- Joined
- Jan 3, 2015
- Messages
- 400
A while ago, I saw the calipers that display in decimal inches, metric, and fractions on sale at Rockler's and bought one. They're on the top in this picture.
As you can see, they're labeled General, a long established tool importer and seller. You can also see the main feature for these: they read out in fractions of an inch, down to 1/64. 1/64 is a bit critical for most woodworking, but they work just fine in the metal shop. Except for the fact that they're made of a plastic or glass-filled plastic and are therefore not as hard (in the scratch or dent resistant sense) as steel calipers would be. They also read out in decimal inches or decimal millimeters at the touch of a button.
Yeah, I have fraction-to-decimal charts around, and yeah, I have memorized lots of fractions in decimal format, but it's really convenient for things that aren't close to a multiple of 1/8, or a few others that are lodged in my brain. Plus, it's nice to measure something and know that if I measure .143, which isn't something I know by memory, it's "close enough" to 9/64. They're handy.
Unfortunately, they also act weird sometimes. They reset too often and that includes resetting zero or mode.
Enter the calipers on the bottom. Little Machine Shop carries these; they're stainless, and just look a lot better. LMS listed them as a weekly special about a year ago, and I grabbed this one. Plus, I had been hoping the weird resetting was some sort of electrical interference problem and that more metal on the back of the electronics might help.
Suffice it to say that was as good as burning the money. They reset constantly. I'll very carefully open them to measure something, just to find that as I'm getting close to the dimensions, it resets, goes to zero in mm mode. Fresh batteries don't help. Sometimes it seems like any pressure on the plastic body makes them reset. I just tilted my pair to look at them and the display is flashing 0.00mm 2 or 3 times a second.
I don't know, maybe there are good products out there, but I stopped leaving these in the shop and just keep them here by my computer where I can almost use them as ruler. The most casual use. But I doubt there are good ones. My guess is there is one maker of the the chips for these over in China.com and they're all the same.
If you know of good ones, I'm all ears. Otherwise, just a friendly warning to my fellow HMF members. Don't buy these unless you have infinite patience.
As you can see, they're labeled General, a long established tool importer and seller. You can also see the main feature for these: they read out in fractions of an inch, down to 1/64. 1/64 is a bit critical for most woodworking, but they work just fine in the metal shop. Except for the fact that they're made of a plastic or glass-filled plastic and are therefore not as hard (in the scratch or dent resistant sense) as steel calipers would be. They also read out in decimal inches or decimal millimeters at the touch of a button.
Yeah, I have fraction-to-decimal charts around, and yeah, I have memorized lots of fractions in decimal format, but it's really convenient for things that aren't close to a multiple of 1/8, or a few others that are lodged in my brain. Plus, it's nice to measure something and know that if I measure .143, which isn't something I know by memory, it's "close enough" to 9/64. They're handy.
Unfortunately, they also act weird sometimes. They reset too often and that includes resetting zero or mode.
Enter the calipers on the bottom. Little Machine Shop carries these; they're stainless, and just look a lot better. LMS listed them as a weekly special about a year ago, and I grabbed this one. Plus, I had been hoping the weird resetting was some sort of electrical interference problem and that more metal on the back of the electronics might help.
Suffice it to say that was as good as burning the money. They reset constantly. I'll very carefully open them to measure something, just to find that as I'm getting close to the dimensions, it resets, goes to zero in mm mode. Fresh batteries don't help. Sometimes it seems like any pressure on the plastic body makes them reset. I just tilted my pair to look at them and the display is flashing 0.00mm 2 or 3 times a second.
I don't know, maybe there are good products out there, but I stopped leaving these in the shop and just keep them here by my computer where I can almost use them as ruler. The most casual use. But I doubt there are good ones. My guess is there is one maker of the the chips for these over in China.com and they're all the same.
If you know of good ones, I'm all ears. Otherwise, just a friendly warning to my fellow HMF members. Don't buy these unless you have infinite patience.