Calipers

[van7559]

my father in law is gonna give me a nice set of dials. He is a machinst by trade, and says dials are hard to beat

[zteknik]

my father in law is gonna give me a nice set of dials. He is a machinst by trade, and says dials are hard to beat

+1 if you can correctly read them(takes practice) there spot on.
I have a set of Mitutoyo callipers that I use for almost everything and they haven't been off yet (takes me a try or 2 to read it right )

[ray1970]

I'd recommend Starrett.

[BPTactical]

I have Brown & Sharpe, Yuasa,digital and dial Mitsutoyo and an Enco one. For the majority of stuff I use a $20.00 off brand I picked up at a pawn shop. They have been amazingly accurate and tough. If it is something I need a bit better accuracy I will use my digital. That thing is unreal. The important thing is repeatability. You can have the best of the best but if the needle bounces around when zero'd they are worthless.
If you have a choice get the largest dial you can, the further the graduations are apart on the face the better resolution you have.