Best value even though not specifically for woodworkers

I got these calipers about a year ago for some other projects but I have found myself using them many times for wood working. It’s great for checking setups on your tools and seeing exactly where a joint is not fitting.

As far as calipers go they are pretty standard but where they stand out is the price. These are on sale now at Harbor Freight for $16 and I think that is about what I paid for them a year ago. I know what you are thinking because I thought the same thing, “How can a $16 set of calipers from Harbor Freight be any good?” I got them because I figured I wasn’t building rocket ships so it didn’t matter a whole lot. But I checked them against some we have at work that cost 4 times as much and are calibrated regularly and they were extremely comparable. (I’m an industrial engineer, so I used valid statistical tools to check this. I left out the actual data because I can’t find it right now and I’ve found that not everyone find statistics as interesting as I do.)

Here are the stats from the Harbor Freight website:

• Accurate to 0.001”
• Resolution: 0.0005”
• Metric and SAE Display
• Fluid-resistant stainless steel frame, precision ground jaws
• On/Off switch with automatic shutoff

The only problem for woodworking is it measures in decimal instead of fractions. I have a drill index chart in my shop that gives me all the conversions so it’s not a big deal.

-- Kyle Shipp, Michigan, http://battleshipp.blogspot.com