Nut fitting - using a micrometer caliper

[-CB-]

Hey, call me really dumb, but I just did something I could have done before, but it just occurred to me to do now.

I fit a nut using a micrometer caliper.  Geeze-louEASE was it quick and easy.

What I did was measure the slot, and (duh) measure the nut blank.  Then said ok, the slot is .127 by 1.652... I gotta remove X amount of material by sanding, filing... but all the trimming is done off the guitar.  None of the fit it, not right, a little more, not right... just a bit more... ok... and after fitting it in the slot a good six or eight times and hoping you didn't take off too much material it finally fits.

This one went from blank to slot in like 5 minutes... Since I had to take off about .008 on the width, I could take a few passes on the sand paper, and remeasure.  About .003 off... ok... a few passes... another .003... light passes... perfect.  Took about a minute and a half.  Length similar... just working it maybe 3 or 4 minutes.  Again, it was measured to fit, so it fit. 

So ok, maybe it was a "little" more than five minutes, but not much.

HIGHLY recommended!~

 

[Unwound G]

Good tip.  Gotta get one of those with a digital readout to simplify matters.

 

[-CB-]

May I humbly suggest the Mitutoyo products....I'm rather partial to the 505-712 dial caliper 6" OD and ID both carbide tipped, .1 per revolution.  Digital is nice, but dial works as well, and never needs batteries.  No matter the reading, there are no digital or dial calipers to .0001 and while some digital read in .0005, its more of a way of saying "we're between lines on a .1 dial reading... if you were using a dial".  For accuracy under .001 you need a true micrometer, and even then STP metrology applies...along with absolutely clean surfaces on the measuring tool and the piece to be measured.

 

[Dan025]

May I humbly suggest the Mitutoyo products....I'm rather partial to the 505-712 dial caliper 6" OD and ID both carbide tipped, .1 per revolution.  Digital is nice, but dial works as well, and never needs batteries.  No matter the reading, there are no digital or dial calipers to .0001 and while some digital read in .0005, its more of a way of saying "we're between lines on a .1 dial reading... if you were using a dial".  For accuracy under .001 you need a true micrometer, and even then STP metrology applies...along with absolutely clean surfaces on the measuring tool and the piece to be measured.

+1 on mitutoyo , starrett has gone down hill if you ask me. i have old stuff that is top notch but we sent brand new starretts to PMEL for initial cal and many failed to calibrate. that said for wood/bone/graphite you can get close enough with the chinese stuff although i don't recomend it if you build racing engines.

mitutoyo is japanese and top notch stuff. i have a 20+ y/o vernier caliper and it comes in perfect in for inside outside and depth measurements or as perfect as the eye of the guy reading it. the parallelism of the jaws is perfect and you don't need to compensate for inside or depth measurements like on many that i've used.

 

[-CB-]

Yap, I've got three calipers by them - an old Diamond Master verneer that I used to use daily when there was danger of getting crap in the rack on the dial units.  Then an even older dial .1 rev one with carbide outer jaws, and this "new" one is the same with carbide inner and outer.  The new one is on the money all around except at about .075 where it reads -.0005 or half a thou.  This is close enough for anything I'd use it for, since I never really expect to be that close with calipers.  The older one has been rebuilt once, and still reads up and down the rack within a needles width of what it should.  For the dial units, I just run them round the dial on gage blocks, then do it again stacking inch and two inch blocks in the set.  The blocks together, say five or six would still be more accurate than the calipers, so for quick n' dirty cal, it works.