New digital caliper wanted

[reggie_obe]

Checked over gauge pins....calibrated when? Jaws straight and ground parallel to what tolerance? Do they open and close as smoothly at the Mitutoyo? Doubt it. I don't need three cheap 6" calipers, only one good one that is accurate and a joy to use. Same logic behind the purchase of any quality tool.

[tornitore45]

I have assembled an entire home shop out of cheap imported tooling.
I would say that half of the tools are very serviceable, obviously I can not compare with "the feel" of the expensive brand because that feel is beyond my budget.
25% leave some to be desired and were upgraded from mediocre to serviceable with lot of TLC
The 25% balance was worthless scrap.

I learned that much of the difference in price between cheap (I can not say import because some US company have cheap lines and some import are good quality) and the brand quality is the price you pay for piece of mind.

Not only it cost money to produce consistent good quality and stand behind when the occasional dud escape to market, but such dependability is worth real money to the professional that has no time to fiddle.

I can not justify spending $200 for a caliper, on the other hand I am smart enough to detect when el cheapo is lying. At that point is a gamble to toss it and gamble again. Luckily the cheap Mikes are dependable.

Eventually one learn where the pitfalls are. Anything Electronic or meant to cut metal has more risk of being a total loss than is worth the savings. On the other hand my 20 years. $17, 7" angle grinder is still going after filling in for a band saw I do not have.

It is a gamble and if you know and play the game you can be ahead a little.

[ccfl]

Checked over gauge pins....calibrated when? Jaws straight and ground parallel to what tolerance? Do they open and close as smoothly at the Mitutoyo? Doubt it. I don't need three cheap 6" calipers, only one good one that is accurate and a joy to use. Same logic behind the purchase of any quality tool.

If I had the money (or the need) for calibrated gage pins I'd also have money to replace everything with Mitutoyo and Brown & Sharpe. And then I could point and laugh at everyone who doesn't have what I have.

If they give accurate measurements and are repeatable, everything beyond that is window dressing. The dinky little parts I make fit where they are supposed to so the cheap tools must be working, right? I also enjoy the challenge of making tools perform beyond their intended purpose. Making something from very nearly nothing is fun.

[tornitore45]

Things to consider to keep things in prospective

Someone may make parts for NASA, Jet Propulsion or Boeing...
Someone may enjoy fiddling around in their garage converted into machine shop
Some makes money with the tools
Some only spend money to purchase tools to make things he is the only judge
Some work has to pass inspection
Some work must satisfy the maker sense of pride
For some people time is money
Others can spend time in lieu of money, if you think about is the same thing run backward.
Not every piece need to be to tight tolerance, often 0.050" is plenty
Feeling is desirable for everyone but is a subjective value, some value it at an extra zeros on the price, some would only pay $10 extra for it.

As for myself, I like to make small engines. They all run well and are pleasing to the eye. I make one specimen, nobody is ever going to ask me for a spare part that need to fit the engine in a remote corner of Earth.

[Cary Stewart]

I just took a look at Live Steam Marketplace, Various Shop Tooling & Machines For Sale by HARLOCK.
Go to measuring instruments and find the Mitutoyo digital 6" digital caliper. Compare with the HF $10.00 one. The Mit one looks like the HF except it has a 4th button at the top. This may be manufactured by the same Chinese factory but they are not the same tools. Mit. would not even consider one like the two that I purchased from HF. The $25.00 that HARLOCK is asking sounds like it might be a good deal. There are a lot of other interesting things he has for sale. Worth a look.
Cary

[jcfx]

Too late for me, I just received my Mitutoyo mike and another caliper today.

[liveaboard]

some US company have cheap lines and some import are good quality.

YES.
I don't understand this oft repeated fallacy, followed by lauding the quality of Mitutoyo, a foreign company.
Good products, and bad ones, are made in many countries.

[reggie_obe]

Checked over gauge pins....calibrated when? Jaws straight and ground parallel to what tolerance? Do they open and close as smoothly at the Mitutoyo? Doubt it. I don't need three cheap 6" calipers, only one good one that is accurate and a joy to use. Same logic behind the purchase of any quality tool.

If I had the money (or the need) for calibrated gage pins ..................

If they give accurate measurements and are repeatable, everything beyond that is window dressing.

How can you test their accuracy using an untested standard? The measurement may repeat, but the number is relative, it doesn't reference a known traceable "standard". At best, calipers are only guessing sticks anyway.

[Harold_V]

At best, calipers are only guessing sticks anyway.

Yep!
Need proof?
Try using a caliper for determining the diameter of a pin that must be a snug slip fit in a bore, which size is determined by the inside jaws of the same caliper.
Impossible?
No, not really, but the fit is established by chance, not by design. You're asking way too much from a caliper in that circumstance.

Calipers have a place in the shop----but it's up to the owner to determine when they are appropriate for the need at hand. If one does not discern what that is, he/she can expect to suffer failures in the attempt to establish required fits. That can be hard on one's ego, as the failures are often interpreted as incompetence at the machine, when that may not be the case.

Harold

[liveaboard]

Of course that be true, on the other hand if all I want to do is find my 4.2mm drill bit, and I left my glasses in the house, the cheapo digital caliper with the big numbers sure makes life easy.
As you say, it all depends on what you need to know.

[Harold_V]

Yep! As I said, knowing when to use a caliper, and when to use something better suited to the requirement at hand.
While I have dial calipers, I still use verniers---including my height gauge. Old habits die hard, to say nothing of being comfortable in my little environment.

Harold

[ccfl]

At best, calipers are only guessing sticks anyway.

You're making a really convincing case for why expensive calipers are unnecessary, thanks for keeping an open mind!

But seriously, if you have an unknown piece of stock, and the $20 calipers measure it at 0.2505", and the $150 calipers measure it at 0.2505", and a known-good 0-1" mic measures it at 0.2504", what have you gained from the extra $130 you laid down for the fancy guessing sticks? (as long as the cheap calipers don't have any fatal flaws, which the $20 HF's don't)