I spent most of the afternoon...

[Jim Allen]

calibrating my table saw. I cut some strips of wood and they were 3/32" too narrow! Turns out the table saw is spot on. I think I'll go back to my dial calipers, somehow my digital calipers we off zero, should have been the first thing I checked, lesson learned.:o

[lowell holmes]

check this site:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Empire-4-in-Pocket-Caliper-2783/202035322

[Jim Allen]

The sad thing is I carry one of those in my apron pocket.

[Philipp Jaindl]

Ran into something similar with every piece ending up slightly too short about 1 to 2 mil the culprit turning out the be the trusty tape measure thats been dropped one too many times.

Lesson learned check your measuring insturments from time to time if the are still accurate (enough).

[Jim Becker]

I actually found that the inexpensive digital calipers I originally was using were, um...inconsistent...and that was wreaking havoc for me for my CNC work where measuring material thickness is critical. I ended up upgrading to a better product and that more or less fixed the issue. But you bring up a good point that it's a great best practice to check zero when you first pick them up for the day as well as from time to time. It's easy to inadvertently touch a button, etc., while working diligently and change the zero, etc.

[Marc Jeske]

Any type of caliper that is moved about in the shop needs to have a locking feature to 100% assure not changing.

Otherwise ALOT of potential Migraine level headaches ahead.

Marc

[Pete Staehling]

With digital calipers it is a good habit to ALWAYS check/set zero when starting to measure stuff. Also not a bad idea to look at zero once in a while during any lengthy process, especially with a cheap one. If you make it a habit it becomes ingrained and you never forget. Well almost never :)

Sometimes I do wonder if digital is really better than the mechanical methods I grew up using. Other than being able to switch units of measure on the fly, I might go back to using my old dial calipers exclusively (or maybe even vernier caliper if I had those instead). I still use mechanical (vernier) micrometers. I have a real nice Starrett that a former employer bought and a Craftsman that belonged to my Dad. The one from my Dad has a lot of good memories attached to it since he was the one that introduced me to the notion of more precise measurements. It is probably my favorite tool of the ones I have from him for that reason.

[Ben Rivel]

An afternoon well spent!

[Jim Allen]

An afternoon well spent!

I agree with you.