Mechanical vs electrical edge finder

And don't beat yourself up on running one too fast and it coming apart. I did that to a Starrett at work once and was luck enough to be able to get it back together (it was a communal tool). A hard lesson on running at the correct speed, but one truly learned.
I did a Homer Simpson "Doh" and grabbed another edge finder.

This morning, I found the errant tip. The tensioning spring had been severely distorted by the event but I threaded a wire rod through it to keep it straight and reformed the spring. You can never return an extension spring to a close coil form so the spring was now too long for proper tension. Removing 1/8" from the spring solved that. I put the edge finder back together and tested it and it works as well as ever.
 
After it runs true, how much more movement is needed to make it kick out? Maybe it's my eyes, but after I judge that it's running true, it usually takes more movement than I expect to make it kick out. In other words, I think it's running true way before it actually is. I'll stick with the kick out method. ymmv

Tom

Tom
 
For precise edge finding I have a magnetic "chair" that I set on the edge then indicate between the "legs". Somewhere I picked up a similar device made by Moore.
 
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