Giant EKG Calipers: Do they exist?
February 26, 2009 10:10 AM   Subscribe

Serious google-fu help: I am in need of a large scale EKG caliper.

"By EKG caliper", I mean this, and by "large scale" I mean this.

My boss does powerpoint presentations where he demonstrates different EKGs. He needs a big compass-y type thingamabob with points on the end. He said the chalkboard one was a good size, but he needs the pointy tips.

Clues so you can help me find the right words to google: Boss swears he saw someone use giant calipers at a conference or somewhere, so he's certain they exist. He thought that maybe it's something that surveyors use, but I tried "surveyor compass" and "surveyor caliper" and got the wrong instruments. "Giant EKG caliper" dosn't really get me any results either.

Can you help me figure out the right words to use to find my mystery product?
posted by dogmom to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)
 
A large vernier caliper? The only linked goes from 0-24 inches. Too small?
posted by pseudonick at 10:42 AM on February 26, 2009


The chalkboard one holds interchangeable chalks; could you remove the chalk and replace it with glued-in dowels sharpened in a pencil sharpener? A little black spraypaint would classy it up a bit too.

I would refer to what you're describing as a "presentation", "instructional", or "professor's" EKG caliper, although none of those are turning up anything on Google for me.
posted by pocams at 10:43 AM on February 26, 2009


Boss swears he saw someone use giant calipers at a conference or somewhere, so he's certain they exist.

Possible translation: Boss wants big EKG calipers and employs someone who he is comfortable having waste hours looking for them, so he says he's seen them before.

Do this: call two or three big medical/science supply catalogs and ask them. This should take about 10min. If they don't know about them, get the Yellow Pages and call a machinist/fabricator and get a quote for making them from scratch, likely a few thousand dollars altogether. Forward your findings to him and be done.
posted by rhizome at 11:01 AM on February 26, 2009


I was about to type what pocams suggested -- get the chalkboard calipers and make your own pointed ends. Shouldn't be hard to do:

1. Lock a dowel of the correct diameter in a drill press chuck and spin it
2. Hit the free end with an 80 grit sanding block and sharpen to a point.
3. Clean it up with something a bit finer
4. Paint the resulting sharpened dowel black, or paint the whole caliper black and the sharpened point silver.
5. Profit!
posted by mosk at 11:04 AM on February 26, 2009


Response by poster: rhizome- he's not a bad guy- just a little internet-dumb. He's like my Gramma who assumes that anything and everything can be quickly found and purchased on the internet. But I will try our medical supplier to see if they have any ideas. aside: last week he asked me what a "blog" was and if he should be reading "it". Yeah, sure, Boss, there's just the one-knock yourself out.

pocams & mosk- I'm wondering if what you describe is actually what he saw and just doesn't remember/realize that he saw a hacked chalk compass. We may have to go with that one...
posted by dogmom at 12:16 PM on February 26, 2009


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