Measuring top thickness

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ChuckBarnett

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Once the instrument is boxed in I am wondering how a person goes about measuring the thickness of the top. This is keeping with the idea of that I will be sanding the top some and would like to know how thin it is. I did a search for luthier thickness caliper and see that you can spend a couple hundred dollars at Stewart MacDonald for something that doesn't look like you can get it through the sound hole with any degree of ease.

What do y'all do?

Thankee!
 
You could try Harbor Freight if you have one near You. I got digital calipers there for less than 10 bucks .
 
DI.jpg
I use this and a magnetic thickness gauge
 
Timbuck said:
On eBay look out for a “deep throat 0 to 25mm micrometer”
Click to expand...

I see a number of things in the range of $75 and up. There is a Grizzly Tools digital micrometer that has a 6-inch throat. I would expect that I would want an aluminum frame for easier manipulation? A 6-inch should be plenty adequate for tenor ukuleles. I would assume that that would be easily slipped into the sound hole?
I would think if it is digital and if we're talking woodworking, accuracy is adequate in most any of these units?

Once again, thank you for all of your help!
 
Pukulele Pete said:
You could try Harbor Freight if you have one near You. I got digital calipers there for less than 10 bucks .
Click to expand...

Are you talking about a digital caliper that has jaws that are roughly an inch and a half long? I have a couple of those and love them. But I need something with longer jaws that can reach around braces, etc.
 
I'm with sequoia. Any sanding after the top has been glued should have negligible impact on final thickness.
Miguel
 
The magnetic thickness tool I use is made by MAG-ic Probe. Mine is a 1st generation model and was expensive enough but the new ones are like $450.00. I use mine all the time for lots of thicknesing questions
 
Digital brake disc gauges might do the job too. They tend to have a few inches of jaw depth and can be cheaper than some other options.
 
Lying awake in the middle of the night it occurred to me that I was overthinking this, as usual. If I know the thickness of the top as installed, and I can determine the thickness of the total instrument with a shop-made dial indicator caliper, then whatever sanding I do can be determined by the difference between the initial full thickness of the instrument compared to the final thickness.

This is not rocket surgery! It's not even brain science! And given that a number of you folks who've built instruments for years don't put a lot of stock in sanding after boxing up, I'm certainly not going to spend $400 to figure that out. Once this covid thing winds down, that could buy a lot of mochas. Perhaps even a couple cheeseburgers!! :)

Thank you all!

Some people process things through their own head to come up with answers. Others, like me, leech off of what others (youse guys) have done. 😀
 
Timbuck said:
This is the one you want if youve got plenty of cash :) http://www.magicprobe.net/ I think its the one Resoman's talking about.
Click to expand...

The one in the video is the newer model. I have the older first generation model and while it was not as expensive as the current model it was expensive enough. I use it all the time tho along with the deep throat dial
th
 
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