Forum menu
My 12 year old Starrett 6″ digital calipers have just been replaced by the calibration department at work with a set of Mitutoyos, and having never considered the cost of them this thread has made me have a look…..they ain’t cheap are they 😳
I was wondering what sort of accuracy does your company replace at? My ones (£25, v. similar to what OP just bought) are rated to +-0.03mm and Ive tested them and found that to be the case, although it definitely errs on the + side. What sort of accuracy are your company expecting from them to make it worth the extra few hundred £s?
The stuff we measure ranges from +/- a few tenths to +/- a couple of thou* (aeroderivative gas turbines). I think that they pay for Mitutoyo because they are reliably accurate and precise. I’ve never used any other brand but I believe they feel rough in use which is gonna give you less precision. I’m not sure at what point they get binned, but I imagine the tolerance is low.
* I would only use the digital calipers for anything at the very top of this range and would always prefer to use a micrometer.
I’ve had a couple of sets of cheap ones from Aldi/Lidl, and the battery has seemed to play up after a while, although tbh I don’t use them very often.
I’ve got a Workzone one from Aldi at the moment, it’s a 150mm scale one, and I’ve taken the battery out until I need to use it, seems to keep it working when I need it.
It took me a good decade to kill some mitutoyo digital jobs I acquired in one of my first jobs, after that it was cheapo digital jobs that typically die within 24 months but only cost a fiver. I wouldn't rely on any of them for more than 0.1mm accuracy however many DP the display has.
Dial gauge mechanical jobbies make sense if you don't want to rely on something that eats batteries. But I do like the convenience of just reading some numbers on a screen rather than reading off one scale and then checking a dial... My time is THAT precious, honest 😉
i don't leave the battery in... it takes about 10s to put it in about once every 2 months when i need them.
Manual ones measure to 0.02mm and digital 0.01mm. How accurate does one need to measure bolts, which are likely made to far slacker tolerances than Vernier Calipers measure?
Manual ones are also waterproof, so thats what lives in my toolbox. Anything which needs to be measured accurately needs a different tool IMO. If I want to measure the diameter or bore of something, bore gauges/micrometers.