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Wich micrometers to buy

brane

Plastic
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Im thinking of buying new set of micrometer range 0-150 mm resolution 0.01mm. Im was looking at Starrett but they are expensive, Mitutoyo if much more affordable but their 103 series that i look at seems similar to the ones made in china ( Insize to be precise ). Any advices what to buy. I live in europe
 
Honestly, these days I would buy some 'decent' china/off-brand/no names. :o I know that sounds crappy, but brand name mics are sooo expensive, and rarely (IMO) outperform off brand/cheaper stuff...

I have a set of 0-6" Mitutoyo (what a name to spell!!) I picked up at a flea market for $50 years ago, carbide faces, tenths, made in Japan. BUT no way in hell I would pay retail for them! Just got lucky. :)
 
I have a 0.001 mm mic in mitutoyo ( made in japan ) i like it and several others in imperial, some in moore and wright a older brand but good micrometers are expensive but over time if you look after them well they last a long time too.

Starret or mituotyo are good and at least you can sell them later if need be but chinese knockoffs or chinese made i doubt will have any resale value to them.

So go for the brands with a good record of quality.
 
I like the Japanese NSK brand have several 0-6 " sets .0001 reading. Very good quailty and a bit cheaper than the big names. Light or home shop use the Chinese I've had were quite good.
 
I prefer the Mitutoyo to Starrett.

Haven't looked recently, but a decade plus ago the Chinese were making Mitutoyo-look-alikes but of noticeably lower quality. One giveaway is that a 0-1" Mitutoyo would close firmly to zero, while the clone was sort of squishy upon closing. Among the things that can cause that are out-of-parallel anvils and a bit of slop in the thread.

My own work has me using a 0-1" mic a lot, the 2" less, and so on as size increases. So, I'm happy to splurge on a 0-1" (or 0-25mm) mic. The Etalon Micro-Rapid is a wonderful mic, now only available in metric. Might not make economic sense to own a full 0-150mm set, but a 0-25mm could make sense. Alternately if you occasionally need inch measurements, Mitutoyo still seems to make the best mm/inch digital mics.
 
Mitutoyo has an economy line that’s made in Brazil. The economy line has all the same part numbers vey with an ‘E’ on the end, the blue colour is also slightly off from the standard range. The decent mitutoyo stuff is made in Japan, as far as I know they only ever make in those two countries.
 
Mitutoyo has an economy line that’s made in Brazil. The economy line has all the same part numbers vey with an ‘E’ on the end, the blue colour is also slightly off from the standard range. The decent mitutoyo stuff is made in Japan, as far as I know they only ever make in those two countries.

My Mitutoyo 24" height gauge was made in China. It is probably 15 yr. old.
 
Im thinking of buying new set of micrometer range 0-150 mm resolution 0.01mm. Im was looking at Starrett but they are expensive, Mitutoyo if much more affordable but their 103 series that i look at seems similar to the ones made in china ( Insize to be precise ). Any advices what to buy. I live in europe

As it'd be for hobby work buy inexpensive to cover 0 - 150mm.

What do you intend using them for? My way of asking "What's your hobby?"
 
I have a set of 0-6" Mitutoyo (what a name to spell!!) I picked up at a flea market for $50 years ago, carbide faces, tenths, made in Japan. BUT no way in hell I would pay retail for them! Just got lucky. :)

Non-digital ones are reasonably affordable. 1-4" set is about 200 euros/usd locally in here from Mitutoyo dealer.
Digital Quantu-mikes/speedmikes and 0.1um high resolution model are the ones that make deep dent in your pocket.. (400 to 1500 eur/usd per piece)
 
As it'd be for hobby work buy inexpensive to cover 0 - 150mm.

What do you intend using them for? My way of asking "What's your hobby?"

My "hobby" is part time machinig all sorts of random jobs i can find and i want something that will last me for a while and is accurate and repeatable. I had Insize and some other chinese brands and didnt had much luck with them. I looked at some used ones and most of them need tlc or dont work at all and their price is too high for what they give.

EDIT: Digital micrometers are nice but they are not worth it to me because i dont need 0.001 resolutin or qiuck reading, and will spend a lot of time on the shelf since I only do this part time for now
 
Do you really mean .001? If so why even use a micrometer?


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I said at the in the first post im in europe and i need 0-150 mm micrometers so why would i use inch
 
Give me a break, I didn’t catch the mm part :)

Too good to miss out on :) :cheers:

"At this time, only three countries—Burma, Liberia, and the US—have not adopted the International System of Units (SI, or metric system) as their official system of weights and measures."

Not to worry though, the US is going metric - INCH BY INCH.
 
My Mitutoyo 24" height gauge was made in China. It is probably 15 yr. old.

I stand corrected, after some googling I found out that mitutoyo do manufacture some less accurate lines in China to enable them to be competitive with Starrett who also manufacture in China.
 








 
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