needing a new set of calipers

[whetrock]

I've been using an old cheap set of dial calipers for years. Just noticed that the ID and OD readings are not in agreement. (Maybe I dropped them one too many times??  )

Anyway, time for a upgrade. In my little town, the only place to buy a set is Advance auto, which sells the OEM brand in steel with digital readout. They look nice, however, that set gets a poor review online. Do any of you have experience with that brand?
Anyone want to offer a recommendation about other brands/types, places from which to order a set economically?

thanks, Whetrock

PS: I know that it might be possible to repair my old ones. I'll try. When I hold them up to the light it is obvious that the jaws no longer close up square. We'll see just how carefully I can file them back into alignment. Can't make them any worse. Thought I'd ask for input, as well. I appreciate your advice, guys!

[cunninmp]

Whetrock,
I've been buying from Enco for years. If you know what you're after, they have some great stuff.
Here's a link to a Fowler Electronic Caliper that's on sale for $35.95. If all you want is a Dial Caliper,
They are much less.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=317-0430&PMPXNO=17811696&PARTPG=INLMK3

Mike C.
 

[P.W.Berkuta]

Most if not all the inexpensive calipers (under $100) will vary on repeatability - +/- 0.001" to +/- 0.005" this is a fact of cheap parts and quick assembly. I suggest that you dissemble and clean your instrument first then check it with a known thickness - measure it ten times and take an average of the results and if the value is within +/- 0.001" use it and keep it clean, store it in a box and try not to drop it and remember it is not a slide trombone.  This brand is good --- Mitutoyo 500-196-20 6" Digimatic Digital Caliper for under $120.

[Walt S]

I buy from Enco all the time, and like the Fowler Dial Calipers. This is the one I use. If I needed a new one I would buy he same one.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PARTPG=INLMKD&PMPXNO=39995940&PMAKA=KL890-9373

Walt s

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

My dial calipers cost me around $50...don't recall the brand right now.  They are unbelievably hard/tough stainless steel, and have magnetized for some reason.  This is a problem.  I cannot set them down on the bench when I'm working with them because they'll pick up steel dust, such as steel wool fragments, that ends up in the track and causes them to skip.  I confirm that they are zeroed each and every time I pick them up.  I wish I knew how to de-magnetize them!!

[Habu]

Anyway, time for a upgrade. In my little town, the only place to buy a set is Advance auto, which sells the OEM brand in steel with digital readout. They look nice, however, that set gets a poor review online. Do any of you have experience with that brand?

Yep.  They might still be in the scrap bucket, not sure when I pitched them.  I got frustrated with the lack of repeatability of measurement.  I went back to my vernier caliper, but will probably pick up a dial caliper again eventually. 

You can get a Starrett dial caliper via Amazon for about $100, I didn't check other brands. 

[sydney]

Taylor--if you do a search on the internet  for  " how to demagnetize tools '
           there are several good ideas
           Hope that helps
           Sydney

[Bob Roller]

I have two VERNIERS.One is a 14 incher by Scherr&Co. of St.Cloud,Mn.and the other is from the Mauser works in Germany. It also serves as a height gauge with a scribe.
It is calibrated in our inch system. I have always referred to dial calipers as "VERYNEARS" and the digital ones
I don't trust at all. When I work at a babbit bearing shop I used the 14" set on small bearings to check length and I was surprised to find out that only the shop foreman and myself knew how to read them.I was also surprised to find that I was the only one that knew how to adjust a depth micrometer.Just what are the VoTech schools teaching anyhow?

Bob Roller

[Acer Saccharum]

If you can't see, all the precision in the caliper won't help much.    You might as well get junk ones.

Dial or electronic, the calipers aren't as accurate as micrometers. They are good for quick work that doesn't have to be super close tolerances.

[Habu]

Bob-

lots of stuff, but everything is digital and/or computerized.  In some shops, knowing programming languages is more important than being able to read measurements--and forget about reading verniers. 

As for calipers, I mostly use them for woodworking; if they will consistently measure to the .01", I'm happy.  Anything where I need to measure more precisely than that, it is time for micrometers.

Jim

[Bob Roller]

Habu,
I am well aware of the digital machines and they are fine for production enmasse.I ran one for a while at a local shop and could easily stay ahead of the rest of the crew by about 500 pieces.It was also boring and the monotone whine was enough to drive the deaf crazy.
I still prefer my Starrett and B&S micrometers when I really need to get close tolerances. I don't use dial calipers at all in my lock making.

Bob Roller

[David R. Pennington]

I bought a cheap pair of 4" and 6"dial type at harbor freight. They are fine for most uses. Like Bob said for real precision use micrometer. I wanted another 4" to keep in my shooting box but now they only have digital ones. No thanks.
I agree about the trade schools. I recently hired a fellow who had completed an HVAC course and although he has all the certificates I find I have to teach him all the basics. I thought they would at least teach them how to read a pressure / temperature chart and how to calculate superheat.

[Hungry Horse]

I've got a really nice old dial caliper made by Ames. It residers in a fitted box in my shop. It almost never sees the light of day for gun making. I use a plastic General tool dial caliper, when I feel I need such a measuring tool. It is probably a hundred times more tool, than the old timers had. I believe that building a longrifle, with modern devices, is a one way ticket to building, a stark, sterile, rifle with no personality or life. JMO. you can build them any way you want.

                    Hungry Horse

[Mark Elliott]

I have three dial calipers from a plastic General made in Switzerland to a Starrett made in the USA.   They each have different uses and are fine for their intended purpose.   I also have a .0001" Starrett mic if I need high precision, which I rarely do.   If I needed a measuring tool that needed to be accurate,  I would buy a Starrett.   I would also buy an analog one, and not a digital.   I have not had good luck with digital calipers.     

[blackbruin]

Most calipers are just fine and accurate enough for building longrifles, I don't think they had anything as accurate as most $25 and up calipers for sale today. Just don't forget to zero!

[Vomitus]

  Mitutoyo for mechanical. Digital?dunno 

[Bob Roller]

DaveR,
Sometimes industrial supply houses send out "flyers"or mini catalogs and sometimes the short 4" calipers are shown.
If I get another one with these advertised,I'll notify you.
I wonder how many of the "new generation"of  CNC operators could work in an old time "job shop" like we still have where we live. They work on anything that comes in the door and if it's too big for the door they work on the job outside.I am old school and while I am well aware of the speed of these CNC machines I think these young guys should be taught the skills that helped win WW2 for us and the use of the machines available then.

Bob Roller

[Pennsylvania Dutchman]

Mitutoyo digital calipers are good. Starrett and Brown & Sharpe digitals are good also but, I personally prefer Mitutoyo. One feature I like about Mitutoyo over some other brands is that they don't automatically shut off, so you are not continually having to turn them back on and rezero them every time you pick them up. I also prefer digitals in the shop over dial calipers, they are every bit as accurate and more reliable in the long run. I have never worked with a machinist, that used dial calipers, that didn't have a dead pair or two in his tool box and the ones he was using the dial always zeroed at about 5 or 7 o'clock. A good vernier caliper with a fine adjustment will be more accurate that either the digital or dial calipers, but as said anything closer than .002 requires a micrometer.
Bob, the local Vo-Tech School I went to almost 40 years ago was annexted by the local community college. When I took the machine shop course, it was a two year course, 8 hours a day for 11 months. Now it is a one year course and they spend more time with college classes than machine shop training, so they can get an associates degree. Most of them can read a mike and "operate" a CNC but are lost in the rest of the shop.
Mark Poley

[Mark Elliott]

The large machine shops in my area are a world away from the technology of WWII.    The career and technical educational facilities train students for the demands of the market today.   I know, I taught networking in both a technical high school and college.   The market in this area demands a machinist who has the skills of an engineer.   In fact,  they need the same education that I got in the first two years at engineering school over 30 years ago, updated for modern computer systems (the computers and automated manufacturing equipment  I learned on used paper tape and punch cards    They need to be able to design and machine parts in a CAD/CAM  (computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing)  system.  It has been this way for at least 30 years.   There is absolutely no need for bench skills in any of the manufacturing or production machine shops in my area.   That is why those skills are not taught any more.   A modern machinist,  in a production environment, takes plans, enters them into the CAD/CAM system, sets up the machine, mounts the workpiece, and presses start.   The automated machine (lathe, milling machine, grinder, etc...) does all the rest.  Those are the skills that a new machinist needs in order to get the jobs that are available.  

I have on occasion said the same thing as many of you about teaching fundamental (hand/bench/basic technology) skills to career and technical students.   However,  the fact of the matter is that these skills will not get them a job and are not the skills the employers want.   Major employers have considerable input into the programs at career and technical schools.   In fact,  they give a considerable amount of money and equipment to these schools in order to get job candidates with the skills they require.   I know this from personal experience because I lost my job teaching general computer networking and systems administration to a new curriculum on automotive technology funded by the local car dealers.   The public school system is not going to turn down full funding of a new curriculum by local business.   This is what drives what students are taught and I can't say it is necessarily wrong given that these are the skills required for the jobs that exist today.  

[Pete G.]

Trying to save money on tools is false economy. You will end up spending more money on replacements of a cheap tool than an original tool of quality costs initially. Buy quality and you will have it for years.

Go with either a dial or vernier, digital is not really good for precision.

[P.W.Berkuta]

Whetrock -- I have an extra 4" & 6" Grizzly dial that I just cleaned & adjusted and I will GIVE them to you if you want. All I want is to be paid for shipping - send me an email with your address if you want them.

[whetrock]

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate all the helpful input.

I worked on my old dial calipers last night. Filed the OD jaws down carefully, marking the surfaces with permanent marker so that I could see where I was removing material, and holding them up to the flourescent shop light to look at the crack. I got that side to work at least as well as it did before. The ID side is unusable, at least for now...

Yes, I realize that the old smiths of the 18th c. did not use fine measuring tools. I still find a set of calipers to be very useful in the shop. My shop, like most of yours, is a mix of old and new.

P.W. Berkuta,
That's a kind offer! I'll write you.

[acee]

I have been using and calibrating mics and calipers on my job for over thirty years buy the mitutoyo and keep them  clean   

[P.W.Berkuta]

Whetrock - the caliper will be in the mail tomorrow - keep an eye out for it next week.

[David R. Pennington]

Pete, I used to think like that. Buying quality tools was a good investment, but after having thousands of dollars worth of quality tools stolen I now buy junk. I got tired of fueling peoples drug habits with my tools.