What's new
What's new

FS - Mitutoyo Digimatic Caliper

Marty Feldman

Titanium
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Location
Falmouth, Maine
6", mm/inch,perfectly readable display, virtually new and in excellent original condition.
$65 and I pay the shipping to US address. Personal check from established PM member, or postal MO. No paypal.

I bought this a couple of weeks ago and used it only a handful of times. Don't care for it and was not able to get used to it. For me, the 4 buttons for controlling functions are too damn small, and the switching between metric & inch is, for me, more an annoyance than a useful feature.

MitCal_a.jpg

MtCal_b.jpg

MitCal_c.jpg

MitCal_d.jpg

-Marty-
 
Marty is like to have these. But I just want to make sure they are real where did you buy them from and when?
 
If you look up "Mitutoyo 500-196-30" on eBay, the cheap, fake one's look different. Marty's look like real ones to me.
 
Sorry to say but I think that's one of the counterfeits. The key point is that the display is missing the tenths digit. Here's a shot of the one on my desk, old enough to be real:

mitutoyo_caliper.jpg

And here's a link to Mitutoyo's image of that model - note the tenth's digit.

https://ecatalog.mitutoyo.com/cmimages/002/259/500-196-30.jpg

Sorry, Marty. On the bright side the counterfeits I've seen work pretty well with the only real downside being that the eat batteries a lot faster than the Mitutoyo with about 1/2 to 1/3 the lifespan. If you only have one and you use it a fair amount that's not too bad.
 
" ...But I just want to make sure they are real where did you buy them from and when? "

bought new several weeks ago, from a US dealer but I honestly can't recall which one and the paperwork was not saved. Cost was in the $100 region. If you have concerns about "real", then my advice is to pass. Following is a pic of some of the paperwork that came with the caliper.
MitCaL_F.jpg




As to the link in the above post (post #4), the image provided (ecatalog.mitutoyo.com...) shows what is stated to be an authentic one, the "key point" being a tenths reading: .6285. The picture below shows mine, after I slid it to .6285. The "5's" in the two images are of different sizes. Don't know if that counts as "counterfeit". Pic of mine follows.
MitCal_e.jpg

-Marty-
 
The little squatty five does not look squatty on my DigiMatics. Of course you could argue mine are counterfeits. It never occurred to me that I should suspect them. Mine are 4", but use the same read head as a 6".
 
Marty I appreciate the time but In my opinion those are fake. I’m no longer interested but thank you.

Everything I have read says the ones with the small 4th decimal place are indeed fake and my real ones don’t have that small decimal either.
 
I have a few slightly older sets of these that came brand new from MSC and none have the smaller last digit. The last digit also does not disappear when the size falls on a whole thousandth - it's always still there, just reads zero. Marty, why don't you just send a pic or two straight to Mitutoyo - they will be the last word on the subject. If they are fakes you should get your money back from the place you bought them.
 
I have a few slightly older sets of these that came brand new from MSC and none have the smaller last digit. The last digit also does not disappear when the size falls on a whole thousandth - it's always still there, just reads zero. Marty, why don't you just send a pic or two straight to Mitutoyo - they will be the last word on the subject. If they are fakes you should get your money back from the place you bought them.

"The last word" would be good to have. I'll send an enquiry to Mitutoyo as you suggest.

I'm not particularly interested in getting my money back, but I am interested in finding out about the authenticity business. You have to admit that if my caliper is fake, it's a good fake.

-Marty-
 
I'm not particularly interested in getting my money back, but I am interested in finding out about the authenticity business. You have to admit that if my caliper is fake, it's a good fake.

I bought one new on eBay knowing it had to be fake - $30 wouldn't get one if Mitutoyo was making them in China unless it was out the side door. Box looked good, all the parts looked good. Battery was alkaline and not silver oxide as specified, that was the first sign. Caliper looked and felt pretty good, maybe even Mitutoyo good, but had the 4 digit defect (it might have the little half thousandth). I didn't check it with gage blocks since I was mostly just curious about it after reading about them. Maybe I should do a write up, check the current draw and post the data.

Back in 1990 I found a illicit copy of my company's software for sale in Hong Kong. $25 complete with installation and manuals. We couldn't even get the manuals printed for $25 and I was tempted to outsource production to the guys making the counterfeit version. Mitotoyo might have a situation similar to that here.

I have a lot of the Mitutoyo calipers. I used to buy broken ones on eBay - ones dropped and jaws ruined, others with missing battery covers/broken displays, etc. I'd get a pile of them and get 6-7 working ones out of 10 broken. The ones with bad displays mostly would clean up by cleaning the zebra stripe, if it was really bad it would get a transplant. Ended up fixing a bunch, gave some away and kept half a dozen so I never have to walk far to find a pair. Only downside of that is that I use a fair number of batteries.
 
I have 3 Mitutoyos with digitals. A 6" caliper, 8" caliper, and a 12" height gage. All have 4 digits after the decimal.

I have a Chinese 24" digital caliper and a Chinese knock-off of a 192 series Mitutoyo height gage, both have the small 4th digit.

Sorry to the OP, I agree that caliper is a counterfeit.
 
I purchased one from Ebay years back and it was counterfeit. The photo shows the fake one on the bottom and the authentic one on top. Aside from the 4 digits after the decimal, the real one has a different lock screw than the counterfeit one and the battery door is different as well.

My humble opinion, the one the OP listed is counterfeit...Sorry.

Mitutoyo Digimatic Calipers.jpg
 
Back in 1990 I found a illicit copy of my company's software for sale in Hong Kong. $25 complete with installation and manuals. We couldn't even get the manuals printed for $25 and I was tempted to outsource production to the guys making the counterfeit version. ....

OK Russ, you just started my day off with a big laugh here. Thank you.
 
I have been on the phone with Mitutoyo USA. I described to tech support several features of what I have. As Russ and several others have warned, my Digimatic caliper is a fakeroo, made in China. Thank you all for tipping me off about this. Much appreciated, honestly.

I withdraw the offer to sell this thing for $65.

-Marty-
 
It's interesting that Travers tool currently has a picture of the 6" caliper with the small "5" in their advertisements and catalogs.

6" Absolute Digimatic Caliper | 57-016-342 | Travers Tool Co., Inc.

Did the wrong caliper get into general distribution?

Good catch - the fourth image shows the correct display, but the "whole" picture does seem wrong. Funny, if it's a copy they got the step in the lock screw correct, most copies don't.
 
I have been on the phone with Mitutoyo USA. I described to tech support several features of what I have. As Russ and several others have warned, my Digimatic caliper is a fakeroo, made in China. Thank you all for tipping me off about this. Much appreciated, honestly.

I withdraw the offer to sell this thing for $65.

-Marty-
I wonder what features the Mitu guy mentioned as being different from the authentic ones. Or he just looked at the picture and said it was a fake.
 
I wonder what features the Mitu guy mentioned as being different from the authentic ones.


Among several varying features (the slidelock screw, the battery cover, the supplied battery itself), the major one is the half-"5" in the tenths place on the fakes. On that basis alone he made the instantaneous judgement of "Chinese copy" for my caliper.

It is perhaps worth keeping in mind that this may not be a 100% reliable differentiator in the future. It seems plausible to me that as the counterfeiters recognize that the word is getting around, the design will mutate, and that what is already an excellent job of counterfeiting will become even more so.

-Marty-
 








 
Back
Top