Which digital calipers?

[Bigstinka]

I use Moore and wright calipers and mitutoyo all day at work and would personally only buy mitutoyo as I find them trustworthy and easy to use. They also seem to last so much longer.

 

[mbartlett99]

Well I'm glad people did eventually mention Moore and Wright nothing like flying the flag. I use Mitutoyo at work but its not my money and I need to be a little more precise than any woodworking demands. At home its Moore and Wright calipers, rules, squares and micrometers like my dad and my grandfather.

Wouldn't have any of that chinese rubbish in the house.

 

[sunnybob]

I gave up with mine due to battery life (or lack of) Bought from axminster. When it worked it was asgfood as I could ask for, but I knew I had to replace the battery every second time I used the thing. Still in the box which I havent opened for a couple years now.
I now use a plastic set with dial gauge and it NEVER fails to give me a reading.

 

[RogerP]

I have a generic Asian one that's unnamed. Made entirely of steel, does mm, inches decimal and inches fractions, batteries last a long time (can't remember when I last replaced them). Zero and repeats accurately. All in all very pleased with it and certain good enough for my uses. Cost me about a tenner so far as can remember.

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

I got these whe they were on special offer for £20 http://www.tooled-up.com/product/sealey ... -6/150282/ . However I would be happy with a cheaper pair. I find the 100th of a mill a bit distracting, for wood working if you are accurate to 1/10th of a mm then that is all you need to know. It would be nice to have a pair that do fractional inches mine don't

 

[memzey]

Yes I'd like fractional inches displayed as well. Roger can you remember a bit more about your set like where you got it by any chance? Seeing measurements to a 1/64th or so would be more useful to me than to the ,000".

I have to say though that going down to thousandths of an inch for woodworking purposes seems largely unnecessary to me. The piece of wood you are working on is likely to shift more than that when you move it from one room to another once it's a bit of furniture. Even when you're setting up machines micrometers and sub thou' tolerances would be more likely to drive me mad than improve my woodworking (but maybe that's just me).

 

[Peter Sefton]

Well I'm glad people did eventually mention Moore and Wright nothing like flying the flag. I use Mitutoyo at work but its not my money and I need to be a little more precise than any woodworking demands. At home its Moore and Wright calipers, rules, squares and micrometers like my dad and my grandfather.

Wouldn't have any of that chinese rubbish in the house.

I love to support Sheffield whenever I can, I had the M&R rep come to see me but it turns out they have not been made in the UK for some years now.

Cheers Peter

 

[RogerP]

Yes I'd like fractional inches displayed as well. Roger can you remember a bit more about your set like where you got it by any chance? Seeing measurements to a 1/64th or so would be more useful to me than to the ,000".

I have to say though that going down to thousandths of an inch for woodworking purposes seems largely unnecessary to me. The piece of wood you are working on is likely to shift more than that when you move it from one room to another once it's a bit of furniture. Even when you're setting up machines micrometers and sub thou' tolerances would be more likely to drive me mad than improve my woodworking (but maybe that's just me).

It looks exactly the same as this one except mine has no name on it and I'm sure didn’t cost anywhere near what they're asking! I can't remember where mine came from.
http://www.lloyd-jones.com/single-part.aspx?PartNumber=144550100&PrevPage=ACCESSORIES

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Well I'm glad people did eventually mention Moore and Wright nothing like flying the flag. I use Mitutoyo at work but its not my money and I need to be a little more precise than any woodworking demands. At home its Moore and Wright calipers, rules, squares and micrometers like my dad and my grandfather.

Wouldn't have any of that chinese rubbish in the house.

I love to support Sheffield whenever I can, I had the M&R rep come to see me but it turns out they have not been made in the UK for some years now.

Cheers Peter

I had a look on their web site and thought that. Another trusted name sold out. Starrett too.

I'm actually wondering if Mitutoyo are still actually made in Japan, rather than just assembled etc etc. It's very hard to be sure.

 

[Jacob]

Yes I'd like fractional inches displayed as well. Roger can you remember a bit more about your set like where you got it by any chance? Seeing measurements to a 1/64th or so would be more useful to me than to the ,000".

I have to say though that going down to thousandths of an inch for woodworking purposes seems largely unnecessary to me. The piece of wood you are working on is likely to shift more than that when you move it from one room to another once it's a bit of furniture. Even when you're setting up machines micrometers and sub thou' tolerances would be more likely to drive me mad than improve my woodworking (but maybe that's just me).

Well yes.
This is why the cheapo non digital option is more than adequate for woodworkers and in fact much easier to use than digital or other more precise models.
I've been using one like this for 30 years or more and have never felt the need for anything more precise.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p45921?

 

[AJB Temple]

I use an MIB one made in Germany: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-E ... +Messzeuge

This is £38. I have had it a year, it came with a spare battery that I have never had to use. Battery life is a non issue. It is a calibrated tool and good enough for what I need. I am not sure I would use a digital one for woodwork if I didn't already have this (as I don't need an incredible degree of accuracy), but I bought it for metalwork. Good tool and will last a lifetime. Comes in a case.

 

[ghettoblaster]

https://youtu.be/WvszAb0Y0Ec

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I loved one of the comments after that -
If you're shopping for Cumquats calipers, be sure to check out PERCISION. That's right, Percision. You can buy calipers made by a company called Percision.

=D> =D> :lol:

 

[woodpig]

Arceurotrade sell calipers with fractions display.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue ... CD-Display

 

[graduate_owner]

I had trouble with battery life on my Axminster digital calipers too. Used it a couple of times, then flat the next time I went to use it. I contacted Axminster who apologised for the inconvenience and sent me a free replacement - didn't want the old one back, so now I have 2. Very good of Axminster, but the replacement was just the same. So I bought a pack of 50 batteries for peanuts from fleabay, not expecting them to last very long in use. Strangely, they do seem to last quite well. I started removing the battery after use, but don't seem to need to do that now.

K

 

[mbartlett99]

Well I'm glad people did eventually mention Moore and Wright nothing like flying the flag. I use Mitutoyo at work but its not my money and I need to be a little more precise than any woodworking demands. At home its Moore and Wright calipers, rules, squares and micrometers like my dad and my grandfather.

Wouldn't have any of that chinese rubbish in the house.

I love to support Sheffield whenever I can, I had the M&R rep come to see me but it turns out they have not been made in the UK for some years now.

Cheers Peter

I had a look on their web site and thought that. Another trusted name sold out. Starrett too.

I'm actually wondering if Mitutoyo are still actually made in Japan, rather than just assembled etc etc. It's very hard to be sure.

Well Peter I'm not even slightly surprised but at least I did my best - 8 generations of my family in the various steel trades of Sheffield, I could hardly look myself in the eye if I bought otherwise. I suspect Mitutoyo are still Japanese just because of their price tag.

On the bright side my M & W stuff is reliable - I have access to milspec calibration equipment - resonably priced and the batteries last ages unlike my lousy Wixey angle thing which is going to take a float test one day soon.

 

[Claud1]

I don't understand why people say it's only for woodwork so it doesn't matter about accuracy, when I am making anything be it woodwork or metalwork I try to get it as near 100% as I can. I have 2 pairs of Mitutoyo and cannot fault them. I am not saying there is anything wrong with cheaper ones but I prefer to buy once and not take a chance.

 

[Jacob]

I don't understand why people say it's only for woodwork so it doesn't matter about accuracy, when I am making anything be it woodwork or metalwork I try to get it as near 100% as I can. I have 2 pairs of Mitutoyo and cannot fault them. I am not saying there is anything wrong with cheaper ones but I prefer to buy once and not take a chance.

If you really wanted to work to say 0.02mm accuracy you would have to correct every bit of wood every day, if not every hour. It would be impossible to finish anything.
0.1mm is as near spot on as you could expect (for brief spells depending on the weather, dryness of wood etc) but for most purposes working to the nearest 1mm is very precise.

 

[RogerP]

I don't understand why people say it's only for woodwork so it doesn't matter about accuracy, when I am making anything be it woodwork or metalwork I try to get it as near 100% as I can. I have 2 pairs of Mitutoyo and cannot fault them. I am not saying there is anything wrong with cheaper ones but I prefer to buy once and not take a chance.

Because wood naturally expands and contracts beyond the accuracy you are trying to measure.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Of course we attempt accuracy, but if your tenon needs to be 0.750" it'll make little difference if your cheap caliper has measured it at 0.752".