How many of you still use these?

[Harry Knutz]

I was going through all of my measuring devices yesterday and dusted off these old relics. Out of the 3, 2 of them are Swiss made, One is a "Swiss Lufkin, The other is made by "Roch" in Switzerland and the 3rd one is made of the finest grade of "Chinesium" and branded "SME"

I measured with all of them and then checked against a "Mitutoyo" Dial caliper and found them to be quite accurate even the Chinese one is quite accurate and the construction of it feels and looks pretty well made.

The Lufkin still had the plastic wrapper around it and is in a nice wooden case but the foam inside of it had turned to dust.

My conclusion is that these are very accurate measuring devices and if you looked closely you could most likely measure to a half thou with these.

I am going to start using one of these just to stay in practice with using them.

 

[Winegrower]

I have a selection, like you I checked for accuracy and was quite impressed. A thousandth is very easy to resolve.

 

[Alcap]

I use the Mitutoyo 6” . It was the first measuring type tool i bought in my early teens

 

[benmychree]

I bought a Starrett 12" vernier caliper with a 50 division vernier back in the 1960s, and have used it quite a lot, but not so much after retirement, Also bought a 12" Starrett height gage about the same time, still use it, more frequently that the caliper, for layout work. Generally I use the dial caliper, but not for precision measurements.

 

[RJSakowski]

I have several. A six and eight inch German made and a 24" Starrett that I picked up for $25. I cut my teeth on precision measuring with a vernier caliper. IMO, .0005" with a vernier is wishful thinking. Measuring .001" with one is possible but one has to be extremely careful to avoid parallax and good at evaluating the centering of the two lines.

My go-to is the digital caliper because of less chance of operator error and the ability to zero the caliper at any position. My preference in using a caliper is to read while on the measured work as the act of removing the caliper is likely to change the position of the movable jaw, creating an error in measurement. When measuring a diameter of work in the lathe, it is difficult enough to read a digital display while maintaining proper contact with the work. It would be much more difficult to do so with a vernier. I know that I can lock the jaw but doing so while while maintaining proper contact is difficult. I have couple of dial calipers; my first was a Craftsman, purchased a half century ago, and a B & S. I don't use them very often.

I still use my vernier micrometers. The ability to lock the spindle so I can remove the micrometer for proper viewing eliminates the issue with the caliper. My digital micrometer has the annoying property of resetting the zero every time I power it up so it mostly sits idle.

 

[Harry Knutz]

Yes my Height gauge is also vernier type.

I bought a Starrett 12" vernier caliper with a 50 division vernier back in the 1960s, and have used it quite a lot, but not so much after retirement, Also bought a 12" Starrett height gage about the same time, still use it, more frequently that the caliper, for layout work. Generally I use the dial caliper, but not for precision measurements.

 

[Harry Knutz]

I have several. A six and eight inch German made and a 24" Starrett that I picked up for $25. I cut my teeth on precision measuring with a vernier caliper. IMO, .0005" with a vernier is wishful thinking. Measuring .001" with one is possible but one has to be extremely careful to avoid parallax and good at evaluating the centering of the two lines.

My go-to is the digital caliper because of less chance of operator error and the ability to zero the caliper at any position. My preference in using a caliper is to read while on the measured work as the act of removing the caliper is likely to change the position of the movable jaw, creating an error in measurement. When measuring a diameter of work in the lathe, it is difficult enough to read a digital display while maintaining proper contact with the work. It would be much more difficult to do so with a vernier. I know that I can lock the jaw but doing so while while maintaining proper contact is difficult. I have couple of dial calipers; my first was a Craftsman, purchased a half century ago, and a B & S. I don't use them very often.

I still use my vernier micrometers. The ability to lock the spindle so I can remove the micrometer for proper viewing eliminates the issue with the caliper. My digital micrometer has the annoying property of resetting the zero every time I power it up so it mostly sits idle.

I mostly use digital calipers and mics, But I found these old tools interesting in how accurate they were, half thou may be just wishful thinking, But I think you could get pretty close, Especially with the higher quality ones, But on a hobby part I think these old verniers are quite accurate and it is fun to dust them off and use them just for using them's sake if nothing else. Things have sure gotten so much more advanced haven't they?

 

[RJSakowski]

The vernier calipers are nice for wet. dirty, or greasy envitonments. They're pretty much bulletproof.

 

[benmychree]

I have several. A six and eight inch German made and a 24" Starrett that I picked up for $25. I cut my teeth on precision measuring with a vernier caliper. IMO, .0005" with a vernier is wishful thinking. Measuring .001" with one is possible but one has to be extremely careful to avoid parallax and good at evaluating the centering of the two lines.

My go-to is the digital caliper because of less chance of operator error and the ability to zero the caliper at any position. My preference in using a caliper is to read while on the measured work as the act of removing the caliper is likely to change the position of the movable jaw, creating an error in measurement. When measuring a diameter of work in the lathe, it is difficult enough to read a digital display while maintaining proper contact with the work. It would be much more difficult to do so with a vernier. I know that I can lock the jaw but doing so while while maintaining proper contact is difficult. I have couple of dial calipers; my first was a Craftsman, purchased a half century ago, and a B & S. I don't use them very often.

I still use my vernier micrometers. The ability to lock the spindle so I can remove the micrometer for proper viewing eliminates the issue with the caliper. My digital micrometer has the annoying property of resetting the zero every time I power it up so it mostly sits idle.

I agree with all that you said, I use micrometers for nearly all measuring, other than a steel rule. The dial caliper is good for measuring non critical work, I do not like digital calipers as they tend to hunt, that is they flicker from one digit to another.

 

[GeneT45]

I have a set, but rarely use them anymore because I need an optivisor or at least more magnification than my readers to read them. Dials are still easy to read. All but one of my mics are vernier, but I recently picked up a digital 1" (Mitty) and wish I had done so a long time ago...

GsT