A recent post on scratch building a loco over on Western Thunder highlighted some of the basic tools used for scratch building. The gent in question (Adrian) posted a photo of the tools laid out on his bench. They were the usual scribe, 6in rule, dividers, set square and, a pair of odd leg callipers. Now I am sure that I am not alone in my lazy habit of using expensive digital/analogue measuring callipers for scribing my marking out when machining... A quick look on the web revealed that I could get some Chinese odd leg callipers for under a tenner but already possessing a set of Chinese (or indeed they might be Indian) cheap callipers which are crude to say the least I thought I would have a look on eBay for some second hand named brand alternatives to see what was/is available. Now one of my favourite Sheffield made brands are Moore and Wright so I started there. Searching Moore and Wright odd leg callipers brought up quite a selection even some new ones. Many of the cheaper end of the buy it now examples were simply two pieces with one leg bent and the other sharpened. Having seen Adrian's set I rather fancied a set that had a separate scribe pin. I was a bit short of time so I put a couple on watch and returned to them the day after. As it turned out it was the same seller selling both of them and overnight I had received Offers on them. The offered reduction was only a couple of quid but it meant that the better of the two pairs that I was watching came in at £10 posted. This is what I got for my tenner. A rub over with Scotch Brite and WD40 and they will be as good as new. I am well pleased with them and will enjoy using them for many years to come The arrow alongside the date leads me to think that they are ex military Each time I use them I will think of Adrian, and his unbeknownst kick up the pants. This would have been an edit but I forgot to click post reply before applying the Scotch Brite. They have cleaned up as I imagined and while doing so I found a couple of small dings which I smoothed out with a diamond stone so they are now as good as they can get.
I remember using these at school in the metal work shops. I can only remember using them to scribe lines on some blue ink we had put on whatever metal we were using…presumably to draw a parallel line to the edge, maybe to mark out a fold line.. Do they have any other use that I’m not aware of… ?? a real memory jerker that!
Andy - Basically you got them in one. I have seen Sharpie marker pen (other brands of alcohol based markers are available) used instead of engineers blue, and a lot cleaner to use. My metalwork teacher did comment once that I may find it easier if I applied the blue to the metal rather than my hands, clothes or any other surface. Paul
I seem to recall from my first life that the 'blunt' end on some had a stepped face to locate on the edge of a workpiece
Hi Jim, They do, indeed the set that Adrian showed had such a step. As luck would have it I received a second discount offer last night, from another set of M&W callipers that I had put on watch. This was a set of four, two odd leg type, one of which has the step that you mention, while the other is just a pair of legs without the separate scribing pin. The remaining two pairs are external callipers. All for the princely sum of £14.44 posted. No doubt they will require a bit of clean up like the ones that I showed above but now I can have a set on the lathe and a second set on the mill. Photos to follow once I have received them.
I wasn't really sure where to post this only that I didn't want to distract further from Adrian's excellent scratch build with it. Further to my post above on buying a set of Moore and Wright odd leg/Jenny Callipers second hand via eBay the next day I received a second reduced price offer on a selection of four pairs of Moore and Wright Firm Jointed Callipers for £10 plus postage so in for a penny etc. I bought them. They arrived today and although not in quite as good a condition as the first pair that I bought they have none the less cleaned up nicely and if I spent a bit more time on them I have no doubt that I could get them back to being almost pristine. Although they were listed as two pairs of odd leg and two pairs of external callipers. One of them had had the legs reversed and is, on the basis of where the writing is positioned in relation to the other pairs, an internal set giving me a nice range for very little investment in them. I have included below the first pair that I bought now that they have been cleaned up. So quite unintentionally I now have a three pairs of odd legs all of which are different sizes. So I can have one pair for marking out on the lathe, a pair for the mill and a pair for the bench. Having seen them all together I don't think that I will be able to resist having a further go at cleaning/rubbing them down to try to make them all as good as I can.
