Digital mic turns on but doesn't measure

I'm not sure if this belongs in this area, but it is related to measuring so here goes. I have a mitutoyo digital 2" micrometer that is having some issues. A friend gave it to me because he said it was dead. So I get this thing and first try a fresh battery....nothing. So I rip in to it and notice that the things is just swimming in some kind of light oil. So I clean that all up and out and it turns on. I zero it out and now the number stays at 1.00000 and only flickers to 0.99995. Now I'm lost and don't know where to go. Is this item dead or is it something that can be easily fixed? I run in to this fairly often and if I could find an easy fix I could save myself and some of the other guys some headaches. Thanks for any input.


PS If this gets moved to the general section I'm ok with that and promise not to throw a fit

Sounds like the contacts are messed up. You could send it in for repair but it may be just better to replace it.

Mark

Alex,
I have repaired a couple of these but it's hard to say if your issue is the same. Lay out a clean white rag as a work surface (makes little flying parts easier to find) and remove the 4 screws from the face. If your mic has a hold button to the right of the face a tiny brass contact will want to fall out when the face is removed. Make a note as to how it is positioned. Depending on the age of your mic the ribbon cable may be able to be removed from the socket allowing you to remove the face. Just inside the cavity next to the spindle there are 2 phenolic discs which are the rotary (encoders?) or pickups. Wen you turn the thimble one should spin with it. The discs should be touching. Sometimes the set screw comes loose on one but usually this condition just causes erroneous readings, the other thing I have seen is that the disc has come loose completely from its arbor. I just cleaned the parts with alcohol and a drop of super glue fixed it. It takes a pretty hard drop to get these mics to fail like this, spring pressure keeps the discs together. Check the anvil alignment and recalibrate it to complete the repair. -Mike