I happened to have had the calipers off which I was also replacing but I don't think that even the reduced play as a result of the tightness of even fresh pads would arrest play of hub at spindle.

Retest, retest, retest before and after tightening hexagon socket screw of tightening clamp. Don't mistake needle movement caused by hard to restrain turning of hub with back and forth movement along axle of spindle which is what you do want to measure. Retest.

No matter how inaccurate the HF gauge, it WILL be more accurate than doing it by the mythical "feel". 1/2 to 3/4 increment gives you a range of 0.0127 mm to 0.01905 mm which corresponds close enough to the prescribed 0.01mm -0.02mm I hope you agree. Retest.

Did I mention retest? If not, retest.

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'83 SD, 2x '85 SD
You are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts.