I received my Braille Caliper today from National Braille Press. It is a rather clever little device. There is a plastic ruler 12 inches long plus a little bit at either end. It is about 1.25 inches wide, and maybe an eighth of an inch thick.
There is a fixed jaw at zero inches, and then a movable jaw, attached to a small box, that slides along the ruler. The box is approximately 1.5 inches square and maybe a quarter or 5/16th inches thick.
The ruler itself is just marked in inches in Braille. As you move the slide along the ruler, there are Braille cells on the face of the slide. Three of the cells never change, they always show a slash sign and then the number 16. The first two cells on the slide change as you move along the ruler. It first shows zero, then counts up through 15, then back to zero.
All the braille markings are easy to read and so far, it seems to be accurate and repeatable. In a number of slides up and down the length of the ruler, it has always shown zero when slid all the way to the beginning.
It is a bit fragile I believe, but should stand up to some light abuse. I'd love to see a Wood Peckers version of this in quarter inch machined Aluminum and such, but then it would be a $150 tool, not 18 bucks.
For the price, $18, it is well worth having in my tool box. It is even faster than the ClickRule, if you read Braille. True, it is not as accurate as a digital caliper but I don't need triple zero accuracy when working with wood. Like I said, for the price I believe it is worth having in my tool box. By the late Dan Rossie