height gage recommendations

ARC-170, I have two height gauges and a 12"x12" cut marble "surface plate" that serve my purposes well. I have a vernier gauge from Helios that's a work of art, but I can only operate the instrument when I am working alone because the .0001 vernier scale takes concentration to use correctly (ask me how I know). This type of height gauge is very affordable. The other one is a China metric dial-type, with count-up and count-down resettable digits in addition to the big dial. It's convenient and accurate, bulky, and also affordable. Both are 12" in range.

That said, I like the old vernier gauge more. It's simple, stout, and does tenths with repeatable joy. It's just more elegant than the dial gauge, but that's my personal thing. I like paying respect to the old ways. Not everything needs to come with a touch screen and an app to download. If you wanted your students to get involved, maybe teaching them how to read a vernier is useful; maybe it's not and that time could be used someplace else.
 
I bought a 12" brown and Sharpe vernier height gauge on ebay, a bit more than others mention, in the 70.00 range original box and acc's 12" seemed like a good size, but as others have mentioned, it is big and cumbersome.
 
Here's one currently on Ebay for about $105 shipped:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brown-Shar...867393?hash=item521a423f01:g:aHEAAOSwowdcmtva

It has inch and metric, which is nice. Might be a little tall, though; I only have a 12x24 lathe and a smaller mill.

By the way, I read 9.201"/233.46mm, which aren't exactly the same: 9.201"=233.71mm, and 233.46mm=9.191". I suppose I could be reading it wrong, and it's not easy to really see it. I could see maybe reading a few marks in either direction on both scales. Just thought I'd ask what others saw.
ht gage 1.jpg

Most of the other ones currently available on Ebay seem to all be missing the scribe and/or the scribe holder. A scribe is $50!
 
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Searching for Mitutoyo, Brown & Sharpe and Starrett also brought up every off-brand. Many of these are sold by people that have, by their own admission, little or no idea what these are, either. I'm not even sure these will measure accurately, either. I can probably have a colleague check them.
For what most of us do most of the time, the import height gages are probably just fine. My Starrett vernier height gage is probably 70+ years old, and is in like new condition, either very well taken care of, or not used much. I calibrated it myself with my gage blocks, surface plate, and squinting eyes, and it was within a tenth at multiple heights. Good enough for the work I do. I will take the fine old Starrett gage over a more expensive, brand new import gage anytime, even without provenance.
 
By the way, I read 9.201"/233.46mm, which aren't exactly the same: 9.201"=233.71mm, and 233.46mm=9.191". I suppose I could be reading it wrong, and it's not easy to really see it. Just thought I'd ask what others saw.
.010" is a really large discrepancy. Check it again carefully.
 
By the way, I read 9.201"/233.46mm, which aren't exactly the same: 9.201"=233.71mm, and 233.46mm=9.191". I suppose I could be reading it wrong, and it's not easy to really see it. I could see maybe reading a few marks in either direction on both scales. Just thought I'd ask what others saw.

Hard to tell from that pic but yeah it does look off comparing metric to inch. If not out by much it might be possible to calibrate it.

On the Mitu I have now I can unscrew the vernier scales & slightly adjust them as well as the main scale. That one has screws for the vernier scales too, not sure how much wiggle room it has though. I'm not sure if it's actually designed for that but on mine I adjusted the metric scale to line up with 0 on the inch scale. Mine was only off by a couple of thou though.
 
Are those button head screws or pop rivets holding down the vernier scales? Hard to tell from the photo. If button heads, you can calibrate them fairly easily if you have a gage block set or access to one. If pop rivets, heaven forbid, they might be loose enough to gently tap the scales to move them, or carefully drill them out and start over with a better idea. I cannot see Mitutoyo using pop rivets for that application, but perhaps a previous owner did...
 
Are those button head screws or pop rivets holding down the vernier scales? Hard to tell from the photo. If button heads, you can calibrate them fairly easily if you have a gage block set or access to one. If pop rivets, heaven forbid, they might be loose enough to gently tap the scales to move them, or carefully drill them out and start over with a better idea. I cannot see Mitutoyo using pop rivets for that application, but perhaps a previous owner did...

I asked the seller. Stay tuned.
 
Are those button head screws or pop rivets holding down the vernier scales? Hard to tell from the photo. If button heads, you can calibrate them fairly easily if you have a gage block set or access to one. If pop rivets, heaven forbid, they might be loose enough to gently tap the scales to move them, or carefully drill them out and start over with a better idea. I cannot see Mitutoyo using pop rivets for that application, but perhaps a previous owner did...

They are screws. I bought it. When I get it, I'll figure out how to calibrate it. I liked the inch/metric feature.
 
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If you get a tall one it's definitely worth getting a small one also :) the heaviness can be annoying sometimes when working tiny parts.

Stu
 
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