Which Dial Caliper?

For 10yrs I had a cheap HF dial caliper in my field box and it always worked flawlessly. When I started machining at home it was the rough in tool. But when I double checked with my Starrett and Etalon mics it was so close it was hard to believe. It took a really hard spill and got rough so I bought a new Mitutoyo and only had it less than a month when it got knocked off the bench and was toast. I ended up getting one of these two dial inch/mm cheapo’s for $30 and it’s been great. I‘m not wasting my $$ anymore on high $$ everyday calipers that are just rough in. YYMV
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Back when I was a youngun and could see better, my favorite caliper was a Mitutoyo vernier with fine adjust. I liked it because when this caliper registers solidly with the fine adjust, you know it; the caliper body is dead-on perpendicular to the work piece and that makes it very accurate. I liked it so much that when I found a similar Helios in mint condition I bought it and gave the Mit to my son. These old calipers only read in the thousandths and are cumbersome to read but they are very, very fine tools. Ask any old hand and they'll tell you the same thing.
 
mikey said:
These old calipers only read in the thousandths and are cumbersome to read but they are very, very fine tools. Ask any old hand and they'll tell you the same thing.
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Funny you should ask Mike . These vernier calipers were all upwards of $150 yesterday at the Expo while the digitals and dials were not even close to $100 .
 
Me either . Nice , heavy , feel good in the hand tools . And they do have a plus . When we mess up , we can just blame it on our worsening eyesight ...........................management can't argue that . :big grin:
 
I have a Starrett electronic and a Starrett dial caliper, I like the dial best because the figures do not "hunt" back and forth and every time I use the electronic the battery goes dead, I finally took to sliding the battery cover back to disconnect the battery.
 
As a rule, I consider a caliper, even a dial caliper, as a step below a micrometer for accuracy. They are simply a roughing tool to me. I keep several, the most expensive costing less than $30, used. Were I to set up a working shop and needed measuring tools to start, I probably would make a collective purchase of Mitutoyo or Starrett. As it stands, I have collected bits and pieces over the years as needed. Most of my "serious" measuring tools are Brown & Sharpes just because I like the sound of the name. There are several micrometers, outside and depth. For inside work, I use standards or other "git-bys". The calipers are used for roughing work, falling back to a mic for the finish work. Cheap calipers work fine for that.

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Thanks everyone for the helpful input. I decided to go with the Mitutoyo 505-742 Best price, believe it or not, is from McMaster Carr, where I bought the Starrett from years ago. I agree that calipers are not for super precise work but they are fine for 80% of what I do.
 
mmcmdl said:
These vernier calipers were all upwards of $150 yesterday at the Expo
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Really? I have a few of em, I thought they were not worth much these days!
 
Eddyde said:
Really? I have a few of em, I thought they were not worth much these days!
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Oh , no . The beam verniers are the hot ticket these days . 12" and up are worth the big bucks ! :encourage: All the troubles with the dials and batteries and crap are gone . The verniers are always as accurate as the users' eyes .
 
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