Bouba
Well-known member
The thing about digital is that we can read it to two decimals (try doing that with eyes) and you can quickly go from metric to imperial at the touch of a button
Hi speed drillbit sorting
- Thread starter vic008
- Start date
Poignard
Well-known member
My vernier caliper(made in Russia, by the way) has two scales: one metric and the other imperial.
Lomax
Member
So does my Helios, made in Germany. I always struggle with the fractional aspect of imperial though, so prefer to convert to metric before doing any complicated arithmetic. I like the idea of digital calipers which could show you imperial in fractions and decimal (as well as metric, of course), that would be quite useful. Even more useful would be if the last three hold-outs (Myanmar, Liberia and USA) would wake up and smell the metric, and join the 20th century.
Lomax
Member
Really? I threw mine overboard intentionally, just to hear the schlopping sound it made as it disappeared under half a foot of mud... Really made my day. Thankfully the stainless alloy it's made of is juuust magnetic enough to be picked up by a magnet.
John the kiwi
Active member
My favourite vernier caliper has metric (of course) but also has an imperial scale and vernier graduated to 1/128 ths of an inch. Perfect for checking sizes of imperial drill bits and other imperial stuff. I never understood why they were not more common as compared to calipers with imperial in thousandths.
Yes I am a qualified fitter turner machinist and yes for lathe and machining work thou of an inch is useful, but for general use, cant beat the fractions!
LadyInBed
Well-known member
Has anyone noticed that some vernier calipers have the imperial scale in decimals of an inch?
John the kiwi
Active member
Showing my age. I do realise that the new fangled electronic jobbies do the inches in fractions and decimals, but pre electronics, verniers actually scaled in fractions were not so common at least in my experience.
justanothersailboat
Active member
According to some linguistics researchers, drill bits are much more "kiki" than "bouba", especially when broken. That is a very good trick though, Bouba...
Since sorting a normal set of drill bits is trivial I assume the original poster has either (a) had a much larger set (perhaps one of those ones with a tray with several bits of each size) and dropped them all over the floor, or (b) inherited someone else's used drill bits drawer. Extra points if it is a mix of imperial and metric sizes (some are very, very close) or if number and letter series drills are involved. In either case length order is a useful guide to likely diameter order but not safe to assume it's the last word. Bouba's method ought to do better.
I have done the "dropped a big tray with ten of each size" thing with 200 or 300 bits in .1mm increments and solved it by repeated splitting of each pile into "bigger" and "smaller" halves. I don't think that's the most efficient strategy. In the end I used a vernier as a go/no go gauge. I hope vic008's problem is not as bad.
100% agree with all those who say keep a stainless analogue vernier caliper on the boat. Trips where I think "I need to buy something that fits there / is the same size as that / exactly matches the thing I just broke" are a bit too common, the caliper is the answer. Cheap battery calipers have often wiped out the battery next time I want them, unless I thoughtfully took the battery out and put it in a safe place. There are a lot of batteries in that safe place, I hope I find it one day.
Since sorting a normal set of drill bits is trivial I assume the original poster has either (a) had a much larger set (perhaps one of those ones with a tray with several bits of each size) and dropped them all over the floor, or (b) inherited someone else's used drill bits drawer. Extra points if it is a mix of imperial and metric sizes (some are very, very close) or if number and letter series drills are involved. In either case length order is a useful guide to likely diameter order but not safe to assume it's the last word. Bouba's method ought to do better.
I have done the "dropped a big tray with ten of each size" thing with 200 or 300 bits in .1mm increments and solved it by repeated splitting of each pile into "bigger" and "smaller" halves. I don't think that's the most efficient strategy. In the end I used a vernier as a go/no go gauge. I hope vic008's problem is not as bad.
100% agree with all those who say keep a stainless analogue vernier caliper on the boat. Trips where I think "I need to buy something that fits there / is the same size as that / exactly matches the thing I just broke" are a bit too common, the caliper is the answer. Cheap battery calipers have often wiped out the battery next time I want them, unless I thoughtfully took the battery out and put it in a safe place. There are a lot of batteries in that safe place, I hope I find it one day.