Calipers for soundboard

[Abstraction]

I'm likely to only make two acoustic guitars, so trying to keep purchase of specialist tools to a minimum. How do I measure thickness of middle of soundboard on a budget?

I saw on here a plunge dial caliper attached to home made jig with long arms. If that's a cost effective solution, where would I get the actual plunge caliper? A brand perhaps, that balances cheap and accurate?

With harps I planed two strips of wood to the tapered thickness (bass to treble, 6mm to 1.5mm from memory), glued to a flat board. Soundboard sits between and because the soundboards aren't too wide a straight edge was sufficient. I've built 3 harps and two electric basses on a shoe-string budget, minimal equipment and constantly had to find or think through home-made solutions.

[kiwigeo]

Plenty of suitable dial gauges on Ebay and from other sources.

https://www.totaltools.com.au/46267-tti ... ge-526063d

[TKAY]

Hi, sounds like a person of my own heart!!! Why spend lots for (possibly) minimal use.
If you have a kook at my post in 2011 on lute building there is a picture of a gauge made to measure my LUTE! belly thickness. It may prove of some help. The belly of my lute ranged from 1.8mm to 1.2 mm
Cheers Tom.
l

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, Here is a photo of the tool I made back in the early 1980s I cut the steel out of an old army vehicle and it works fine.
I have a list of 210 tools and jigs that I made in the shop and not bought.

IMG_1023.JPG (145.47 KiB) Viewed 4886 times

IMG_1024.JPG (133.45 KiB) Viewed 4886 times

Cheers Taff

[kiwigeo]

Jezuz Taff.....that caliper gauge is built like a brick shit house! reminds me of my Dads first car....a bright blue Morris Oxford. That car was so solid you could drive it flat tack into a brick wall...and the wall would fall down.