doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Galazan type Wall Thickness or Hosford Type

I've been using a Hosford gauge for a few years now and it is very easy and accurate; just check zero EVERY time.

I now use my old Clymer gauge in the same manner as the Hosford, and it now works flawlessly. It is the smallest gauge available, and is easily transportable.

All the best,

Mal

In my experience, testing the Hosford against the Clymer against the Galazan, one of these will work better for your purposes than the others.

All of them can be sprung or used incorrectly.

It's kind of like using a Ouija board in that technique is everything.

It's not like the Hosford or the Galazan are completely convenient but they are easier to move about than the Clymer set up that works for me (modified with the Gaddy or whoever it was piano wire spring).

For fairly decent portablity and reasonable readings, I also like the BoreMaster by Robert Louis Company.

If you take a look at the current incarnations of these tools, you will note the beefiness of the components, the fineness of the contact points, the springs to assist, etc. Experience has honed the lot and each has its proponents.

We might have more of a contest if we start discussing measuring pits or not-so-well-struck barrels.

Montana, yes, the gages have definitely become stouter. I made a Manson or I guess Clymer type that is suspended with a spring also to keep the barrel snug against the ball. It works great, but as I posted before you either need another person writing numbers down or else you have to stop, take barrels off, write numbers and continue, or use a use a recorder.
I presume this gage first started out being used horizontal, but with the deflection, not reliable no matter how careful you are.

The horizontal gage I made, a few good points were brought up, one it will not measure chamber, and who knows if the barrels are straight bored. A few thousandths, doesn't bother me, but how do you know if they are staight. The barrel on my gage rests on two ball bearings along it's length. The first one is beyond the chamber and forcing cone and the other is at 24" from front stop.
The readings are repeatable, but there is that "if" are the barrels straight.

The Hosford gage looks good, but my main concern is not the last 18", but the first 18", and since it can't be used on the rigid column safely, it has to be laid on a table or bench and now it is not easy to use. You would have to have a third hand to hold it while you do the other sides.

A question to those that have the Galazan gage, does it have a ball bearing at the top? The picture I have of one is not very clear on that. Also in measuring the chamber wall thickness, the cone has to be set fairly high, leaving most of the barrel unsupported except for your hand, is this a problem?

[quote=Montana]
It's not like the Hosford or the Galazan are completely convenient but they are easier to move about than the Clymer set up that works for me (modified with the Gaddy or whoever it was piano wire spring).


Anyone have a photo of the piano wire spring modification?

Mike

Mike, it is opposite the ball bearing, either a thin flat spring with a tiny screw to hold it or using piano wire you need to drill a hole the same size as the piano wire at an angle to get the spring to work right.

I just can't see how you can improve on the fork type gauges used in the horizontal position. I can check the entire barrel set in just a couple of minutes, including chamber wall measurements. The measurements are repeatable and I get within 1/1000ths of what Kirk Merrington gives me on barrels I have sent to him. It is light enough and small enough to carry around gun shows.

I have a "Truth Tool" made by Johnathan Pool. It is about $200. It is made to use in the horizontal position.
Here is the gauge:



Zero the gauge by hanging the end of it in the barrels:


Slide the gauge into the barrels while reading the wall thickness:


Edit: I added this picture to try to make it clearer:

Thanks Mike, might add this one also to the "make" list.

Thank you, Amarillo Mike. Amarillo Mike's demonstration is identical to what I went over in another thread without pictures. It eliminates the need for the Gaddy modification of the Manson tool. The Manson tool can be used as is, no modification, if you use Mike's method. Steven Dodd Hughes discounts the Manson tool as "worthless" because, as Daryl Hallquist states, SDH does not know how to use the Manson tool. The hanging method has been discovered to be obsolete, inaccurate, inconvenient et al. Oscar Gaddy did the best he could with what he knew, but his spring modification has been improved upon. The poster who disrespected Joe Wood's method, Nitro Express, is absolutely wrong. Joe Wood knows how to use a wall thickness gauge and he knows the Manson gauge is perfectly accurate, convenient, cheap, and his detractor is wrong. He is just too much of a gentleman to say it. Nitro Express could tell us which Galazan gauge he is referring to. The bench mounted gauge is very nice. I have used one for years. However, it costs five times what the Manson gauge does and is useless at a gun show. SDH mentions that he sees no use for a WTG at a gun show. That is not the experience most of us have. "At a gun show" or at a gun store is the main use of a WTG for most of us. Once the gun in question gets to our gun room, we have made the financial committment.

I can't imagine using that tuning fork gizmo at any gunshow I've been to and expecting an accurate reading... Gonna "hang 'em" at the show?

I don't buy guns that don't come with an inspection period and I don't try to get accurate measurements in hopeless situations. I don't know how to use, and don't need to know as long as I have my Galazan gauge on a sturdy benchtop. For the most part, shotguns come to me.
Thank you very much...

And Daryl, I still don't "get it"?

Steven, still don't get what ? Amarillo showed us how to use the Manson type guage correctly. I would add a string loop through where he has his finger in the hole to avoid any possible torque. I guess if you don't "need to know" at a gunshow or wherever, then that's ok. But, lots of people do need to know and the Manson type gives them that ability.