Caliper for Marking
Re: Caliper for Marking
HF must have changed suppliers because both of the DC that I got from them a couple of years ago shut themselves off after 20 or so seconds of rest and lose their zero. Every time. Most annoying.
--earlgo
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
Re: Caliper for Marking
Mine must have came from the same batch as earlgo's 20 seconds and they shut off losing zero .
I can't make comparisons to other digital calipers , and I'm not knocking on the harbor frieght calipers because they are inexpensive .
But I'd have a very hard time believing that they are anywhere close to the same quality as mitutoyo or a starret digital caliper .
My hf caliper is regulated to junk drawer status and they serve very well for that purpose giving good value for the money spent ... I've gotten more then my $10 worth in scribed lines and such
I can't make comparisons to other digital calipers , and I'm not knocking on the harbor frieght calipers because they are inexpensive .
But I'd have a very hard time believing that they are anywhere close to the same quality as mitutoyo or a starret digital caliper .
My hf caliper is regulated to junk drawer status and they serve very well for that purpose giving good value for the money spent ... I've gotten more then my $10 worth in scribed lines and such
Re: Caliper for Marking
HF has 5 or 6 different SKUs for what appear to be only two models. I don't know why they do that. Anyway, the one that does only inch/metric is the stupid one that loses zero every time. The one that does inch/fractional/metric is the one you want (#62569, #68304). It only resets zero if you pull the battery out or hit the 'zero' button. I have 3 pair - one is nearly 4 years old and still working, one is about a year old, one is a backup still in the box.
Look, a digital caliper is for rough measurements. If you need precision to better than .001" you will be using something that is not a digital caliper no matter what the brand name or price. If a $10 caliper and a $150 caliper both read to the same .001" on the same parts, and the cheap caliper doesn't have the firmware annoyances, and has good battery life, and after a little work feels nice to hold, what the heck are you getting for the extra $140? We are talking about a home shop here and not the metrology lab in an aerospace shop, right?
Look, a digital caliper is for rough measurements. If you need precision to better than .001" you will be using something that is not a digital caliper no matter what the brand name or price. If a $10 caliper and a $150 caliper both read to the same .001" on the same parts, and the cheap caliper doesn't have the firmware annoyances, and has good battery life, and after a little work feels nice to hold, what the heck are you getting for the extra $140? We are talking about a home shop here and not the metrology lab in an aerospace shop, right?
"Never trust a man who puts a witty quote in his sig line." -Mark Twain
- tornitore45
- Posts: 2077
- Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:24 am
- Location: USA Texas, Austin
Re: Caliper for Marking
Lucky you! My repeated experience with HF calipers is exactly the opposite on nearly every point.$10 Harbor Freight calipers are just as accurate & repeatable as any other 6" digital caliper at any price, and, you can abuse them and not feel guilty about it. Sharpen the tips and scribe your layout lines; dull them, sharpen again. Work them over with a stone to smooth out the sharp edges so they feel nice in the hand. The electronics are solid, they don't forget where zero is every time power is cycled, plain LR44 battery lasts around 6 months, they have a thumbwheel like all calipers should, the stainless is "hard as a coffin nail", etc.
In 2016 I decided that a 17th century vernier caliper was the best option. No batteries, no electronic, no buttons, no more moving parts that strictly necessary.
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
in Austin TX
Re: Caliper for Marking
Thanks for the info ccfl.
I suddenly have Christmas presents for the relatives!
I'll check with HF local to see if they have the proper SKU numbers.
Thanks.
--earlgo
I suddenly have Christmas presents for the relatives!
I'll check with HF local to see if they have the proper SKU numbers.
Thanks.
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
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- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:34 pm
- Location: B.C.
Re: Caliper for Marking
My DC eats batteries. It's a cheaper one. Every time I use it, it seems to need a battery, so it sits on a card of dollar store batteries. The # is easy to remember 357.
A man of foolish pursuits, '91 BusyBee DF1224g lathe,'01 Advance RF-45 mill/drill,'68 Delta Toolmaker surface grinder,Miller250 mig,'83 8" Baldor grinder, plus sawdustmakers
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Re: Caliper for Marking
Keep an eye out for later models with a 3v Lithium battery, most turn off completely rather than just blanking the display, I have half a dozen with the oldest 3+ years old and none have required battery replacement yet.
Re: Caliper for Marking
I totally understand fetish objects. Those greenish-silver face Brown & Sharpe DTIs tickle me in my special place and I buy them whenever the price is right even though I don't need another one. I got a Fowler large dial 0-4-0 DTI in a small lot from ebay, opened it up, and promptly dropped in the recycling bin. Innards looked like they had been made with a belt sander and a large chisel. Complete garbage. I have a Shars 0-15-0, generic Chinese rebranded thing, and surprisingly it is very nice inside. The action is much heavier than the famously light B&Ss, but it works well and is nicely made. I use the B&S indicators when I can, because I like them.
Sometimes it's easy to fool yourself into thinking the one you like is better for reasons other than you just like it. Just because you like it is a valid reason all by itself, you don't need to invent other stuff to justify it.
Sometimes it's easy to fool yourself into thinking the one you like is better for reasons other than you just like it. Just because you like it is a valid reason all by itself, you don't need to invent other stuff to justify it.
"Never trust a man who puts a witty quote in his sig line." -Mark Twain
Re: Caliper for Marking
Maybe in a commercial shop where time is money and high use items like calipers get replaced every few years then scribing with them or a cheap pair if the measurements could be trusted might be worthwhile. But I've seen zero mention on Starretts or Mitutoyos website showing them used in that way. And in my opinion if it was ok to do so then you can bet both companys would be demonstrating doing just that as one more use to maybe gain more sales. For what my solar powered Mits cost I'm not about to subject the jaws to the wear and tear of doing it. And since we don't have any Harbour Freight up here I've never bought any of there calipers. But I do have a couple of off shore built 4" and 6" that were a freebie and are at best good enough for maybe .020" - .030" repeatable accuracy when checked against gauge blocks. They are that bad and so full of grit from the manufacturers you can hear the grinding noise as the calipers are opened and closed. Not good enough for woodworking imo and certainly not even worth the cost of keeping batterys replaced never mind taking the time to strip and properly clean them and stone the burrs off. I've got a cheaper $65 set of digitals I bought at Lee Valley for any rougher work that are pretty decent for accuracy and still doubt I'd ever scribe with them since my combination set, height gauge, or surface gauge are all designed to help do that exact job. Your tools your choice, but I'll never be convinced using calipers to scribe with is a real good idea. Lot's of highly experienced and very talented people on YT show doing it, but Starrett hand scribers are still cheaper than even HF calipers are.
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Re: Caliper for Marking
It works well enough and saves time, I can't see anyone doing it with high quality tooling that they expect to keep long term though, luckily for me Lidl and Aldi have very good digital calipers on sale every six months or so.
When I buy a new set I check them against a range of gauge blocks from my Mitutoyo set, I've not had a bad set of the Lithium battery type yet.
- Nick
When I buy a new set I check them against a range of gauge blocks from my Mitutoyo set, I've not had a bad set of the Lithium battery type yet.
- Nick
Re: Caliper for Marking
If it suits your need, inscribing with a caliper is fine. But remember your line will not be exactly where you think it is. When you place the one jaw such that it rides on the side, you just formed a right triangle, and the caliper reading is the hypotenuse. Your line will mark one side of the triangle, which will be shorter than the hypotenuse.
I know cutting up to an inscribed line is approximate anyway, and depending on your tolerances a slight deviation on the line may be perfectly alright. But your line will never be as accurate as the one made using a properly set hermaphrodite caliper.
I know cutting up to an inscribed line is approximate anyway, and depending on your tolerances a slight deviation on the line may be perfectly alright. But your line will never be as accurate as the one made using a properly set hermaphrodite caliper.
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Re: Caliper for Marking
Surely for accuracy you'd want a surface plate, surface gauge, gauge blocks, angle plate etc.