Official Luthiers Forum!

I haven't had much tool luck lately. A cam clamp I ordered was pressed together all the way and took myself and a friend to pry it open.

Now the thickness caliper I ordered needs adjusting. There are two needles. One is for .01 mm that I zero out by rotating the dial. But the little needle for 1mm is rests at 7 instead of zero. I am still going back and forth with cust service, they are nice but it will probably be next week before I hear from them. I am thinking I need to disassemble this thing to reset that little dial. Does that sound right ?

The needles press on to a shaft. So yes, you would need to open the indicator up to do it............but good luck getting the crystal back on. I've never been able to do it and have it truly seal. Not sure if you can slip a gear through the back . I would send it back if it is returnable or mentally compensate forever.

Good Luck
Tim

Lac tose: I wonder if there is any adjustment on either of the measuring surfaces....???
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

That's a good point Tom. You should be able to change the tip on the indicator to add the .300. Mine has a screw adjustment on the base, but it does zero without any adjustments to that screw.

Tim

there should have been a paper with the caliper . That would explain all the set up and adjustments that are able to be done. The dial is adjustable to set to the needle on most calipers.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

To put the crystal back on put the bezel(the ring outside the crystal) on the crystal and place the assembly onto a round tube that is smaller than the bezels inside diameter(I.D.). A small jar lid anything that won't scratch the crystal. Do this with the concave side of the crystal facing up. Take your finger/pencil/anything non-abrasive and press the center of the crystal down and the crystal will shrink in O.D.. Should fall right into the bezel then tighten up when released.

The main problem can be getting the bezel/crystal assembly off in the first place. That can be done by either a set screw(some indicators have this) or by squeezing sheet metal(feeler gauge works well) in between the housing and the bezel to collapse the spring ring(kind of a cir clip kind of wire) by rotating the bezel over it. As for adjusting the needle, that's a press fit over the shaft difficult to fix without a small puller and press fixture!

Best bet.... return the indicator, thickness gauge, as it's new. If you've had it for a while then repair is really the only option.

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Billy, That's a pretty good trick. Never tried or even heard of that but sounds like it would work. Next time I run into that problem, which is rare, I'll give that a try. Thanks for that.
IMHO a new indicator should be easy to zero on both the .001 and the .1 scales. If you are compensating for .300 to zero you are losing almost 1/3 of the dials range.

Tim

Thanks for the info.

I will double check.

There was no paper with it and customer service says they don't ship one. They said the smaller dial should be ignored anyway ?!?
I think I will just live with it, I would hate to bend the needle. I spent some time thinning a top yesterday and when the little dial reads 1mm I just add three in my brain part. Otherwise I would have some thick tops ! I guess that would make bracing easier. I will say that being able to press the trigger and get a quick read is nice when I am checking 10-15 places between passes with the plane (that tool that digs ditches in my top).

Ha, I just look at the product picture on line, and the little gauge is off in the picture as well.

Yup! It's pretty arcane! But I've seen it a couple of times! People would probably replace their scratched or cracked crystals more ofter if they knew how easy it was.

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)