Being new to bowl and spindle turning I would like to know what size set should I start out with if I were to buy a set? I see where Woodcraft is going to have their 8" set on sale soon. Thanks for your help.
Hello Dave,
The Woodcraft 8" set should meet your needs for some time to come. I personally use a set of spring calipers for rough measuring the size of tenons and for rough sizing on spindle work. When I need to get more precision, I use a 6" digital caliper that tells me the exact size of a tenon or recess. Spring calipers should meet most if not all of your woodturning needs for some time. If you are doing spindle work, you may want to pick up several sets, because it is easier to have a caliper set to size for each dimension on the spindle.
Hope this helps.
Fred Holder
For tenon sizing and a lot of spindle pattern work, use your open-end wrenches. After that, go for calipers with good reach to supplement your flesh-covered pair in determining wall thickness on faceplate turnings.
Since calipers of the cheapest sort will do for most other spindle work, at perhaps a cost of a bit of inconvenience, save your bucks for something versatile and useful like.
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