I just bought a Manson gauge, also. For the money, it certainly will pay off. I am working on perfecting my technique in using it! My new Lefever H and Greener Emperor both show minimum thicknesses of .045". I shoulda bought the gauge years ago. Cheers!

I have the same style gauge as Rick showed above. They are tricky to use but I just do it over and over until I'm happy enough with the readings. I may not totally trust the absolute readings but it at least serves as a reliable "go, no-go" on whether a set of bbls is thick enough. If I get thin readings I just make more passes and try to be more careful until I'm happy with the results.