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New guy looking for caliper recommendations

cj133

Aluminum
Joined
May 8, 2014
Location
New Jersey USA
I realize this is going to have some different opinions but I'm looking into buying my first good caliper and want to know what everyone would recommend.

Dial vs vernier vs digital. Also want opinions on brands.

This is for daily use in the office doing CAD work.

Right now I'm thinking Mitutoyo 505-738 with the carbide tips.

All opinions welcome. Would like to keep it around $200 USD or less.
 
Etalon dials for me ....

p.s. carbide tips are a waste, you'll never wear them out in an office.
 
Mit digicals are a safe bet. No need for carbide jaws unless you plan on working with something abrasive all day every day...they break real easy too.
 
I realize this is going to have some different opinions but I'm looking into buying my first good caliper and want to know what everyone would recommend.

Dial vs vernier vs digital. Also want opinions on brands.

This is for daily use in the office doing CAD work.

Right now I'm thinking Mitutoyo 505-738 with the carbide tips.

All opinions welcome. Would like to keep it around $200 USD or less.

Huh? What are you going to measure with it and how often?

Re CAD then digital as you can switch between inches and mm at the push of a button.
 
At the computer I use Starrett #120 6" because the battery never goes dead and they're just a nice traditional dial caliper of fine accuracy. No danger of clogging up the rack with bits and bytes. In the shop I use Mitutoyo digitals because they're the best out there in terms of battery life, accuracy and lack of annoyances.
 
Mitutoyo 505-742 for me. 6" dial caliper. For some reason I like being able to see the needle moving with calipers. With mic's it's not as interesting so I use digitals, but with calipers, for whatever reason, I just feel better with the dial.

Regards.

Mike
 
As a former toolmaker for many years that now does CAD all day long I have an opinion. Bear in mind that any good quality caliper is good enough for what your intended purpose it is largely a matter of feel/opinion. I like a dial vs. digital because:

1) No battery to run out at an inconvenient time (any time is inconvenient)
2) I can watch the movement of the needle for out-of-round or small changes that maybe aren't as important
3) Dirt/lint/chips/coolant can usually be cleaned out your self. I've taken several apart with success
4) Distance-to-go can be performed on the dial if you are too tired to do the numbers in your head (small point)


As for brands I've owned several and always come back to the Mitutoyo 6" 505-742 for feel, accuracy, and price. There are others but I prefer the Mits for a dial caliper over the others. Oh you asked about vernier too. I own several verniers and have a fondness for them when I pull them out. Simple, least expensive, but tough to read when your eyes start going soft around 40 y.o. Verniers do have the advantage of not getting "borrowed" by others as most people never learned to read on the vernier scale. All my caliper over 12" are strictly vernier scale. If you insist of getting one try to find one with the longest scale to read from. I've a 24" vernier Kanon that, while not a very expensive make, does have a vernier scale that goes from 0-50 by .001 and it's very easy for my fuzzy eyes to easily read. You should bear in mind that while most makes of calipers are in .001 increments a caliper is not considered a precision instrument. So even though it may read down to .001 that doesn't mean it should be trusted as there are several factors that affect a reading from a caliper. In the machining trade a vernier caliper was called a very-near caliper for a reason. Anything that needs to within .003-.005 really should be measured with an instrument of greater accuracy.
 
I've always liked vernier calipers, but now I need a magnifier to read them. That said, they pretty much never go out of whack and any decent one can be read reliably to 0.0005". Ditto my Starrett vernier height gauges. Dials, not so much and so far my experience with digitals suggests they're usually good to 0.002" or better if clean and properly adjusted.
 
Mitutoyo digital for sure, batt life is not a consideration, they last for years in a Mits. Digital is great for distance to go, set your desired diameter, "0" then measure your work, read distance to go directly. Vernier is great if there are people that always want to borrow them, they will never go anywhere as 99% of the people can't read them
 
Thank you all for taking the time to read my post and respond.

I decided to go with a Mit 500-196 and didn't go for the carbide tips.

I originally wanted them to prevent wear, but I also noticed for the extra cost I could buy an entire new unit.


I have two used calipers I picked up from an old coworker. A Brown & Sharp vernier and a Helios dial. They both work good and are in decent shape, but I felt now that I'm actually doing this for a living it was time to buy something new.

I also have a Mitutoyo vernier height gauge and a fairly large RAHN granite surface plate I bought used.


Some claim I have a problem with buying tools I don't need. :D What can I say, I like tools.
 
I have a set of 6" carbide tipped Mitutoyo veniers that I'm sure will still be usable long after the nuclear apocalypse...
 
This is exactly one of the reasons I decided to ask on here before making a decision.

I was curious if anyone used verniers. I assumed some must as they're still sold and not cheap.

From what I can tell, dial calipers seem kind of fragile where digital aren't and vernier obviously aren't. The fragile part bothers me some, but for all I know the better ones aren't. My Helious certainly seems to be.

I can read a vernier, kind of. I say kind of because I'm betting it takes practice and experience to be fast and confident in your measurments. I can do it, but I'm slow and often make an error. There's sometimes I'm not sure which line to use because several seem to line up.
 
Some Helios and others have the lock and feed screw , a great asset.
My old Helios has this feature.

Here a Mitutoyo with the feature..
helios vernier caliper pitchers - Google Search

Qt: ewlsey[Dial calipers are fragile. Digitals are pretty tough.] agree to that ..even a $30 set


My Mitutoyo height gauge has the lock and feed setup. Was the first time I saw it, but I immediately liked it.
 
At risk of sounding like an old fart, I have a set of Mitutoyo dial calipers that I have owned since 1983 that I have used in all my shop environments since then. They have taken whatever I've dished out, and still work fine. I have not used them as a hammer, crowbar, or precision C-clamp, but I have done a fair amount of layout scribing (the HORROR) with them and they have been knocked around unintentionally. All in all, not so delicate, and the human eye does like the analog quality. I also own 6" Starrett 120 calipers for Sunday best. I use those mostly for engineering/metrology tasks, not making parts. I have been pondering what digital calipers to buy, so as to get the instant conversion capability, but haven't made that decision yet. Probably will be a couple more years....
I agree with Ewlsey that digitals these days are tough, and they are aimed at production shop environments, but after the initial introduction way back then, I decided that I preferred the transparency of operation of good dial calipers. Vernier is also good, at least on larger instruments like height gage and my Kanon 24" calipers.
 
I was curious if anyone used verniers. I assumed some must as they're still sold and not cheap.
You came to the wrong place for an unbiased opinion on that. Verniers are great. Faster, lighter, get into more places, bulletproof. But you need good eyes.

Lots of us are old :(

I'm surprised I'm the only one who likes Etalon. It's the best. Hmmm.
 








 
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