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- Sep 8, 2019
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I have six Shars digital electronic outside micrometers that I bought new. They all behave the same: it seems that they cannot hold a zero.
The resolution is to .00005”, but I am never concerned about the hundred thousandths place, which in this case is always either a 0 or 5. I only want the micrometer to hold a zero in the .001 or .0001 position, and I wouldn’t even mind if there was up to .0005” variation. For the price I paid for these, I wouldn’t expect them to hold a zero with a .0001” variation.
Being as careful as I can be with regard to cleaning the anvils and always ratcheting the same number of clicks (two clicks), it will get me back to the same thousandths position about 50% of the time.
With regard to tenths, it is just all over the place. You’re not using this micrometer to measure any tenths, which makes me wonder why it has the resolution that it does.
I had earlier posted a variation of this same question, and temperature was mentioned. The behavior that I mention in this post is in the same location (standing in one place) over a few minutes, so I don’t think temperature would be the reason for the inconsistency.
I think that the best that these micrometers would ever be able to do is get me to within a thou, and if anybody has any tips on how I could do that with these cheap micrometers, I would be interested to hear it.
I have about a dozen Starrett ratcheting analog (436 series) micrometers, and they have never exhibited this problem. They always return to zero as one would expect.
I think that the explanation for this inconsistency relates to the level of quality and workmanship of the tool, but I hope that I am missing something because I invested several hundred dollars in these.
The resolution is to .00005”, but I am never concerned about the hundred thousandths place, which in this case is always either a 0 or 5. I only want the micrometer to hold a zero in the .001 or .0001 position, and I wouldn’t even mind if there was up to .0005” variation. For the price I paid for these, I wouldn’t expect them to hold a zero with a .0001” variation.
Being as careful as I can be with regard to cleaning the anvils and always ratcheting the same number of clicks (two clicks), it will get me back to the same thousandths position about 50% of the time.
With regard to tenths, it is just all over the place. You’re not using this micrometer to measure any tenths, which makes me wonder why it has the resolution that it does.
I had earlier posted a variation of this same question, and temperature was mentioned. The behavior that I mention in this post is in the same location (standing in one place) over a few minutes, so I don’t think temperature would be the reason for the inconsistency.
I think that the best that these micrometers would ever be able to do is get me to within a thou, and if anybody has any tips on how I could do that with these cheap micrometers, I would be interested to hear it.
I have about a dozen Starrett ratcheting analog (436 series) micrometers, and they have never exhibited this problem. They always return to zero as one would expect.
I think that the explanation for this inconsistency relates to the level of quality and workmanship of the tool, but I hope that I am missing something because I invested several hundred dollars in these.
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