[EricH]

Originally Posted by Cory

Your kids are likely to abuse them anyways and drop them, get oil on them, use them to scribe lines, etc.

Actually, the bolded portion is one purpose of a set of calipers. You're just supposed to use that function with Dykem on the part, though--the calipers scratch that away easily.

I use dial calipers myself--that's what I have. They don't need batteries to run.