WANTED: Decent, affordable calipers

rpseguin · Jul 9, 2020

I'm looking for some good quality, affordable 6" or 8" dial calipers for my kids, or maybe calipers for me and then hand down my current calipers.

Any suggestions?
Under $50?
Anything much more is kind of the threshold of biting the bullet and just getting good, new Mitutoyo or other quality calipers.

I did a search on Mitutoyo on shitebay and this is one of the first/sponsored results and it sure seems like they must be fake:

Absolutely True Mitutoyo 500-196-20 150mm/6" Digital Digimatic Vernier Caliper 6607510361719 | eBay

The title itself is a tell: "Absolutely True Mitutoyo"

I think they maybe took a picture of a real Mitutoyo and have that as one image, but you can see the other images are a bit different.

rpseguin · Jul 9, 2020

I forgot to mention that I prefer .100" per rev if a dial.

Ianagos · Jul 9, 2020

Real mitutoyos are $99 on amazon. Otherwise just get the 10$ one from harbor freight they work.

rpseguin · Jul 9, 2020

Ianagos said:
Real mitutoyos are $99 on amazon. Otherwise just get the 10$ one from harbor freight they work.

$10?!??
I love how smooth Mitutoyos are, but dang!

kenscabs · Jul 10, 2020

PM sent about Mit.

Ianagos · Jul 10, 2020

rpseguin said:
$10?!??
I love how smooth Mitutoyos are, but dang!

Yea gotta get the black plastic one with silver frame they have coupons for $10 often. The others eat the batteries.

6 in. Digital Caliper

The grey plastic frame one is garbage don’t waste your time

Also the newer mitutoyos I have are not nearly as nice and smooth as my old ones. They are smoother than the harbor freight ones though.

michiganbuck · Jul 10, 2020

Amazon.com: Neiko 01407A Electronic Digital Caliper Stainless Steel Body with Large LCD Screen | 0 - 6 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion,Silver/Black: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: General Tools 147 Digital Fractional Caliper with Extra-Large LCD Screen, 3 Mode Display, 6-Inches: Home Improvement

8"
Amazon.com: Neiko 01408A Electronic Digital Caliper with Extra Large LCD Screen | 0 - 8 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion: Home Improvement

gustafson · Jul 10, 2020

Brown & Sharpe 599-579-5 Dial Caliper, Stainless Steel, Black Face, 0-6" Range, +/-0.001" Accuracy, 0.001" Resolution, Meets DIN 862 Specifications: Browne And Sharp Caliper: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

these are the calipers I buy

I buy the cheap ones for the 'help' and these for me.

Look. they will, with luck, last you years, initial investment is only one piece of thepuzzle

B&S/Etalon do not skip. Do not get backlash.
Eventually you will wear or burr the tips and either get new ones or[back intheday] get them redone

yeah, buck and a quarter is more than you wanted to spend, but they will last longer thant he 50 buck ones, and you will appreciate them every single time you use them

Ianagos · Jul 10, 2020

michiganbuck said:
Amazon.com: Neiko 01407A Electronic Digital Caliper Stainless Steel Body with Large LCD Screen | 0 - 6 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion,Silver/Black: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: General Tools 147 Digital Fractional Caliper with Extra-Large LCD Screen, 3 Mode Display, 6-Inches: Home Improvement

8"
Amazon.com: Neiko 01408A Electronic Digital Caliper with Extra Large LCD Screen | 0 - 8 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion: Home Improvement

Those neiko look just like the harbor freight. I’d bet they are the same or very similar.

rustytool · Jul 10, 2020

I have a pair of these and love them.
Especially for woodworking.6 In. Plastic Dial Caliper, Single Revolution - PRECISION MEASURING & MARKING - Hand Tools | General Tools & Instruments

michiganbuck · Jul 10, 2020

Ianagos said:
Those neiko look just like the harbor freight. I’d bet they are the same or very similar.

agree and for kids a 35-$50 set should be good.

rpseguin · Jul 10, 2020

So, I was near a Harbor Freight this afternoon and I found a $9.99 coupon, so I stopped and picked up a couple.
I haven’t had much time to look them over yet.
They seem ok at first glance.
-bad: Certainly some roughness in sliding compared to my Mitutoyos.
-good: they do seem to repeat at 0 reliably (so far).
-good: I couldn’t see any light shining between the faces when closed

I tried the fractional version they had at the store, but they felt even more rough and did not repeat reliably at 0, so that’s an immediate disqualification.

rpseguin · Jul 10, 2020

I used to trust Amazon ratings, taken with adequate grains of salt, but now they’re even more suspect.
When I bought some items for my kids, inside the package was an offer for a $20 credit if I gave a 5 star review. This is both a scam (no way they’ll give you that money), and a scam of buying reviews.

If there’s a significant number of reviews, the average rating seems more trustworthy.

I read 1 star and 2 star reviews and look for people that know what they are talking about and I ignore the whiners who aren't giving any useful info.

EmGo · Jul 10, 2020

rpseguin said:
-good: I couldn’t see any light shining between the faces when closed

Then your eyes are bad, calipers don't measure in angstroms

Even my Etalons let light pass through, if you held them correctly ....

I grabbed a pair of harbor freighters for the boat, for kids who may or may not take an interest, ten bucks sounds fine.

Ianagos · Jul 11, 2020

rpseguin said:
I used to trust Amazon ratings, taken with adequate grains of salt, but now they’re even more suspect.
When I bought some items for my kids, inside the package was an offer for a $20 credit if I gave a 5 star review. This is both a scam (no way they’ll give you that money), and a scam of buying reviews.

If there’s a significant number of reviews, the average rating seems more trustworthy.

I read 1 star and 2 star reviews and look for people that know what they are talking about and ignore whiners.

My brother used to get items free for reviews. He got a couple thousand dollars worth of random stuff for free about 50% of it was good but just random stuff like phone chargers and brooms (I still have the broom and dustpan set in my kitchen) etc. Then amazon blocked him from writing reviews. But it is real.

Like I said the fractional (grey plastic ones are garbage) only the black plastic ones are worth it.

rpseguin · Jul 11, 2020

michiganbuck said:
Amazon.com: Neiko 01407A Electronic Digital Caliper Stainless Steel Body with Large LCD Screen | 0 - 6 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion,Silver/Black: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: General Tools 147 Digital Fractional Caliper with Extra-Large LCD Screen, 3 Mode Display, 6-Inches: Home Improvement

8"
Amazon.com: Neiko 01408A Electronic Digital Caliper with Extra Large LCD Screen | 0 - 8 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion: Home Improvement

Thanks!
Yeah, I was looking at those as well. I read the 1 star and 2 star reviews from people that obviously knew more than the bulk of the reviewers.

One wonders how much variation there is from production run to production run too.

rpseguin · Jul 11, 2020

gustafson said:
Brown & Sharpe 599-579-5 Dial Caliper, Stainless Steel, Black Face, 0-6" Range, +/-0.001" Accuracy, 0.001" Resolution, Meets DIN 862 Specifications: Browne And Sharp Caliper: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

these are the calipers I buy

I buy the cheap ones for the 'help' and these for me.

Look. they will, with luck, last you years, initial investment is only one piece of thepuzzle

B&S/Etalon do not skip. Do not get backlash.
Eventually you will wear or burr the tips and either get new ones or[back intheday] get them redone

yeah, buck and a quarter is more than you wanted to spend, but they will last longer thant he 50 buck ones, and you will appreciate them every single time you use them

Thanks!
Yeah. I agree that buying a good set will be good since it will last and be more pleasant to use.
Carbide faces seems like a good idea for durability, but wow it jacks the price way up!

rpseguin · Jul 11, 2020

I was close to the Harbor Freight, because I was doing an important thing for my garage shop floorspace: getting front load washer and dryer off Craigslist so I can stack them and get a bit more floorspace.

What I really need is a Tardis... :-)

The new washer and dryer are both newer and nicer than the old set.
I suppose I just spent some of my caliper money doing that :-)

rpseguin · Jul 11, 2020

I think that Amazon and other online systems that have user supplied reviews should formalize it a little more to make people's reviews more useful and informative.
There are so many useless reviews that say that they "got the item", or are vague/meaningless/obsequious/...

The reviewing system could guide the review a bit and this could also add weighting

Is this your first time using an X?
How many years of experience do you have using an X?
How long have you been using your X?
How many times per week do you use your X?
Has X ever failed? How? How often?
What things would you change about X to make it better?
What are some of the best features of X?
What are the flaws with X?
...

James H Clark · Jul 16, 2020

Victor tools has Kanon 8" dial calipers for $39.90 (.200") per rev. They also have 8" with .100 per rev, but they cost $84,50. Kanon are pretty good Japanese tools. I have a 6" model that I have used for almost 50 years.

JH

WANTED: Decent, affordable calipers

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