a lot of guys that own “cool name” calipers? will POO POO anything budget-caliper…
i was a machinist at a tool an de shop for a little over a year a ways back? go figure, they had expensive calipers there. I wanted to bring in my OWN digital caliper that i was used to using for benchrest reloading? (mine is the 10 dollar harbor freight model, lol)
the main machinist there kept cutting a fit i wasnt allowed to use a cheap chinese “clunker” that was only accurate “to the nearest inch” and that a “ruler would be more accurate”.
I brought mine in anyways… he smiled, and said i had to pass the “reference test” to be allowed to use it on the job (we made tungsten carbide tool bits for other machine shops, stuff is expensive metal to take a bad measurement on)
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he goes and takes a KEY out, and goes to the always locked secret cabinet… and takes out another LOCKED box, and opens it up… inside, in a velvet case? with a polishing rag? is the “holy reference piece” which has been carefully ground and polished to EXACTY one inch cube on all sides, and on all flats.
its an expensive “certified” chunk of metal, used to “set” other measuring tools to exactly one inch… (like a high quality dial caliper)
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i smiled through all this? because i already KNEW the result…
he measured it like 12 times, and said he couldnt believe it, it was less than one half of one thou “off”… which by the way? i made him admit it “beat” his Mitutoyo expensive personal caliper, LMAO…
so… how did i get this “lucky”?
Oh… i wouldnt call it LUCK exactly, lol… i had a machinist with a very expensive high quality ball micrometer, measure a PROJECTILE for reloading several times… i already KNEW the exact size to the 1/10,000 of a inch before i went to harbor freight store, LMAO…
i just waited till they were real busy? and opened up like 6 caliper packs? and bought the one that measured “right on” to the projectile in my pocket, LMAO….
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if my 10 dollar harbor freight is good enough to pass “reference test” in a carbide tool and die shop? it will do nicely to measure batteries and such, i think…
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PS - calipers work by GEARS… if its “on”, then its “on”… and if its OFF? its off, and off CONSISTENTLY.
by this, i mean… if you find something that you know the exact sie of it? say… like having a machinist with good equipment measure somthing and tell you, like i did?? if YOUR 10 dollar caliper is, for example, reading 1/1000 too big? it will ALWAYS read 1/1000th too big… gear theory is gear theory.
in such a case? 1.609” actually reads 1.608”
a lot of people spend WAY too much on calipers…. IE, they purchase typically an expensive caliper, then spend their time USING IT doing “rough” work where it doesnt even matter that much anyways, they could have gotten away with a cheap dial caliper…