Gage Usage - GD&T Gage Mentor - Metrology

Perfect training for anyone who uses hand gages for measuring part dimensions

Web-Based  •  Network/LAN  •  CD-ROM

Gage Mentor is a comprehensive, computer-based interactive training system that will teach your employees how to use the most commonly used hand gages.  It used to be that proper measuring techniques were passed down from journey craftsmen to their apprentices. With Gage Mentor your employees will not only learn how to take measurements, but they will also learn the underlying principles behind the measurements they are taking. 

Gage Mentor includes a Gage Primer, specific instructions on how to use a variety of dimensional gages such as calipers, micrometers, and fixed gages, and training on how to measure a variety of part characteristics.  

Course Objectives

1. To provide a solid foundation of good measurement principles and practices including an introduction to GD&T.

2. To teach learners proper measuring techniques for hand gages including calipers, micrometers, fixed gages, dial indicators.

3. To introduce some of the most common misapplications and complications in measuring.

4. To help the learner understand how to take certain types of measurements including linearity, circularity, roundness, etc.

Intended Audience

Shop floor operators responsible for taking dimensional measurements.


Approximate Time To Complete

9 hours


Course Outline

Gage Mentor is divided into three units: Gage Primer, Using Gages, Gaging Applications


Why Does My Company Need This Program?

Today companies are lucky if they have a mentor to teach for newer and less experienced employees how to use gages; many companies don't. At the same time, measuring equipment is becoming more sophisticated and dimensional requirements tighter. In other words, accurate and precise measuring has never been more important, yet the resources available for training operators and machinists are more limited than they ever have been. That is until Gage Mentor, an interactive multimedia computer-based training program.

If you already provide gage training

Companies that use Gage Mentor find that it is an excellent replacement for classroom training. Instead of having to take several people away from their job for several hours or sometimes even days, with Gage Mentor they can train people when it is most convenient. This significantly reduces the cost of training because it takes non-productive time, such as equipment changeovers or unexpected maintenance shutdowns, and turns it into productive training time. 

In addition, with Gage Mentor you can train employees around the clock, seven days a week. No longer will third shift be left out of training opportunities. Companies using Gage Mentor also find that training time is cut in half over the time it takes to teach the same information in a classroom. That's because learners control the speed of the training and can proceed at their pace, not that of the instructor.  Gage Mentor assures that each employee receives the same, technically correct message. You don't have to worry that your training will be inconsistent as sometimes happens with classroom and on-the-job training.

If you don't already provide gage training

Without training, your employees may not be correctly measuring parts. This means that they could be accepting bad parts that in turn get shipped to your customers. Or, it could mean that good parts are being rejected resulting in unnecessary scrap and rework. If you are not sure if your employees need gage training, go out on the shop floor and see how they measure parts. If you see gages being misused, inadequate gage discrimination being measured, and gages with expired gage calibration stickers, you have a problem. 

Until now, the only way to solve your problem was to either provide classroom or one-on-one training to each employee who use gages at your site. That meant resources had to be taken away from other important projects to address the training problem. Because Gage Mentor does the training for you, you don't have the problem of juggling resources. You can continue to focus on key projects and still know that your employees are being trained.