The original post on this topic asked for a cheap way of measuring 
soundboard thickness. I was in the same position in the 1970's - needing 
to measure soundboard thickness but having only a limited budget. Here 
is what I came up with. I bought a Sears, Roebuck dial gauge which was 
able to be zeroed and was accurate to about a thousandth of an inch. I 
made a support to hold the dial gauge which could be clamped to the 
upper framework of my go-bar deck. I bought, for pennies, a small, 
domed-front brass drawer pull which had a threaded screw attached to its 
rear for screwing into the wood of the supposed drawer. This I screwed 
into the end of a piece of hardwood which I could clamp to the lower 
framework of the go-bar deck.

The drawer pull, lets call it the "anvil", I mounted, rounded surface 
up, to be exactly level with the working surface of the deck. The dial 
gauge I mounted directly above and just touching the anvil so that with 
nothing between the two, the gauge read zero. Now all I had to do was 
place a soundboard-to-be on the lower deck, position it between anvil 
and gauge at whatever board location whose thickness I wanted to measure 
and read the thickness off the dial gauge.

This solution had a number of virtues. It was cheap as dirt. The process 
of measuring the board supported the board flat, no waggling around and 
therefore minimizing error. And it did the job to my satisfaction.

If I had had access to a deep-throated dial gauge caliper, I think I 
would still have preferred my cobbled-up solution.

Good luck!

Rob

-- 
ROBERT BROOKE HARPSICHORDS
4214 18th Ave W
Bradenton, FL 34205

www.robertbrookeharpsichords.com

941-746-6725

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