Wire hangers as thickness gauges

[Greg Ketell]

Ok, I know that most of you probably don't need this or already are using these buggers but I thought I would post it up for any newbies out there that want to get into making hollow ornaments and don't want to spend too much more money on tools.

If you need a tool to measure the thickness of your hollow forms and you don't have anything small enough to do that go to your closet and grab a metal hanger. Cut two pieces exactly the same length and round the edges making sure that the final product is still exactly the same length. Hold them together and stand them up on something so they match up, grab them both with a pair of pliers and bend one end into a 45-degree or 90-degree angle. You will end up with the following:
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=160416&stc=1&d=1283641859

Now flip one of them over and line up the ends and you will end up with a parallelogram:
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=160417&stc=1&d=1283641859

Now if you move the ends around yet keep the sides parallel then the gap on one side will exactly match the gap on the other. You can use this to measure things that you can't see. Here is two examples of me using these to measure the thickness of a USB thumb drive:
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=160420&stc=1&d=1283641883

http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=160418&stc=1&d=1283641872

You can use this technique to measure the thickness of a hollow form that you can neither see nor feel. You stick one end of one of the "feelers" into your HF and touch it to a spot on the HF. you line up the other feeler on the outside being careful to keep everything parallel and trying to line up the corners so it is only off in one direction. If you do that, the gap on the outside will show the thickness of your HF the point where the two feelers are "touching". You can see the "invisible":
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=160419&stc=1&d=1283641872

I hope this helps someone!

[Matt Ranum]

Thanks for the tip, I never thought of that.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Greg great tip. I made one a month ago and it works slick on small turnings.

[Michael James]

my "guesstimations" are just not accurate enough.
mj

[bob edwards]

This is a caliper I've made that works for me and uses hanger wire.

A= A wire splice. It is a small rod with a threaded screw that captures
the hanger wire placed through a slotted hole.

C= Aluminum block C has two holes drilled to accept the two pieces of
hanger wire and a hole taped to accept a thumb screw.

B= Thumb screw B is used to lock the curved wire securely in place.

D= Two pieces of hanger wire one kept straight and another bent to any convenient shape to access the inside of the work piece.

The tool can be used in two ways. You can position the curved wire inside the workpiece and adjust the straight wire to touch the outer service. Move the Splice block A to the face of block C and tighten. The distance between the two ends of the wire now match the thickness of the project wall. Pull the straight rod back and remove the gauge, slide the straight wire back until the Splice block touched block C and the gap between the two wires is the thickness of the work piece.

The other way to use the gauge is to set the distance between the ends of the wire to a known distance, say 3/8". When you position the gauge now and place the splice block against block C assume the distance between end of the straight wire is 1/8". You now know that the wall thickness is 1/4"

Note that the wires can be replaced easily with different sizes and the curved wire can be bent into any shape required.

Hope this all isn't to confusing. I'm on vacation and am doing this on my laptop with the aid of the camera in my cell phone!!