- Joined
- Apr 23, 2018
- Messages
- 6,591
ARC-170, I have two height gauges and a 12"x12" cut marble "surface plate" that serve my purposes well. I have a vernier gauge from Helios that's a work of art, but I can only operate the instrument when I am working alone because the .0001 vernier scale takes concentration to use correctly (ask me how I know). This type of height gauge is very affordable. The other one is a China metric dial-type, with count-up and count-down resettable digits in addition to the big dial. It's convenient and accurate, bulky, and also affordable. Both are 12" in range.
That said, I like the old vernier gauge more. It's simple, stout, and does tenths with repeatable joy. It's just more elegant than the dial gauge, but that's my personal thing. I like paying respect to the old ways. Not everything needs to come with a touch screen and an app to download. If you wanted your students to get involved, maybe teaching them how to read a vernier is useful; maybe it's not and that time could be used someplace else.
That said, I like the old vernier gauge more. It's simple, stout, and does tenths with repeatable joy. It's just more elegant than the dial gauge, but that's my personal thing. I like paying respect to the old ways. Not everything needs to come with a touch screen and an app to download. If you wanted your students to get involved, maybe teaching them how to read a vernier is useful; maybe it's not and that time could be used someplace else.