Calipers and such

[AtomicClock]

Once you have both, you'll be surprised how often you use them... or not, if you hate fun and adventure

I have never used my micrometer. I use my calipers less frequently than it takes for the battery to go bad. SIgh. I tried to find a nice, unpowered set of vernier calipers, but the only lefty ones cost an arm and a leg.

[elmsandr]

Once you have both, you'll be surprised how often you use them... or not, if you hate fun and adventure

I have never used my micrometer. I use my calipers less frequently than it takes for the battery to go bad. SIgh. I tried to find a nice, unpowered set of vernier calipers, but the only lefty ones cost an arm and a leg.

Don’t buy lefty ones? Just a $5 set of dial calipers from harbor freight or plastic ones from Home Depot will do. Hold them upside down or backwards if you insist on using your left hand…

Verniers are fun, but don’t do that unless you enjoy confusing other people. I use them as my engineering age detector.

Cheers,
Andy

[AtomicClock]

Verniers are fun, but don’t do that unless you enjoy confusing other people.

I was planning to keep them with my slide rule collection.

[Posaunus]

Verniers are fun, but don’t do that unless you enjoy confusing other people.

I was planning to keep them with my slide rule collection.

With your abacus?

[AtomicClock]

With your abacus?

No. I'm not a doubler.

[BGuttman]

I have two slide rules and an abacus that I used to use on my Chem Engineering exams. The slide rules multiply great, but you can't add. The abacus (actually the Japanese version called Soroban) let me total up long columns of numbers quickly. Most younger engineers don't need that any more. Calculators, laptop computers, and smart phones can do it faster and more accurately.

[Posaunus]

I have two slide rules and an abacus that I used to use on my Chem Engineering exams. The slide rules multiply great, but you can't add. The abacus (actually the Japanese version called Soroban) let me total up long columns of numbers quickly. Most younger engineers don't need that any more. Calculators, laptop computers, and smart phones can do it faster and more accurately.

I do it all in my head.
Mental mathematician.

[AtomicClock]

Most younger engineers don't need that any more. Calculators, laptop computers, and smart phones can do it faster and more accurately.

More and more, the numbers you need to manipulate are already in the computer. And the answer needs to end up in the computer. So it makes sense to just do the math there, too. I don't understand why keyboards still have the 10-key on the side. Who has lists of numbers on paper any more?

Calculators are really just for educational situations, to enable cheat monitoring.

[modelerdc]

Carter’s Law is that it takes on average only two digressions before a topic becomes about something unrelated to the original topic

[BGuttman]

Carter’s Law is that it takes on average only two digressions before a topic becomes about something unrelated to the original topic

You are right. We went far afield. I moved the digression to a new topic.

[Doug Elliott]

My first thought was brake calipers... somebody has a question about replacing calipers and bleeding their brakes?

[OneTon]

My first thought was brake calipers... somebody has a question about replacing calipers and bleeding their brakes?

That is a go no-go gage.

[ghmerrill]

I was planning to keep them with my slide rule collection.

When I graduated with my B.S. I gave my primary slide rule (Dietzgen "Microglide" Decimal Trig Log Log Duplex with a cherry on top: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1320190) to my roommate who had switched from architecture to chemistry and had to do an extra year. I knew I'd never use it again. From a sense of excess caution (and maybe nostalgia for tough times past), I kept one of the cheaper metal Picketts for some years, but don't remember ever using it.

[BrassSection]

Just stumbled onto this a little while ago. Slide rules and brake calipers caught my eyes. Experienced in both, have a nice assortment of power and hand tools, some which don’t get used much, but when you need them, you NEED them. I can still use a slide rule, but I don’t. Others that come to mind that are necessary are chain saws and my welder. What we used to call Wentwoth wrenches for British motor products I no longer have a need for…but a Norton Commando sure would be nice to have in my barn! I loved the handling and sound of the old British bikes!

Now for a brake story. Think bass player and brass player friends that call them as they see them…Bass player and I were chatting off stage one morning before church started. The pastor came up to us with Fear and trembling to ask a question. Visiting speaker was having trouble with his electric trailer brakes on the camper he was sleeping in, pastor asked we two band members if we knew of anybody who could take a look at his brakes. Bass player is an electrician and I’ve been working on vehicles since I was 14. Pastors fears were realized when the bass player looked at him serious as could be and replied “Brakes are for sissies!” The look on the pastors face was priceless! We both agreed we’d take a look, long story short the bed on visitor’s Freightliner had been removed for customizing, and when they put the bed back on they crossed the ground wire connection with hot wire to the brakes. Took us ten minutes to find and correct. Every time he used the brakes he was creating a dead short! Surprised nothing got fried, didn’t even trip the circuit breaker. (Which we recommended he have checked and replaced if necessary, we didn’t have what we needed to test, and no place was open to get a replacement if one was needed)