"Tom Dacon" wrote in message ...

And it's just about useless to me. I've tried to use it, but when the thing
tells me that what I'm measuring is say 55/128ths, there's no way that my
mind can turn that into "just a skosh under 7/16ths". With a dial caliper,
of course, it's obvious. So I go for a 6-inch metal caliper nowadays, even
though I can't carry it around in my pocket like the little one.

Some of those "fine" numbers do get to be a bit useless in most
woodworking... especially on machines with "give it a tap" fine adjustments!

I use my Starrett fractional combination square for most stuff like this...
I either set it using my finger to detect "flush" or I lay the board down
flat on the bench/saw table and then press the body of the square down so
the scale slides into the head until the body is flat on the board. Then I
read the scale and adjust my machine using its scale and a tap as needed.
There is enough backlash in the adjustment threads, even when approached
from the same adjustment side (e.g., always clockwise, or always counter
clockwise), that a tad more may be needed than the scale would suggest.

I seldom use calipers with wood... an exception being in setting up the
stacked head dado cutter where it is handy to measure shims to adjust the
width of the cut.

Thinking back, the fences on the table saws I used way back were crude
enough and moved enough in use that maintaining a 1/16" tolerance was a good
feat. I guess our expectations have changed!

John