The 6 Best Thickness Gauges

If you often find yourself working on overhead pipes, the Rockymars UT343D (appx. $111) always keeps the measurements readable by automatically rotating the display to read vertically. The tough plastic shell will protect the internal components when you inevitably drop the device.

Coming in at only about 1-1/2 ounces, the Carsys DPM-816 (appx. $129) is still versatile enough to be used to sense anything from anticorrosive layers to spackling paste. The contact point is effective on both concave and convex surfaces.

The Eray SR-A770 (appx. $128) is a solid option for secondhand car appraisers who often need to determine whether an automobile has been involved in a crash. The sensor is accurate to within plus or minus 2.5% of a micrometer, which is good enough for most purposes.

The VVV Group Industrial (about $288) is built with a high-precision surface meter that can be used on high-carbon steel, iron, and aluminum. The long probe cable is useful for those jobs where space is tight and the body is too large to make contact with the material.

The Extech CG204 (around $190) is great if you need to measure the width of coatings on different types of substrate. It automatically detects whether the paint adheres to ferrous or nonferrous materials, which helps provide very accurate readings.

The VVV Group CM-206FN (about $72) features a large, backlit screen that can display measurements in both mils and micrometers. The buttons are simple and clearly marked, which makes this unit particularly user-friendly, though it does also mean that it has limited applications.