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Pen Measurement Instruments


londonbooks

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Can anyone tell me what the best tool is to measure dimensions like a pen's diameter and a pen's length down to the millimeter ? Ordinary rulers are not very accurate as you know. Thanks.

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I'd recommend a battery-powered electronic caliper with digital display. These things measure to 0.001" or 0.02 mm with considerable accuracy & can be purchased on sale quite economically. They typically can handle up to 6" or 150 mm.

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I use an old stainless steel dial caliper.

I put a single layer of tissue around the pen to prevent scratching. Yes that affects the measurements, but not significantly, and I do it to all the pens, so that tissue thickness is consistently applied.

If you can find a plastic caliper, then you can eliminate the scratching issue.

If you want the results in mm, then I recommend you get a caliper that will read in mm. Converting from inches to mm is OK, but is a source of error.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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Get one of these ... decent calipers, both metric and inches for this work. Not down to hundredths of inches, but good enough for most pen work. And, it's plastic...the comment above was spot on.

 

Tim

Edited by tmenyc

Tim

 timsvintagepens.com and @timsvintagepens

 

 

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