hey out of savage here in my cave with a tooltip and a story because well let's
just say I've come to a new bit of consciousness about a tool I've been
using for a long time and I'm as surprised as anybody about it um in
front of me are three versions of something that I use on a nearly hourly
basis have not have minute-by-minute basis and that is some calipers this is
the standard caliper these are my Brown and sharp dial calipers and here we'll
give you a close-up of this these are my Brown and sharp dial calipers and like
every caliper they measure things in three different ways you open the jaw
and that dial tells you how big something is to the thousandths of an
inch to the thousandth every one of those markings is one thousandth of an
inch so for reference your hair is about three thousandths of an inch in diameter
a piece of paper is three to four thousandths of an inch thick so we're
talking very very small measurements possible with these calipers and you can
measure the you can measure the outside of something between these two hardened
steel jaws you can measure the inside of something using these two jaws and out
here at the end between there and there you can measure the depth of something
it should follow naturally of course that that dimension is the same as that
dimension is the same as that dimension and when you open them up you have three
different ways of measuring and comparing things again this is a shop
critical tool I've been using how about my first dial caliper from Fox Hardware
down on fourth admission in 1991 thirty bucks I spent which is thirty bucks I
didn't have and I've used those for twenty years before I retired them these
brown and sharp dial calipers have kind of well I'll tell you a story so these
are the same as the dial calipers this is a set of mid Toyo digital calipers
and you can't see anything on the screen right now because
he runs out this is my issue with digital calipers they make things so
much easier because just see the number to four decimal places and the battery
runs out now if you want a long-lasting set of digital calipers get the mid
Eto'o because they as far as I'm concerned their batteries last for
freaking ever I mean like years and yet the battery on this is out because of
how infrequently I use it I don't like replacing batteries and things it kind
of bothers me that's one thing number two
the type of mental machinist I have become because there's two ways to make
stuff you make it in your head and then you make it in the world and for me it's
a it's a dual operation right first I make it in my head then I make it in the
world and for my head the dial calipers just they give me more information cuz
it's just like on a carpentry actually let me get a piece of fun look there's
it there's a progression that happens when you're a carpenter where if you
stop measuring to align and you start measuring to like which side of the
black mark line that you're measuring to literally like you start getting that
fine about it and there's a way in which the analog dial of dial calipers gives
me so much of a better sense of what's being measured than the digital readout
and it took me a long time I was a digital caliper guy for 20-plus years
but now I'm back to being a dial caliper guy this third pair of calipers is a
lovely start dial caliper that I've had for a long time and this is a twelve
inch so these are in general two of the most common sizes you've got your six
inch calipers and your 12 inch CalPERS right but I said I had a change of
consciousness and it's not about having had a change of consciousness from dial
caliper to digital and then from digital back to dial which has totally happened
in my life no no in the last three weeks I've been using these brown and sharp
dial calipers so constantly and I've been putting them in my apron and using
them and keeping them on my body because of how frequently I needed them I
realized they're just a little long for me for most of the stuff that I'm doing
I don't need six inches and so I went looking and sure enough it turns out
they make four-inch calipers and here is a beautiful set of midi Toyo 4-inch dial
calipers oh got a magnet stuck on there OOP there we go that is four inch dial
calipers now if I need more than four inches well I've got access to it it's
right over there where all the calipers are stored but for me this little guy
it's just the difference for me between this and this is really significant in
terms of hand feel and in terms of the execution of me knowing how big things
are and what measurements I want and the exchange of consciousness I'm having is
it's never occurred to me before that there might be a better size than a
six-inch calipers but because my relationship to the machine tools in the
last few weeks has gotten so much more has gained so much more depth within the
gaining of that depth of consciousness about how to machine stuff and accuracy
I discovered in my head that I had a new point of view about CalPERS and I that's
always surprising when something I've been using these for 30 years and just
last week I had a whole new appreciation and point of view about what was
necessary for me this is a long way of saying and your relationship to your
tools is an ongoing process whether you're a musician or a writer or a
dressmaker or a general maker you have different
relationships with each tool that you utilize depending on its frequency
depending on the version that you've bought depending if there's a better one
that you hope to get someday but over time the the the the relationship with
these tools calcifies and it not in the bad way it's just like you have a
specific relationship with use each of these tools and in my experience four
tools that I've been using for a long time that consciousness doesn't often
shift and yet sometimes it does and I I'm just I'm astounded by how happy I am
to be utilizing these all the time instead of these and frankly I don't
know if I'm ever gonna go back to digital calipers on the regular it's
just I just don't see a need right now Never Say Never
they might that could change but for right now for me it's the 4 inch dial
calipers thank you guys for joining me for this little tool tip and well I'd
love to hear your experience with careful measurement devices and I'll see
you next time have a great day
you