Dial Calipers, selection, quality, features, HELP!

[bagman67]

Thanks for all this info, gang - I didn't even know how much I didn't know.  A Harbor Freight store opened in my neighborhood a short while ago, and I wandered in last weekend - and now I know why they are mentioned with such disdain by some forum participants.  Holy smokes, what a lot of low-quality stuff!  "You get what you pay for" is a lesson many in my neck of the woods will be learning repeatedly in the near future, to be sure.

Bagman

 

[OzziePete]

This is a good thread , plenty of research into those calipers.....Someone contemplating a new pair or what to buy first up will benefit greatly from your research.

Unfortunately I didn't see this Thread before I geared up for the work I have been doing on 3 guitars, and bought a cheap set of digital calipers from the chain electronics store here in Australia. But for the minimal work I'm doing with them, if those things are out .001 it isn't a catastrophe. And I'm not any sort of engineer or technician who could use them in work or rebuilding engines etc.

After using calipers though for guitar assembly (I ain't no luthier that's for sure) I ahve to say they are very helpful assessing what sized drill to use and gaps etc.....obviously much more accurate than eyeballing, or dry fitting. :hello2:

 

[-CB-]

I've gotten some GOOD stuff from Harbor Freight.

The thing to do with them, is shop online - look at the reviews, as the junk is immediately evident from those.

C clamps - they do those ok.  Other clamps... iffy.  I get air fittings from those, brass, cant screw 'em up too bad, and they're cheap.  I have gotten recently a little airbrush that is the tits for doing small parts.  Also got a little portable sand blasting setup that is equally a decent item.   Saw horses - junk.  I got a socket from them to do O2 sensors, its "ok", but I had to modify it.  

Read the reviews, use yer noggin'... they got a few bargains.  BTW, their sandpaper SUCKS.  Blast media is expensive.  But, I'm happy with the big cast iron vice I got from them (6" about 45lbs).  Its actually nicely made.  

 

[Dan025]

i know im late on this thread but about calipers and micrometers, in the military we used mostly starrett and i have seen a disturbling number fail to calibrate right out of the box, all of out instruments need to be certified before use on aircraft and the starrets needed some work to get right and i remember one 2-3" micrometer that was binding out of the box, the guy's at the pmel lab said they couldn't do anything with it so before i sent them to drmo i took them apart to find that the hole for the spindle that should be precision honed was galled up pretty badly, even re-honing it hight have freed up the spindle but i would never feel comfortable using them so in the broken tools bin they went. it was a shame because they were carbide tipped micrometers and quite expensive, saying that i have never had trouble with a mitutoyo product, im sure they are not what they used to be but i have a set that is likely from the 70's or 80's and it is vernier not dial and stainless not carbide but i can take a measurement with them as well as a micrometer and lock both tools down and use the micrometer to measure the inside jaws and cant find any deviation, it might be hard to read a vernier scale to the .001 100% of the time but i like them for guitar work and prefer them to dial types because there is no mechanism to have backlash. i have seen many dial calipers with obvious slop in the dial, turning the dial face to zero them out often causes the needle to move because the jewels all change alignment, typical of imports(which probably aren't jeweled) or anything that has been well used.

i would like some nice carbide digital calipers and carbide tipped mics but cant afford it right now.

as for the $30 specials from china they can be useable and considering the lower standards that i am seeing from starrett may be a better buy but never buy a set blindly. always hold the jaws up to the light when they are closed to check for parallelism. or bring the gage blocks with you and test at different areas of the jaw. do the same for starrett as well. i had a 0-1mic starrett in tech school that zeroed out but always gave me different numbers when i measured round parts. holding them up to the light revealed an obvious problem, those were old and may have been dropped and re-cal'd by another student that tried to cover it up as far as i know but i was a definitely  aggravated with it.

the only b&s tools i have worked with are parallel blocks, gage blocks ect. well i have used very old b&s mic's but not sure what the new stuff is like. i never hear bad things about them though. if it were me i'd have bought the mitutoyo's first but glad you found some decent tools. it can be hard this day and age where it would seem precision manufacturing and QC are a dying art, the specialists may be getting more specialized but thing aren't getting passed down.

 

[DangerousR6]

As a follow up -

I ended up getting the B&S _and_ the Mitutoyo solar calipers - both.  Each has different uses.

The B&S is wonderfully accurate, for a mechanical device, against my gage blocks out to 2" never more than "a dot" (.0005) off.   After that it gets hard to get blocks to stack, and I dont have anything bigger to check it on...  I'll just go with the flow on that.

I've also set the Mitutoyo against the gage blocks, and you get this sort of -.0005 -.000 (minus "zero"?) fluctuation its like borderline -.0005 on some gauge blocks.  Its not the blocks, they're better than that by far....

So it looks like we got two winners.  Without a doubt, the Mitutoyo solar is my new go-to measuring tool.  Just a fantastic instrument, medium pricey as good calipers go.

Check out http://www.penntool.com  for some of the best pricing available.  If you need to shave $5 or so you can shop all day and maybe find a better price, and maybe not.  They seem to be neck and neck with other price leader online retailers, and blew the doors off my two local suppliers (Tool & Die Supply, and Micro-Quality Corp.)

That's pretty good for calipers, checking them against  Jo blocks can be a tricky thing, just the warmth of your hand can change them. The instruments and the blocks should soak in the same temperature for at least 20-30 min. but still for calipers half a thousandth is closer than most could ever fathom. And for guitar building it isn't necessary.

i know im late on this thread but about calipers and micrometers, in the military we used mostly starrett and i have seen a disturbling number fail to calibrate right out of the box, all of out instruments need to be certified before use on aircraft and the starrets needed some work to get right and i remember one 2-3" micrometer that was binding out of the box, the guy's at the pmel lab said they couldn't do anything with it so before i sent them to drmo i took them apart to find that the hole for the spindle that should be precision honed was galled up pretty badly, even re-honing it hight have freed up the spindle but i would never feel comfortable using them so in the broken tools bin they went. it was a shame because they were carbide tipped micrometers and quite expensive, saying that i have never had trouble with a mitutoyo product, im sure they are not what they used to be but i have a set that is likely from the 70's or 80's and it is vernier not dial and stainless not carbide but i can take a measurement with them as well as a micrometer and lock both tools down and use the micrometer to measure the inside jaws and cant find any deviation, it might be hard to read a vernier scale to the .001 100% of the time but i like them for guitar work and prefer them to dial types because there is no mechanism to have backlash. i have seen many dial calipers with obvious slop in the dial, turning the dial face to zero them out often causes the needle to move because the jewels all change alignment, typical of imports(which probably aren't jeweled) or anything that has been well used.

i would like some nice carbide digital calipers and carbide tipped mics but cant afford it right now.

as for the $30 specials from china they can be useable and considering the lower standards that i am seeing from starrett may be a better buy but never buy a set blindly. always hold the jaws up to the light when they are closed to check for parallelism. or bring the gage blocks with you and test at different areas of the jaw. do the same for starrett as well. i had a 0-1mic starrett in tech school that zeroed out but always gave me different numbers when i measured round parts. holding them up to the light revealed an obvious problem, those were old and may have been dropped and re-cal'd by another student that tried to cover it up as far as i know but i was a definitely  aggravated with it.

the only b&s tools i have worked with are parallel blocks, gage blocks ect. well i have used very old b&s mic's but not sure what the new stuff is like. i never hear bad things about them though. if it were me i'd have bought the mitutoyo's first but glad you found some decent tools. it can be hard this day and age where it would seem precision manufacturing and QC are a dying art, the specialists may be getting more specialized but thing aren't getting passed down.

I have a whole tool box full of Starrett, outside mic's, inside mic's, step mic's, depth mic's, hole bore gauge set. Test indicators, travel indicators....etc....etc....etc and all are Starrett except my calipers, those are Mit's. I just don't really like the Starett calipers, but anyway never had a problem with any of my Starret stuff, and I get them calibrated every year with no issues. :dontknow: