digital calipers

[marcros]

Thanks peter. Hadn't thought to check YouTube.

If you can get the igaging I would be interested. Particularly if you were to get the 4" version.

 

[KevM]

I need to get another set of digital calipers.

I know the original question was regarding digital callipers, but since I've been using dial callipers I've not touched my digital ones. I went from traditional Vernier to digital, and only later discovered the immediacy of dial callipers.

I've got 2, a plastic/composite set by Wiha good to 0.1mm, and a fancy Starrett set good to 0.02mm - I always reach for the Wiha by default, I very rarely do anything that actually needs 0.02mm, but the Starrett has a rotating dial that allows easy relative measurements.

If you regularly work in metric and Imperial these wouldn't be as good as the digital ones, but if you work within one system they're great.

A few years ago when I was looking I was struck by seeing some of the no-name digital ones selling for less than the price of UKAS Calibration, it's a topsy-turvy world when the calibration costs more than the tool.

P.S. Edited to add: I guess because I looked up the link for the Wiha callipers Amazon now assumes I have an overwhelming passion for all things measurement! Anyhow, out of curiosity I followed a link to a no-name plastic dial calliper which reassuringly claims to be "Energy Class A", difficult to argue with that claim. :lol:

 

[marcros]

I have a dial set but the digitals are just so quick to use and easy to read.

 

[artie]

I followed a link to a no-name plastic dial calliper which reassuringly claims to be "Energy Class A", difficult to argue with that claim. :lol:

Here we have a tool with no electronics selling for far more (percentage wise) than another with very complex electrics.

It makes me wonder. It's like a hammer made of a lump of metal and a piece of wood selling for £35 when you can buy for similar money an electric drill driver made up of hundreds of small intricate parts complete with battery and charger.

I know that the hammer will most likely still be in service long after the drill is in utool heaven but purely from a manufacturing point of view which can be produced cheapest.?

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

so....cycling back to the original question.......if you're satisfied with a possible max error margin of +/- 2 hundredths of a mm any of the cheapies will do wont they?

If that granularity is too "loose" for the tolerances you're working with, buy the more expensive.

Out of curiosity, what is an acceptable tolerance for you and what is the nature of the work you're doing that needs it?

 

[woodpig]

I work with lots of materials Bob including metal and some jobs need to be quite accurate. The video link posted by Peter shows me that for what I do some errors I've made could be down to cheap calipers. I don't normally use calipers on wood though! I keep my Mitutoyo indoors for measuring stuff and use the £9.99 specials in the workshop. I'll certainly be looking to get some of those $39 ones for the workshop when I can source them.
Measuring tools can't be too accurate, it's just a matter of how accurate you want or need to be for the job in hand.

 

[KevM]

Out of interest I did a bit of Googling to find out how the digital ones work and found quite a nice explanation. Sounds like it's important to keep them clean and dry, and also explains how it's possible to turn them out so cheaply with such good performance.

 

[marcros]

so....cycling back to the original question.......if you're satisfied with a possible max error margin of +/- 2 hundredths of a mm any of the cheapies will do wont they?

If that granularity is too "loose" for the tolerances you're working with, buy the more expensive.

Out of curiosity, what is an acceptable tolerance for you and what is the nature of the work you're doing that needs it?

I don't know if this was aimed at me, or users in general.

I want to measure plastics, for 2 main purposes- matching up to another plastic component so there is no discernible difference between the two and for measuring ready for threading using a tap and die. And I guess for a third- checking whether the material moves over a couple of days since initial drilling and/or sizing, prior to threading or tapping.

As for acceptable tolerance- I would look at the best available and price and make a decision from there, probably stepping it down to the next level if price for the best is prohibitive. I am not looking at milling wood to a tenth of a mm or anything like that. A couple of thou probably wouldn't be an issue but repeatability is more important, incase it shows movement when there is none.

 

[Peter Sefton]

Thanks peter. Hadn't thought to check YouTube.

If you can get the igaging I would be interested. Particularly if you were to get the 4" version.

I will look into importing Igaging this week, I remember Wiser was bringing them into the UK when he had Intelligent Workshop. He did bring them to one of my open days and they looked good but I never checked them out in detail.

Interesting you mentioning 4" I would have expected most people to be looking for 6".

Does anybody have any experience of using the Igaging tools? Do you like them?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Cheers Peter

 

[marcros]

I say 4" because the majority of things that I use them on are less than 1", certainly less than 2". I can't remember the last time that I used the 4-6" portion of my cheap ones. Knowing how useful my little 4" square is, I think that small Calipers would similarly be so, and would go in an apron pocket nice and easily. I think the square is actually igaging actually, I picked it on the strength of a FWW review/test.

 

[woodpig]

I've not seen those igaging absolute calipers in the flesh but they certainly look good in pictures and the video. I like the idea of the larger battery and the cover looks robust. I have 4" calipers already but find them fiddly to use so I'd be looking at the the 6" model unless folks wanted the larger 8" version which might come in handy.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I say 4" because the majority of things that I use them on are less than 1", certainly less than 2". I can't remember the last time that I used the 4-6" portion of my cheap ones. Knowing how useful my little 4" square is, I think that small Calipers would similarly be so, and would go in an apron pocket nice and easily. I think the square is actually igaging actually, I picked it on the strength of a FWW review/test.

Thanks marcros, you are right I hardly ever use mine at full capacity and the 150mm are too long for the top pocket. Did you get the Engineers Square are the Double Square?

http://www.igagingstore.com/category-s/1840.htm

Cheers Peter

 

[marcros]

The double square. I couldn't remember the name when I mentioned it

 

[sjalloq]

I always used to buy the cheaper end of the spectrum and then, just as yet another one was starting to malfunction after a year, someone of more knowledge told me that the cheaper ones all use the same Chinese sensing mechanism which is prone to failure. He used Starrett calipers and a colleague had had the same pair for quite a few years. So by the time you've bought 5 pairs of cheap ones you may as well have bought the reliable branded ones to start with. The issue I keep on seeing is that after a while they start losing the origin while in the middle of a measurement and you don't notice until you bring the two parts you've cut together. So you save £50-60 and waste the same or more in wood or metal when you make an uncorrectable error.

I ended up buying Mitutoyo as I found a good deal on Toolstop at the time. Picked mine up for £72 delivered and the difference is night and day. The finish quality is amazing and there is no play in the slide at all. The plastics are of a high quality and overall I'm really happy.

http://www.toolstop.co.uk/mitutoyo-500- ... 0mm-p14980 but out of stock at the moment and not quite as good a deal as I found.

If you want Starrett, and I should say anything in the catalogue, then you can use this eBay seller. He happens to be a member of the Rotary Club next to the Starrett factory and they can get pretty much anything for a discount if you ask. The shop has a number of items that are a lot cheaper than RRP. I've bought squares and a dial indicator from him so far and he's fast and reliable.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/jedburghrotary2010/

 

[woodpig]

You can get Moore & Wright ones for under £30 but not sure how good they are.

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/150mm-6-di ... eries.html

 

[Peter Sefton]

I was demonstrating at Newark over the weekend. I zeroed my callipers and then measured my planes shavings with a reading of -.06mm. We all have our own feeling for how accurate we need to work but mine a clearly no longer working correctly and don't leave me having any confidence in what they are telling me.

The good news is that Igaging have confirmed they would like us to support them in the UK, so this should be a thing of the past for me.

Cheers Peter

 

[woodpig]

The good news is that Igaging have confirmed they would like us to support them in the UK, so this should be a thing of the past for me.

Cheers Peter

Please keep us posted.