Find Tool Editorial Team

A laser distance measure is a handheld device that fires a laser dot at a target and calculates distance from how long the light takes to return, or from the phase shift in the returning beam. It replaces a tape for many jobs but struggles with reflective, transparent, dark or angled surfaces, and with strong … Read more

A bore gauge measures the internal diameter of a hole, cylinder or bushing more accurately than a caliper can manage. It solves the problem of measuring a round internal surface where jaws can’t sit square, telling you the true diameter, taper or out-of-round condition of the hole. What exactly is a bore gauge? A bore … Read more

A thread pitch gauge is a small hand tool with a fan of thin, notched metal leaves used to identify the thread pattern on a screw, bolt or nut. Each leaf has teeth cut to a specific pitch; whichever leaf meshes cleanly with the threads tells you what pitch you’re dealing with, without guessing or … Read more

A depth gauge measures how deep a hole, recess, groove or step is, rather than how wide or long it is. A flat base sits on the surface of the workpiece while a thin rod or blade slides down inside the feature until it touches bottom, and the amount the rod has moved gives the … Read more

A machinist’s square is a precision measuring tool made to a tight, verifiable tolerance for checking true 90-degree angles on metal, machine setups and fine woodworking joints. A try square is a woodworker’s layout tool, built to mark and check squareness on timber, but not made or guaranteed to the same standard of accuracy. Both … Read more

A straight edge is a rigid bar or blade — usually steel, sometimes granite or aluminium — with at least one edge machined to be as close to perfectly straight as the maker can manage. It is used to check whether a surface is flat, whether a line is true, and as a fence to … Read more

A feeler gauge is a set of thin, precisely made metal blades, each one a different thickness, used to measure or check a small gap between two surfaces. You slide the blade into the gap; if it fits with a slight drag, the gap matches that blade’s marked thickness. It’s a low-tech, highly reliable way … Read more

A dial indicator measures very small amounts of movement — typically a few thousandths of an inch or a few hundredths of a millimetre — and displays that movement on a dial with a sweeping needle. It is used to check that something is straight, flat, round, level, or moving exactly as far as it … Read more

A micrometer measures a dimension to a finer resolution than a caliper can reliably show, and it does so using a calibrated screw thread that applies a consistent, repeatable measuring force every time. A caliper’s sliding jaw depends on how hard the operator squeezes it — a micrometer’s ratchet stop removes that variable. That difference … Read more

A vernier caliper is a hand measuring tool with a fixed main scale and a sliding secondary scale that lets you read a length far more finely than the main scale’s markings alone. It measures outside width, inside width, depth and step height, and it needs no battery. It looks intimidating the first time you … Read more