My first thought (without experience) was you could probably use a g clamp or a sliding square. But lately I've been hearing about 5mm ply.

What about some thin layers of laminated wood roughly about a quarter inch thick in the old scale.

I would've gone Perspex (that'll mess with your heads now )
You can mark up sizes on the surface of the hinged section.

Thanks for the replies. So, choose your material, make calipers. I can do that.

I'm leaning towards plastic for no great reason. It just seems a bit more tech drawingy.

I used wood as it has a bolt as the pivot, with a wing nut to tighten once set. That setup slips too much on perspex.
I guess a rubber washer might solve that

12mm ply and a wingnut

Just having a think. It's a bit of a pain with making or buying good tools for DIY projects. Once you start buying materials and tools and stuff the costs add up.

My current thought is I have a couple of 1m rulers and some acrylic sheet. Use the acrylic sheet to make a hingey holder plate thing at one end. Rigid connection on one ruler, pivoting connection on the other. Drill some holes into the rulers and attach it together. Some lengths of acrylic to make the measuring probes at the other end. Some screws and a couple of wing nuts and away you go.

Measurements could be made by moving the ruler in and out, or by moving the measuring probes up and down. Probably both and whatever works for the job.

Maybe put multiple holes in the rulers so the hinge can be moved inwards for measuring smaller things, or moved onto 30cm rulers. The steel rulers already have one hole in the end.

Thanks for the input and making me think things through.

I've always wanted calipers that measure too (currently I set, tighten nut, then measure between jaws, write down measurement.)
If you've figured out a way to make it measure too, please show plans
I don't have time to think about it lol - all I've come up with is a giant X shape so movement at the jaws is same as at the other end (thus no scaling of ruler needed) but its huge and cumbersome.

Gorgo...
How accurate? Electronic distance guage - not sure whether one I have (not used for 8+ years) works anymore but it was tenth of a cm mm scale from memory - don't suppose they have got coarser. More modern, never used but have read about the 3D modeler scanners which are then used to make 3D files... for print / cutting..
But back in the day I used 3/16th ply when I had a need
Cheers
AP

Measured my caliper thickness with calipers and to my horror found it was a disappointing 4 mm thick ,I knew something just wasn't right .
When this one wears out , i promise , next one will be 5 mm.

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Imax1 said..
Measured my caliper thickness with calipers and to my horror found it was a disappointing 4 mm thick ,I knew something just wasn't right .
When this one wears out , i promise , next one will be 5 mm.

laminate them with a few layers of glass, kevlar and carbon on each side! There will be none stiffer.

All this talk of calipers reminds me of when I went to Bunnings and asked for vernier calipers. OMG the lack of common tool knowledge.....
Gave up trying to explain it to a couple of them. Went eBay....

the ones Forest Gump had worked for him.

I can think of lots of ways to make stuff that measures, but it all gets complicated, hence my questions.

I'm generally trying to measure a whole board to calculate volume or a foil to get area so there's usually a heap of measurements recorded in a spreadsheet. It would be easy enough to record measurements in a spreadsheet then scale them, or do angles and some trigonometry.

I prefer a real measurement because you can tell if it's wrong just by looking at it.

You could probably make a DIY giant vernier caliper by getting a couple of framers squares from Bunnings and making a clampy thing to hold them together. You could read measurements off that with a little ingenuity.

www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?page=1&q=framing%20square&sort=BoostOrder&pageSize=60

The new ipads have a lidar sensor. Hopefully the next generation of phones will let you take a full 3d scan just by pointing the camera at something.

Yep , 4 mm
My God im bored , i need to build something.

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Imax1 said..
Yep , 4 mm
My God im bored , i need to build something.
....

All this started because I dug out a broken old board and thought I should get a piece of foam and make a new tail for it. How thick a piece of foam do I need? I'll measure. What would be a good measuring thing? I'm always cobbling together measuring things. I should make a good measurer. How should I do that? ....

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Gorgo said..
I can think of lots of ways to make stuff that measures, but it all gets complicated, hence my questions.

I'm generally trying to measure a whole board to calculate volume or a foil to get area so there's usually a heap of measurements recorded in a spreadsheet. It would be easy enough to record measurements in a spreadsheet then scale them, or do angles and some trigonometry.

I prefer a real measurement because you can tell if it's wrong just by looking at it.

You could probably make a DIY giant vernier caliper by getting a couple of framers squares from Bunnings and making a clampy thing to hold them together. You could read measurements off that with a little ingenuity.

www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?page=1&q=framing%20square&sort=BoostOrder&pageSize=60

The new ipads have a lidar sensor. Hopefully the next generation of phones will let you take a full 3d scan just by pointing the camera at something.

I like this two set squares idea. A slit in one and two holes in the other, wingnuts to hold. Tempted to do it just because I've got the squares already

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Mark _australia said..
I used wood as it has a bolt as the pivot, with a wing nut to tighten once set. That setup slips too much on perspex.
I guess a rubber washer might solve that

set the Perspex caliper to whatever size you need, drip some methylethylketone on the pivoty-bit, and I am pretty certain the Perspex will stay put.

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Mark _australia said..
All this talk of calipers reminds me of when I went to Bunnings and asked for vernier calipers. OMG the lack of common tool knowledge.....
Gave up trying to explain it to a couple of them. Went eBay....

the way my luck runs - any ebay verniers I purchase would be graduated in arshins, which is kinda limiting on most of my diy projects

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Imax1 said..
Yep , 4 mm
My God im bored , i need to build something.

I've got a G-clamp just like that one... ??

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Skid said..
>>
I've got a G-clamp just like that one... ??

you mean micrometer?

Could you fit longer arms to a cheap 200mm digital caliper like they do for measuring brake drum/rotors?


It's very easy to drill the hardened stainless jaws using carbide tipped masonry drill bits in a drill press and "Aquadhere" wood glue for lubricant.
Phone wont let me rotate it. See a cheap digital mic I bolted to my drill press. Can zero it at any point which is handy.

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Chook2 said..
Could you fit longer arms to a cheap 200mm digital caliper like they do for measuring brake drum/rotors?


It's very easy to drill the hardened stainless jaws using carbide tipped masonry drill bits in a drill press and "Aquadhere" wood glue for lubricant.
Phone wont let me rotate it. See a cheap digital mic I bolted to my drill press. Can zero it at any point which is handy.

I like the vernier depth gauge drill press.
Interesting about the wood glue . Did you discover it when you ran out of lube or is it actually a thing ?

I had some stainless 8mm bolts I had to drill holes full length through the centre on my lathe to take the blue 2mm dyneema cord, to make release cones for the "Wichards". I was quickly chewing up drill bits and continually sharpening them as soon as they squealed.

I was using these releases on my fixed bridle "Peter Lynn Vapor" kites. (My previous life before I moved to Ozone R1 depower kites.)
I'll be honest, I did the old YouTube search and "tongue in cheek" gave it a go and it worked perfectly.
I found the heat actually dried the glue slightly and it stuck to the bit and mushed round it to lube it and they cut really well.

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Chook2 said..
I'll be honest, I did the old YouTube search and "tongue in cheek" gave it a go and it worked perfectly.
I found the heat actually dried the glue slightly and it stuck to the bit and mushed round it to lube it and they cut really well.

Try old engine oil.