Spent $200 on a fancy paint thickness gauge that was way off

Bought one of those digital paint thickness gauges off Amazon thinking it would save me time. First three cars I checked with it gave readings that didn't match what I found after sanding down. Turned out the calibration was junk and I wasted two hours rechecking everything with my old magnetic gauge. Anyone else get burned by cheap measuring tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

umab3523d ago

Junk calibration" describes my first marriage too.

the_vera23d ago

Those cheap digital ones are notorious for drifting after a few uses, especially if you drop them or leave them in a hot car. How many test spots did you check against a known sample before you started on actual customer cars? Would have saved you some time if you caught the drift early instead of finding out the hard way.