An apparatus and method for automatically measuring characteristics of a hard disk drive carriage arm. The method provides a first measuring device for automatically measuring a first side of a carriage arm. A second measuring device for automatically measuring a second side of the carriage arm is also provided. The second measuring device operates in conjunction with the first measuring device to cancel a measurement contact bias. Measurement data from the first measuring device and the measurement data from the second measuring device are provided to a computing device, wherein the measurement data is automatically stored and manipulated by the computing device.