hello Todd
i think to open a third party laboratory for calibration of gauges (calipers micrometers thread gauges ,plane gauges ,gauges blocks.....)in 2 months max
you know i'm lucky man...because i've visited SIP before they close factory approx eight years ago ...Near from GENEVA (i 'm in france to 40km (25miles?) of geneva.
i 'm specialised in calibration and retrofit of lenght measuring machine SIP since fifteen years --->MUL-300 MUL-302 305M mu-214 mul-1000 ..I use heidenhain glass rules= top quality and the must is to use IK220 pc card and qmsoft software for PC's DRO (in this case you can read 10 nanometers (lol) if your lab's conditions are ultratop ....
SIP mul 1000 AND 300 are the best machines even made for high accuracy (ZEISS and ulm 600-01d make me laugh ....)
The MU214b is 3 axis rules heidenhain reading 0.1µm she's complete of options (absolutly full ) and some are unused , in fact for some items... i 'don't know what for it is used !!(lol)
-sometimes it's very interesting to put interferometer (hp or renishaw)on SIP to avoid to destroy all optics but i prefer glass rules
and you what about your experience of SIP ,and general measurements ?
have a good day
Marc