More Tool Questions

[Heathenly Twins]

I really need to get inside/outside calipers but I'm not sure if I need super accurate and expensive ones or if an analogue one will suffice. Basically I just need to measure the holes for my through-hull fittings so I can replace them and determine prop shaft diameter as well as rudder shaft diameter. Probably not necessary to go crazy with precision stuff, right? I will be having rudder shaft bushings manufactured so I suppose greater accuracy might be necessary there, however.

I couldn't extract the rudder bushings from the stainless steel rudder tube back when I had put the boat ashore initially, are they normally installed with adhesive? I had assumed they would just be pressure-fit. Do you think a pilot bearing puller and heat gun are the best angle of attack for my next attempt? I tore the flange off of the upper bushing trying to remove it but the material inside is solid.

[GordMay]

Since most commercialy available hardware/fittings/shafting will come in “standard” (incremental) sizes, I wouldn’t expect super precision to be overly important.

[Pete7]

Never needed anything more than a pair of vernier calipers on the boat to measure stuff. As Gord points out our rudder shaft is 1.5" and the prop shaft 1".

Pete

[Nicholson58]

Even simple cheap instruments read to 0.001 inch.

[Sailmonkey]

All you need are cheap calipers.

[steve77]

Before leaving the US I bought a plastic dial caliper from Home Depot. I also have a precision digital caliper in a waterproof box but have never used it.

The plastic calipers get used a lot, and I have replaced it once.

Cheers!

Steve

[Heathenly Twins]

Awesome, thanks guys!

[Bycrick]

I’ve seen, and had, a number of pretty good "electronic" calipers, all priced under $20. Biggest advantage, they’ll read in both inches and mm at the push of a button. One even reads in fractions, ie dispkays "1/2" not ".50." Biggest disadvantage, they use little tiny coin batteries which I sometimes have trouble finding, and the battery is always dead just when you need it. When that happens, I go back to a plastic dial caliber that I bought for $10 many years ago.