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Are Brown and Sharpe micrometers really the best?

PackardV8

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Location
Spokane, WA
Greetings, All,

I have a decent set of Starrett mics, but a couple of friends whose opinions I respect keep telling me Brown and Sharpe are the ultimate classic vernier micrometers. They rave on about the 'slant-line', carbide-tipped and Swiss-made.

What is the concensus as to the best-ever make and year of micrometer and how can they be recognized?
thnx, jv.
 
Those slant lines tend to confuse some (me included).

The old guys used to complain about them when I was a dfa. Now (35 years later)I see they were right.

I have some Starret, couple B&S, and some good Chinese.

Take care of them, and you won't wear any of them out.

Watch what your "Expert Friends" tell you.

It's often a case of a "my stuff is great", and "yours is just crap" attitude.


Kap
 
who cares what is the best. does your's do the job? do they pass calibration tests? are yous paid for? if the answer is yes to those questions then you's are the best.

Kap is right most people think their stuff is 24 kt gold,and anything you own is a bar of brass.

i had some slant line b&s mics got rid of them for the same reason Kap stated, i made the .025 mistake a few times then that was it.
 
Well, I got a B&S mike a while back. Mine was made in France. Nice mike, but I don't know if I'd call it the best (no complaints, just leary of calling anything "the best" until I've tried the others).

I like the look of the SPI "parallax-free" mikes, but I haven't used them. (I know they aren't the first to make a parallax free mike, Tesa also makes them)
 
I knew a guy who used to get his jollies by creating doubt - and he was cruel about it. Whatever you had to brag about he'd dampen it someway. Some people are brand loyal to a fault.

If a Starret mike merts 99% and a B&S 99.01% so what? All I care about is are they accurate and is the feel consistant over the full range.

I know about mikes and measuring tools. A few years ago, I did a side be side comparison between my low use Starret mike I got for Christmas 1961 ($176 now) and a cheap ($13) Chinese mike. Once they were both cleaned and adjusted they were equivalent in feel and equally accurate. I couldn't find an objective difference in their performance.

What the Chinese mike will be like 20 years from now, I couldn't say. The point is can the tool do the job? All other factors are secondary. For $176 you can buy 13 cheap mikes. Use them one at a time for two years then throw it ways. After 26 years and you get through all those mikes another guy has used up the Starrett. By then you can retire from the trade to give full time contemplation of tool quality and its effect on the economics of personal tool amortization.
 
Etalon are the very best :)IMHO . Swiss made. Brown and Sharpe and Etalon bear a striking resemblance too :).

Starrett are nice as well. I have never had a use for slant line mikes. The .0005" vernier like Etalon uses IS nice however.

It's all in what you like I guess.

My grandfather (long dead) worked for B&S many many many years ago, B&S was so cheap they did not give an employee discount, but get this Starrett WOULD give the B&S employees a discount, so most B&S employess used Starrett tools to make B&S tools :).

Bill
 
I'm not old, not even 30. However, I've calibrated a couple of hundred micrometers of various types and brands, and have developed calibration procedures for most tools that are very critical and peer-reviewed for suitability.

Almost all new micrometers meet GGG-C-105C, which specifies tolerances for the accuracies of the instrument. Indicated reading +/- .0001 up to 1", .00015 to 3", .0002 to 6", etc. I've only had one or two instruments show error greater than that. That's including $12 0-1" mics from Chuan/China.

The Brown & Sharpe micrometers do not excel here. Neither do Starrett.

The Chuan/China brand mikes are really impressive sometimes, but you have to get lucky. VIS/Poland are the same way.

Mitutoyo are much more accurate. Even the cheap economy mikes. For a long lasting tool, that's my heartfelt recommendation. Mitutoyo makes a really fantastic gage. Most of their digital micrometers now specify accuracy of +/- 50 millionths.

Most know-it-alls are setting their mikes on class ZZ pins or applying about 20 lbs of pressure or something like that. Forget all of that nonsense and read, read, read.

The only instruments that rival Mitutoyo are European. An Etalon micrometer is such a work of art from that part of the world. Brown & Sharpe swiss (certain model #'s), TESA, the German Mahr.

Here's a website that browses and reads well. http://www.longislandindicator.com/micrometers.html

Personally, if I was on a budget, I would never spend money on micrometers. The $70 set of 0-3" polish mics is going to calibrate just the same or BETTER than american made tools.

For a dial caliper, get a $63 mitutoyo 505-675 from Enco, they're made in Brazil, and they've got it down pat finally.

spend the real money on bore gages, inside groove diameter gages, blade micrometers, real thread wires, an indicating micrometer, or something else with a specialized use.
 
A 0-1 micrometer is often the first tool a machinist or toolmaker buys, and the one he may use most often, Sorry I'm not going to have my first tool, or most used tool be a Polish or Japanese instrument :).

Now there are some tools where Mitutoyo excels, the 4" and 6" lcd calipers....and their ID mikes with the inner micrometer standard type rod...those are two examples where the Japanese tool is the best...the Mit micrometers just have a crappy "feel" in the hand to me...always have.

I do not know why anybody would ever zero a mike on gage pins ??

Bill
 
Re: willbird
Etalon are the very best :)IMHO .
You beat me to it. :D
Many of Brown & Sharpe's products are made in Switzerland by TESA.
That said, my "everyday" 1" micrometer is a Polish-made Yuasa that I bought in 1980.
My "everyday" 1-2" and 2-3" micrometers are Mitutoyos.
For "tenth tolerance" EDM and OD grinding work, I break out my old 0-1" and/or 1-2" Etalons.
For larger than 3" work, the shop has Staretts up to 12"
 
I can vouch for Polish mikes. They really are excellent. I get good service from the Polish mike I bought from Enco about 8 years ago. Remember that Poland was the Soviet toolmaker for many years after WWII.

What ever you may think of the old Soviet Union as a political system they had a need for excellent tools and equipment to keep up with the weapons race. Poland and Czecosovakia supplied them well.
 
As Atetsade said, it's hard to beat Mitu mics. Especially the green enamel models, which are no longer made ... probably haven't been made since around 1990. My green 0-12" set has a better feel than my blue 0-6" set.

Nothing wrong with Starrett or B&S. The VIS from Poland have plastic locking levers that are fragile, fine quality other than that.

Brown and Sharpe are the ultimate classic vernier micrometers.
Only the ones that reside in your toolbox are the ultimate.....

---------------
Barry Milton
 
B&S micrometers seem to feel heavy and a bit bulky when I use them.
I'd rather use a Starrett or Mitutoyo.
In my opinion....No, they're not the best.
 
I prefer Starret for standard mics and Mitutoyo for digital. At work our personal measuring tools are taken in for calibration and cleaning every 3 months. The general feeling of the calibration people is if it meets calibration standards, then no problem no matter what the make. Also walking through the shop you will find B&S, Sheer-Tumico, China made and other brands. It's just a case of personal preferance. Mark
 
B&S Mics always seemed awkward and "Clunky" to me. Almost all of my work is under 1 inch, I normally use Mitutoyos, but also a pair of Starretts, in some tight places.. The B&S slant/line always got me mixed up, although I guess a person could get used to it..
 
Let's settle this matter, Tesa, Etalon, Brown & Sharpe... all one company! Along with Roch, Compac and other brands. True story.
Aside from the U.S. made Value-Line mics from Brown & Sharpe (there are several models of 0-1" mics you can get from B&S by the way) all are made in the same building in Renens Switzerland by the same people for the same parent company, Hexagon Metrology.
If you haven't tried them, handle the digital Micro-Master mics from B&S. Whatever you do, don't do what I did and judge them by their looks. They look HUGE and as if there is no way they'll feel right. Open any other 0-1" mic you have all the way along with the Micro-Master and give them to an unskilled operator to use. When they have to use two hands to operate the friction or ratchet device on the others and don't have to on the B&S mics is when it dawns on you... they're well thunked out and VERY ergonomic. The plastic cladding is there for a reason too, heat sink. They're not all that expensive either, especially when you throw in the extra 0.200" range and free serialized calibration cert. Good stuff indeed!

Face it... all mechanical mics mainly depend on that pesky lead screw to be accurate (setting aside parallelism, face flatness and such) It's easy to make a lead screw right when new. It's when that lead screw wears that causes a lot of errors (did someone mention 0.025" error?) Some lead screws are just harder and last longer than others. Ask yourself, are you in this for the long haul and thinking of the kind of stuff you might hand down to your kids? You gets what you pay for.
 
I think atetsade made a vary valid point. The guy who has calibrated hundreds of mics is going to know which ones are good.

I love my B&S mics but it's a personal preference. I like how they look, feel and I like the slant line feature.

"The best" is about marketing and perception. Quality usually is defined by people's perceptions about a product all else being equal.

The one that is made from a good, reputable manufacturer and feels good in YOUR hands is the best. A 30 year old mic is probably a piece of crap no matter who made it. If you use a measuring tool every day it'll probably need to be replaced every 10 years or so.
And I believe all mikes have the thimbles & other bits made of chrome plated brass.
 
plus the 13 dollar ones make great little c-clamps
(with lock)

had one years ago that the QA guy kept bitchin that it was not calibrating right.(went on for a year or 2 but i don't measure for a livin' i pound on things)
finally with him standin' there i throw the thing as hard as i can into the wharehouse and say "there are you happy now"
6 monthes later i see a new kid measurin' parts with the thing
i say were did you get that
he replys
it was "sittin in the bottom of an empty tub that the fork lift driver brought,took it into have it calibrated and it passed with flying colors"

musta just needed a little stress relief

all true
 
The thing about calibrating mikes ?? Most shops I worked in the guy who calibrated the tools was a lower skilled worker than the guys who used them :). The companies SOP required annual calibration of all measuring tools including employee tools....any guy worth his salt checked his stuff before doing a .0001 job anyway...but the rules are the rules.

Bill
 








 
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