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I don’t care for gizmos, jigs and silly accessories. So even though I spend a fair amount of time on the lathe, I resisted purchasing the Galbert Caliper for many years.
In its place, I used go/no-go gauges, box wrenches and traditional turning calipers (which are the worst). But while at Handworks this year, I broke down and gave Peter $60 for a Galbert Caliper. Today I put it to use turning some tenons that have to be bang-on for a stool.
After five minutes of using the tool, I realized that I was a pigheaded fool for waiting so long to buy this caliper.
What does the Galbert Caliper do? It shows you the exact diameter of your turning with no need to stop the lathe. You hold the caliper against the spinning work and use a parting tool to cut the tenon. When the caliper says you have reached your target diameter, you stop cutting.
The Galbert Caliper slashed the time it took to turn the tenons for the stool by more than half. A lot more. And as I sell these stools and chairs, the caliper is going to pay for itself after just a few projects.
After leaving the staff of Popular Woodworking (and starting my own tool company) I’ve set aside reviewing tools. But I had to write this one. If you do a lot of turning or if it puts food on the table, the Galbert Caliper is a fine investment.
You can purchase it directly from Peter here.
— Christopher Schwarz
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
