Made Mr. Pete's Mayonnaise Jar Engine

I would probably never have used my calipers as a scribe but I saw Mr. Pete do it and I just assumed it was OK. I would hate to damage them as they are one of my favorite tools (and most used). They are an old set of Mitutoyos that used to belong to my dad. Side note. I purchased a backup set of Starretts shortly after I got my lathe. I was excited to try them out. After scratching my head over how difficult they were to use, it dawned on me ... they were in sillymeters. I made the same mistake a few months later with a nice used set of 1 inch micrometers. Ha. Ha.

Yeah, that's a BAD habit he has. But he's got ten thousand different ones if he wreckes one, and he's very much not interested in true precision, most of the things he makes could be measured with a retractable steel tape. Not picking on him at all, it's not a bad thing, he's just doing a different thing than the "bigger" youtube channels are, where people get hung up on splitting tenths on cosmetic details. Unfortunately though, these calipers do make good workable scribes, if you're careful how you use them. It's very easy to get a little wierdness if you don't hold them at perfectly the samd angle every time. You can modify them a little if it's a dedicated scribe. But they scriibe well even if it's a horrible thing to do..
If you've got a trustworthy one (or two) don't scribe with them. Go to Harbor Freight (or any junk brand from the internet), and buy a crappy set just for scribing. Dont' worry about battery life (or get a dial). You're not scribing to a precision that needs that. Problem solved. And if it's just for scribing, consider the dial type that reads out in fractional inches. They're very low resolution compaired to a "real" one, but they're perfect for fractional dimensions down to 1/64 (32 is the smallest you'd probably use them for anyhow) checking nominal material thickness, loose bolt diameters, bolt head dimensions before you go to the tool box (Even the odd square head bolt from a hundred years ago who's size ends up being something/32 of an inch...) Well, now you can carry that measurement over to the wrench drawer, and use the inside jaws to buzz through the inch, metric, whitworth, and whatever other wrenches you have to find the best fit. Any way, any style of cheap (borderline disposable cheap) metal framed calipers (can't scribe with composite ones) is a wonderful way to keep the good ones good. Keep that in mind for when you see a spectacular deal on something that's too cheap to trust for anything else.
 
I would probably never have used my calipers as a scribe but I saw Mr. Pete do it and I just assumed it was OK. I would hate to damage them as they are one of my favorite tools (and most used). They are an old set of Mitutoyos that used to belong to my dad. Side note. I purchased a backup set of Starretts shortly after I got my lathe. I was excited to try them out. After scratching my head over how difficult they were to use, it dawned on me ... they were in sillymeters. I made the same mistake a few months later with a nice used set of 1 inch micrometers. Ha. Ha.

I can get the digital Mit calipers out of the crib at work and usually have a "Good" set on the bench and a set for knocking around and using on or near the grinders and scribing and such.

A boss once asked me why I had two pairs of the same crib item, he was being kinda accusatory but he was a known jerk. He ran with this looking for a "Gotcha" moment and it blew up in his face.

I went into the office with both pairs of calipers and a piece I was laying out, showed them how inaccurate one pair was and how quick I could do a rough layout with them and the unit manager (My bosses boss) was impressed with my ability to repurpose a worn and unusable tool like this.

That boss is long gone, but I still have the same unit manager, never had my crib issued items questioned again.
 
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