making a caliper

Reading some articles in this site I discovered there is an alternative to buying a (expensive) caliper, making one yourself. Problem is I have no idea of dimensions, etc… Can somebody maybe make an outline of their caliper, scan it in and send it to me. Or should I use my imagination and give my creativity a go. Also how exactly do you use them (yes indeed first time shaper). You just press the two sides, fix the bolt and then measure the distance between the points? (silly question, but I want to be sure). many Thanks

Just make one up. It took me 5 minutes to make one. Jig out two claw-type arc shaped pieces out of thin ply wood. Just make sure their long enough to reach the widest half width of what ever boards your making. Drill hole for the pivot screw…and voila.

Is there a picture of one of those real good ones somewhere on this website? The one with the measurements on the back end of it. Those things are great.T

Do you have access to Autocad? I have set draw up in that software. Herb Bean

Sorry no autocad available, other fileformat?

Click The Link… http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/Detailed/321.html

Click The Link… http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/Detailed/377.html

bend your hand at right angle ,trace the outline from fingertip to elbow and add a little to the length…it’ll take longer to find a piece of wood than to make the thing…next a wing nut from the hardware get it big 3/8 + so its easy to handle …sand it paint it use it till you have more time to make a better one out of ebony and paduk with micro calibrations and laser sights with teflon pivots and slides…ambrose… havin fun

The link that Paul sent is perfect - Even better than what I made. Mine are more in line with what Ambrose suggested - nothing fancy but they do the job. Herb Bean

Jangali–If you can’t figure out how to make a caliper, maybe surfboard shaping isn’t for you.

yeah, if you cant figure out calipers maybe you should buy a harley davidson instead.