Digital caliper recommendation needed

[LegendRider]

I need a recommendation for high quality digital calipers. I see that Grainger has a set for $8,000, but I was thinking of spending ~$100.

By the way, how accurate of calipers in the $100 range? Or, put another way, what do I need to spend to measure a .003" tolerance?

Thanks in advance.

[SPOKE]

I need a recommendation for high quality digital calipers. I see that Grainger has a set for $8,000, but I was thinking of spending ~$100.

By the way, how accurate of calipers in the $100 range? Or, put another way, what do I need to spend to measure a .003" tolerance?

Thanks in advance.

Go to Harbor Freight Tools and get a pair of six inch "dial" calipers. They probably have some digital ones too. Shouldn't be any more than $100. They will easily measure +/-.003"

[toosahn]

Mitutoyo calipers are quality pieces. You can find Mitutoyo calipers on ebay or craigslist, used, for cheap.

I have a Mitutoyo Absolute Digimatic CD-8 CS. I picked it up for about $75. From craigslist.

[EricEstlund]

Are you looking to have a .003" range, or +/- .003"?

What are you trying to measure? The cheap HF ones have a tolerance of +/- 0.001 in. or 0.03mm.

I seed the shop with HF or similar calipers (I buy a handful at a time from which ever vendor has them on sale). If you need to measure more accurately, you may want to think about how you are actually going about the measurement.

[cmbicycles]

Home depot sells general digital calipers for around $30-40 I believe, seems similar quality to the park calipers which didn't last too long for me. For nice quality I would second the recommendation for mitutoyo. I used them when I worked in a custom fab shop and they are great.

[Admiral Ackbar]

atmo, get dial calipers. no batteries is a huge plus imo.

i think these are what I've used:http://www.starrett.com/metrology/product-detail/1-Precision-Measuring-Tools/11-Precision-Hand-Tools/1102-Slide-Calipers/110202-Dial-Calipers/1202-6

MUSA too...

[Louis]

atmo, get dial calipers. no batteries is a huge plus imo.

+1

Or, if you really want to be cool, use a vernier caliper - just as accurate as the others: (sorry for the image size)

http://www.starrett.com/metrology/metrology-products/precision-measuring-tools/slide-calipers/vernier-pocket-calipers#itemsPerPage=24&currentPage=1&displayMode=grid&sortBy=none/asc

http://images.starrett.com/is/image/Starrett/125MEA-6s150e61660cUSa4?wid=1200&hei=1200&qlt=90

[GeorgeTSquirrel]

Go to Harbor Freight Tools and get a pair of six inch "dial" calipers. They probably have some digital ones too. Shouldn't be any more than $100. They will easily measure +/-.003"

If you go digital, get the one with fractional inch readings... for some reason, it's just a better product (better quality, if you read through 1000 reviews, you'll see what I'm talking about). It's a decent digital caliper, but it has a white scale which will get dirty. I have one, but rarely use it, because I like the size of my old-fashioned vernier (just break out the HF when I need the digital readout).

[bluesea]

If you don't want to get a Mitutoyo, check out this review.


http://www.amazon.com/review/R1GK9922EUHPST/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00INL0BTS&nodeID=228013&store=hi

[Doug Fattic]

If I am doing machining on my lathe or vertical milling machine, I want repeatable accuracy to .001” and toughness, then I always use my Mitutoyo. They run in the $100 range. For framebuilding and general purpose measuring I use my Park Tool calipers. I like supporting that company. They are much cheaper and have the added feature of reading in inch fractions (as well as mms and thousandths). This is useful when I’m wondering about something like a bolt size or rod diameter without having to convert or remember what 5/8” is in thousandths of an inch. I’ve had the cheapies too and find I just don’t like their quality after having used better ones.

[ptourkin]

Go to Harbor Freight Tools and get a pair of six inch "dial" calipers. They probably have some digital ones too. Shouldn't be any more than $100. They will easily measure +/-.003"

I have some digital calipers from Harbor Freight. I haven't calibrated their accuracy-- probably fine for my needs and well under $100. Be sure to remove the battery after every use. It burns them up if you don't.

[choke]

I picked up a digital caliper from the local auto parts store for $20 or so. It's more than accurate enough for my needs.

[LegendRider]

Decided on this:

http://www.amazon.com/Mitutoyo-ABSOLUTE-500-196-20-Stainless-Resolution/dp/B001C0ZPNO

[Louis]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who invariably exceeds his initial budget when it comes to this sort of purchase... :)

[bluesea]

Good choice!

[UberBike]

As a former machinist we see value of measuring tools as repeatability. Easily checked by opening and closing a number of times and checking if it always returns to zero. You can also use feeler gauges that most of us home auto mechanics have to check repeatability in a few ranges. A lot of shops use the $20 stuff on the production line and just save the $100+ for QC. The more expensive stuff just lasts longer before they start to drift and are worth the cost of recalibration. But for home or production use, we just toss out the $20 ones as they start to drift and grab another.

[GeorgeTSquirrel]

FWIW the Harbor Freight digital caliper with fractional reading is $10 this month with coupon... just got a flier in the mail.

Also, for the record, I fully acknowledge that at least half of what they sell at HF is junk. I do think the fractional-reading digital caliper is one of the safer bets. If I had the budget, I'd definitely spend $100 plus on a brand name version (I personally prefer to spend money for top of the line measurement tools, and usually cut corners elsewhere).