I needed a "height gage" to set the protrusion of bits on my (woodworking) router and for some other applications. I got somewhat carried away and made the pieces pictured below. The crenelated tower on the right has slots of varying length cut into it. When the middle piece is dropped into this tower, the rectangular arm can drop into any of these slots which places the bottom of the arm a fixed height above the surface in increments of 1/8" from 2" to 1-1/8". The cylindrical rod attached to the arm is 1" long so the measurement range is extended to 1/8" to 2". A 1/16" shoulder at the end of the arm allows one to get measurements in increments of 1/16". The threaded rod is for non-aliquot measurements that one wants to remember and/or duplicate.
Here's how the thing looks with the two parts assembled in working configuration.
A separate base with an accurate 1" step in it extends the range of measurement to 3".
The whole project went way beyond what I needed but it was fun and perhaps someone can use the basic idea in his own application.