# Methods to measure diameter

I want to measure a tube's diameter with a precision of about 0.1 mm. I have a caliper but sadly the tube is wider than my tool.

I would like to know what methods exist to precisely measure a diameter. Ideally, without buying any (expensive) tools.

A few ideas I have are:

• Tape measure the circumference. Then divide by 3.1416.
• Roll the tube once and measure the distance traveled. Divide by 3.1416.

I'm not sure if I would be able to achieve the desired accuracy with one of those methods. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Edit: Why I can't use my caliper:

• Buy a larger caliper... Jul 18 '18 at 6:30
• If you know the material it's made of then you know its density. Weigh the tube on some accurate scales. Then, measure its length and its wall thickness accurately then you can calculate it's OD and ID. Then to verify your calculations, do as @SolarMike suggested, buy a bigger caliper :)
– user6335
Jul 18 '18 at 7:18
• Your restriction on buying tools limits the accuracy and precision you can attain. 0.1 mm is less than four thousandths of an inch for the non-metric readers, very small! A fabric or paper tape measure wrapped around the tube will have at least that much lack of precision. Jul 18 '18 at 9:28
• Both of your proposed methods have a lot of room for compounding errors when compared to a direct measurement.
– JMac
Jul 18 '18 at 9:42
• Can you measure at the end of the tube? Regarding your drawing, rotate the calipers about the centerline you drew until they're just less than in the center plane. The slight angle will allow you to make sure you're hitting the widest point. Jul 18 '18 at 22:23

Accurate circumference measurements by string of tape ted to be difficult.

I would suggest buying or making some simple external cailpers

And use them to transfer the measurement you your vernier calipers using the external jaws on the back

You will lose a bit of accuracy in the transfer but not that much.

Some skill is required to use jaw calipers as you need to feel for the actual diameter by rocking them and adjusting untill you just feel very light touch.

The other option is to measure the end of the tube ie rotate the vernier 90 degrees, again you need to feel for the max measurement.

Having aid that 0.1mm accuracy is perhaps a bit ambitious without the right tools and ERW tube can easily vary by more than that depending on where you measure it and there are only a finite number of nominal diameters standard tube can possibly be.

The time-honored method is to attach a string, or wire, or straightedge, to one point on the perimeter. Hold the string taut and sweep it across the tube. Take note of where the greatest length of string is needed to reach the perimeter. That's a diameter.

• This only works if you have access to the end of the tube, of course... Not so helpful if it's installed such that both ends are fixed Jul 18 '18 at 20:50
• Of course you could wrap a wire around the tube tightly, score a mark across the wire where it crosses - that gives a more than reasonable perimeter length : divide by pi and bingo! Jul 18 '18 at 20:53
• @SolarMike OK, so long as you still slide things around to minimize the length used (which will occur at a true circumference. Jul 19 '18 at 17:22
• @JonathanRSwift since the OP suggested rolling his tube, I figured it wasn't installed anywhere just yet. Jul 19 '18 at 17:22

This should work in theory, but the accuracy would decrease with increasing diameter:

Your image shows measuring a chord of the circle at an unknown distance from the center of the circle.

If you place a gauge block (of known thickness) between the beam of the caliper and the circumference of the tube, you can measure the length of a second chord of the circle at a known radial displacement from the first chord.

The diameter of the circle should be obtainable from the lengths of the two chords and the known radial distance between them.