If your vernier calipers work for you and your pace, then it’s probably best to keep using them. I prefer digital when switching units or recording data electronically via cable or bluetooth, or digital or dial when gaging how far a part is from nominal. For stuff at home where I can take my time, my vernier caliper is fine.
I bought my re-branded Mitutoyo over 20 years ago, I am no engineer so it has seen very little use.
I got myself a cheap fiberglass vernier for measuring battery sizes.
John.
The Mitutoyo Digital calipers have been cloned by the Chinese …
From what I understand they are almost indistinguishable from the originals .
And are available on Ebay from around $40 …
How much for the genuine / will the real Mitutoyo please stand up …
Prices are all over the place , and you just dont know since the clones are so good …
But with prices from $40 to $240 , my suggestion would be to buy from a reputable dealer as you don’t want to pay $240 for a Chines clone .
I paid £80 for my digital Mitutoyo over 20 years ago, so how much is that in today's money.
John.
Yeah ! Back in the Day , Mitutoyo was worth a Weeks Pay Check …
And my Digital Micrometer was really over the top , in the day it was a week and a half of hard earned … ( 20 + Years ago )
So what you pay now , is cheap compared to 20 or 30 years ago … ( Pre Ebay )
And this Chinese stuff is worth a take out order … So think about that …
A lot of folks think nothing of spending $20 to $50 on a take out order that gets flushed a day or two latter …
So spending that kind of money on calipers that may give good service for a decade ( money well spent )
I wouldn’t buy a counterfeit Mitutoyo if only because quality is a total crapshoot. You have no idea who’s making it. At least get one from a chinese company that’ll put their name on it, like iGaging, Aventor, Insize, or even Fowler if you count their relabeled goods. At least if any of those are crap, you can point to the company and model. I have a few iGaging tools, and even more Mitutoyo gages.
But thats the trick !
The clone calipers are very good clones , down to the paperwork …
A disreputable person could buy the cheap chinese clone and pass it off as genuine …
And how would the buyer know ? If you were prepared to destroy the calipers to see the guts , then you might find the same electronics that are in the $15 Ebay calipers …
Only way to be 100% would be to source from Mitutoyo directly … And I don’t know if you can do that .
This is batteries / flashlights / and chargers all over again …
If something is good , clone it …
I know that the chinese Mitutoyo clones are being sold in Australia as Mitutoyo …
So definitely buyer beware .
I have the same iGaging, and it works well enough for my home-gamer purposes.
Cheaper in the USA …
Here in Oz they start @ $50 and quickly climb to $100 …
With the cost of shipping from the USA , actually still cheaper to source them from the USA then buy local .
Glad to know I’m not alone when it comes to overthinking calipers!
Lots of good advice above, can’t add much.
Been making knifes for paper and packaging for 20+ years and have settled on a few sets for different work areas and jobs.
Love my 4” Mitutoyo dial calipers for final sizing, also the length is great for getting in places that a 6” or 8” won’t.
While not perfect, using the end as a depth gauge is handy for some grinding operations. They lack the large, stable surface of a real depth gauge but get me close enough.
Have a cheap Chinese set the boss bought us, use those in the more hostile environments.
All this talk of digital calipers has me looking at them, thinking about a set of igaging absolute 6” just to see if I can get used to them.
They use a 2032 battery which I’ve usually got plenty of. Some of the others use low capacity oddball batteries, no thanks.
At home I’ve got some old dial calipers but I really like this cheap little 4” brass vernier set and a stainless Pocket Chum. The brass set is fun to use but neither are accurate enough for shop use, good enough for simple measurements though.
(not my actual tools, just found these images on the web)
So i think i am going to buy mitutoyo 500-182-30, 200mm maximum length
Sometime 15cm is not enough for me
I have a lot “budget” tools. Some of them are good, but a many are crap
I see many people in there using their caliper for 20 years, and still pleased with it, so i guess it’s a good investment
This video contributed to my decision to purchase the iGaging EZ Cal. Other than the originally installed battery dying in less than a month I have no complaints. Second battery has been in for almost ten months and with occasional use is still going. The ebay seller I bought from still has them for $24.95.
Just watched it also, that giant readout is appealing. Luxurious! In for 1.
Post a link … I could not find them on Ebay ( using DIGITAL CALIPERS as the search words ) Perhaps iGaging ?
I was thinking about this thread last night while I was at work. I wondered how accurate the last set I bought are. Most of what I use calipers at home on are lights or light related so junk will not cut it but do not really have to spend a fortune either. If I remember correctly they were about $30.00
I had a bran new set of Craftsman feeler gauges that had not even been opened yet so I decided to take them home for the next 2 nights off and see how the calipers fair out.
This was the best reference I could find or think of.
I had not used my calipers in a couple of weeks so I turned them on and goofed around a little with them just to be sure they would slide smoothly. Then I picked a feeler gauge out at random and did not look at the size. I did take all the time I needed to measure the thickness of it, and low and behold the results are in the picture. I honestly though they would have been off my some degree, I will try again later just to be sure it was not just total luck. Although it would be pretty hard to hit .030in. by just luck.
I was thinking about gage blocks …
But they are expensive …
If these feeler gauges had been used a good bit I would probably never have thought to use them. I just happen to notice that I had not opened them so I know they have to be as close to dead right as they can be.
I was honestly shocked when I looked down at the reading. That caliper is new, well recently new. only used a dozen times. It's a Titan so about as generic as you can get, hell I can't even find tolerance specs for it.
I got promoted at work about 6 months ago so most of my tool money has to go into those for now, also working on some gear I need here for testing lights. I'm gonna build me a lumen measuring tube. Same basic principal as a sphere but it takes up a lot less space, and from the testing I have seen it is close enough for my needs. Hardest part will be getting a light with a known output, I have never had any measured to be any closer than +or- 200.
Power supply, better battery testing.
Okay back to the subject. Once I get most of that taken care of I can start raising the quality of items kept here at home like my calipers. For now the best has to be waiting for me at work.
If these feeler gauges had been used a good bit I would probably never have thought to use them. I just happen to notice that I had not opened them so I know they have to be as close to dead right as they can be.
I was honestly shocked when I looked down at the reading. That caliper is new, well recently new. only used a dozen times. It's a Titan so about as generic as you can get, hell I can't even find tolerance specs for it.
I got promoted at work about 6 months ago so most of my tool money has to go into those for now, also working on some gear I need here for testing lights. I'm gonna build me a lumen measuring tube. Same basic principal as a sphere but it takes up a lot less space, and from the testing I have seen it is close enough for my needs. Hardest part will be getting a light with a known output, I have never had any measured to be any closer than +or- 200.
Power supply, better battery testing.
Okay back to the subject. Once I get most of that taken care of I can start raising the quality of items kept here at home like my calipers. For now the best has to be waiting for me at work.
I took another measurement and this one I did pick out. I wanted a even number. But I did not help it at all, just measured. So not bad at all for what I will use it here for. I will say that even though they call this carbon fiber it will not take very much to screw up the jaws outside or inside. I may have to take my gauges out with me and find me some with metal jaws that measure at least as close.
I never like the fact that they are moving away from a thumb screw/wheel now it is just push and it causes a lot of people to push too hard. So I will see what I can find.
I don’t have the EZ Cal, but I doubt the battery issue would bother me since I keep a stash of spare batteries in my toolbox. Yeah, I could go get a spare from the tool crib, but I’d rather avoid the downtime. Dead batteries happen more often with chinese counterfeits, but it’s getting awfully hard to order legit batteries. Amazon is hopeless in that regard. That’s the problem with Amazon mixing their legit stock with stock from their sellers that might send them counterfeits.
As far as its big screen, I can understand the appeal. An easily visible screen is part of why I got the bluetooth version. I figure I can get a cheap tablet, and when a dimension being checked would make it hard to see the screen on the caliper, I can use the tablet as a remote screen.
See if you can find a used set locally. You might have to put up a want ad. I got a set locally for $50. Most of the blocks hadn’t even been unwrapped. If you’re just looking for something to check your caliper, you don’t need a full set. Get one. Ideally it’ll be at or near the size you’ll be checking, especially with micrometers because it can uncover wear in the screw that wouldn’t show up when checking at zero or with a standard. You might even want to get a pin gage. The advantage there is that it’s going to teach you how to properly gage a cylindrical part. Pin gages are very nice to have if you’re doing production with parts that have holes.