- Joined
- May 27, 2016
- Messages
- 3,469
OK - so you tried eBay and checked the "Free Postage" box. Setting aside the pisspoor keyword search algorithm, you see wall-to-wall digital calipers at prices that seem unbelievable.
You wonder how, at the price, such stuff can even be transported from Hong Kong or Shenzhen, and over the lands to end up at "Chez Machinist" via the minimum wage gig-economy distribution system. Yeah - it was made by some robot .. maybe?
This is not exclusively about measuring kit. Have you ever bought a cheap import and found it to "pretty good", and therefore great value for money?
I bought a digital caliper, allegedly "Silverline", but unbranded on the actual item, for all of about £11 ($14.40). It has done about 8 or 9 actual measurements in it's life. Time to see how good it really is! The Bowers Metrology gauge blocks are borrowed. Strange custom values, apparently unused, wring-able, Grade 1.
The Silverline reads anywhere from 12.46mm to 12.48mm. There are (few) times it reads 12.49mm.
The 0.04mm, (0.00157") error is just unacceptable. For me, if something "fits" without wobbling or sticking, then it is usually good enough, but even I am disappointed to be living with 16 tenths adrift!
Then there is the budget "Powerfix Profi+" from the "Toolzone" centre section of the Aldi discount (mainly food) store for £9.50 ($14.44). If it is to be stashed for more than a couple of weeks, I have to take the battery out. Even when I get the zero setting to be nicely repeatable, I can't do anything about what it thinks 12.5mm (0.49212 inch) is.
The Mitutoyo Dial Caliper was a pre-loved from a eBay auction, scored for £13.50 + about £3 postage. A bargain I think, because you just clamp it on, and it just works! No batteries is an advantage. I don't have a Starret, nor Brown & Sharpe, nor any other high end stuff, but I guess they would perform much the same as the Japanese kit. This is now the working caliper of choice. I would like the same in metric.
For the reference..
Maybe also a picture of the gauge block stuff
My 2-piece MT3 reamer kit has arrived. £12.96 it was! Wow! Any good? We shall see soon enough.
Here --> LINK
I don't really want to be bottom-of-the-barrel cheapskate all the time when it comes to tools, but I still can't feel OK to spend more than double the cost of the (admittedly bargain) SB-9C on a Starret or Mitutoyo!
You wonder how, at the price, such stuff can even be transported from Hong Kong or Shenzhen, and over the lands to end up at "Chez Machinist" via the minimum wage gig-economy distribution system. Yeah - it was made by some robot .. maybe?
This is not exclusively about measuring kit. Have you ever bought a cheap import and found it to "pretty good", and therefore great value for money?
I bought a digital caliper, allegedly "Silverline", but unbranded on the actual item, for all of about £11 ($14.40). It has done about 8 or 9 actual measurements in it's life. Time to see how good it really is! The Bowers Metrology gauge blocks are borrowed. Strange custom values, apparently unused, wring-able, Grade 1.
The Silverline reads anywhere from 12.46mm to 12.48mm. There are (few) times it reads 12.49mm.
The 0.04mm, (0.00157") error is just unacceptable. For me, if something "fits" without wobbling or sticking, then it is usually good enough, but even I am disappointed to be living with 16 tenths adrift!
Then there is the budget "Powerfix Profi+" from the "Toolzone" centre section of the Aldi discount (mainly food) store for £9.50 ($14.44). If it is to be stashed for more than a couple of weeks, I have to take the battery out. Even when I get the zero setting to be nicely repeatable, I can't do anything about what it thinks 12.5mm (0.49212 inch) is.
The Mitutoyo Dial Caliper was a pre-loved from a eBay auction, scored for £13.50 + about £3 postage. A bargain I think, because you just clamp it on, and it just works! No batteries is an advantage. I don't have a Starret, nor Brown & Sharpe, nor any other high end stuff, but I guess they would perform much the same as the Japanese kit. This is now the working caliper of choice. I would like the same in metric.
For the reference..
Maybe also a picture of the gauge block stuff
My 2-piece MT3 reamer kit has arrived. £12.96 it was! Wow! Any good? We shall see soon enough.
Here --> LINK
I don't really want to be bottom-of-the-barrel cheapskate all the time when it comes to tools, but I still can't feel OK to spend more than double the cost of the (admittedly bargain) SB-9C on a Starret or Mitutoyo!