I have a inexpensive ebay dial bore gauge. Seems to work well enough. Also inexpensive OD micrometers
You can hold a mic in your hand to set the bore gauge, or set a caliper to a piston, then the bore gauge. The bore gauge will tell you the ridge amount, but keep in mind it's worn more heavily on the thrust side normally. That amount of deviation needs to be factored as half, after the lesser side is figured out. If it shows a .005" wear at ridge, it will not clean up at .005" over. It would likely need .008-.010".
i put the caliper in a vice. i also have a cylinder head cc tool. i use the stand from that and clamp the bore gauge into that. it works pretty slick.
I glanced @ the link to the Fowler bore gauge calibration fixture - The pic/description was lousy and I should've gone to Fowler's website, but @ 1st glance thought it didn't look much different than a height ga. & had the thought of using one with a surface plate, but I agree with you guys and while I also cringe @ the thought of "clamping" a mic, that would work too. I check my 18-19" (and 14-15, 16-17, & 17-18) inside mics @ work against my outside mics and have never dropped one, so I'm probably only mildly retarded.
Invest in a welder, cheaper than a run stand plus materials and you'll have the welder after you build your own run stand! Of coarse you'll need at least a sawzall to cut the metal but still less than buying a ready to run engine stand. Besides you said you're interested in collecting the tools you'll need to play with this stuff so........... A good air compressor and a die grinder with a cutoff wheel will cut the flock out of some steel as well. So will a simple metal cut off saw that has a large diameter cut off wheel on it.
I would love to buy a welder! But the run stand I am going to buy is only $200 (yes it will need some extra parts to get working properly) but the welders I want are $1200 - $3000. I want a TIG machine that can do AC up to 1/4" aluminum. That means a Dyansty 350 probably and they are $$$! If I'm going to buy a TIG welder I want to only do it once. Maybe some day! On the other hand I wouldn't say no to a cheap MIG machine that I can use for general fab . . . But to get something decent would cost more than the cheap run stand, not to mention a bottle of 75/25, rolling cart, wire, ect ect . . . Plus I'm not sure I could run a welder on the 15amp house circuit in the garage I rent. But I could really use one so maybe I'll just bite the bullet eventually. The main reason I haven't gone and picked up a cheap MIG machine yet is because I want to be able to weld my own exhaust systems and headers out of 304 stainless, and I feel TIG is the proper way to do that. With MIG I believe you're supposed to use a Helium mix to properly weld stainless? Being able to do aluminum too would be icing on the cake and then I could handle pretty much any fab that I could think of for car stuff, so TIG is my preference. Sorry if I went off on a welding rant, but I think about buying a welder every week!
You have to walk before you can fly! Cheap mig until you can upgrade to a better mig to keep, then if in you have the juice, the tig!
