Vernier Caliper-cheap and easy

[pinkshogun]

i need a new cheap caliper for occasional use. must reach 6" or 150mm. i would think with electronic there's another thing to break.

what can you recommend

[AngryScientist]

how much accuracy do you need?

you may laugh, but if you only need to read to the 1/2mm level, i have a couple of the $1.99 harbor freight jobbers that work perfectly fine.

i also have a thousand dollars worth of Starrett calipers that i used to use at work when super accuracy was needed, and i can say that the harbor freight thing is adequate for anything bike related.

https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-u...per-63664.html

[false_Aest]

Anything from Amazon or Harbor Freight < $20 will do for a bike + home use.

Mitutoyo for $100 - $200.

Just note that the cheap ones sometimes (read: always) have bad circuitry and can (read: will definitely) fail.

I have an analog caliper that I keep around when the battery in my digital calipers die at the precise moment when I need them most.

[Mark McM]

I second the Harbor Freight/Amazon calipers for home use. Also, I'd recommend a dial caliper over a vernier - the dial is much easier to read, and can be zeroed to account for caliper wear and/or manufacturing imprecision.

[Krenovian]

I purchased a cheap digital one from Harbor Freight. It lasted 10 years before it went south. I replaced it with a Mitutoyo (used) from eBay. Probably more accuracy than needed for most things but I do some occasional milling work. Be aware that there are counterfeit versions of Mitutoyo calipers on the market. An online search will clue you in as to what to look for. The counterfeit versions are indistinguishable from the real thing unless you know how to identify the subtle differences. Any new digital Mitutoyo selling for $39.95 is most certainly a fake, but probably more than adequate for general use if you aren’t concerned with 0.001” or greater accuracy.

I’ll second the recommendation for a dial caliper over a vernier scale for ease of reading. A cheap digital version is even easier to read. The Harbor Freight digital caliper I had would give repeatable readings within a couple of thousandths.

[Gsinill]

I agree with everybody on the cheap HF or Amazon versions.
Good enough for home/hobby use in my opinion.

The electronic ones come really handy, especially because you can switch between metric and imperial.
BUT the battery life of the one I have is annoying.
One would think that it does not use any power when not in use but for whatever reason, it just feels that every time I want to use it I need to change the battery.
That's why I got 2 additional dial calipers for mm and inches as well.

Also, like with most machinist tools there are usually really good deals of used Starretts, Mitutoyos, SDIs etc. on CL or Facebook Marketplace.
Hobby machinists seem to be an endangered species and once the older ones retire or pass, their tooling is often sold off cheap by family members.

[mtechnica]

Unless you’re a machinist the cheap ones are more than good enough. I’m a mechanical engineer and most of us in the department have inexpensive calipers we keep on our desks for measuring things. Obviously the machine shop has nicer ones.

[unterhausen]

most cheap digital calipers are accurate enough. I am getting tired of dealing with battery issues. iGauging seems like an upgrade from the low-end digital calipers, including Park. Amazon sells a nice digital Mitutoyo for around $100, and I think that's a pretty good deal. Otherwise, I am really horrible at reading verniers and I much prefer a dial. Although, most people don't even read the vernier past the first decimal point, so mistakes are not that likely.

Yes, I know there are people that really enjoy reading verniers and think that people that don't use them are lesser humans, but for most of us that don't do it all the time, mistakes are inevitable.

[mtechnica]

Not to mention the digital ones make it easy to convert from inch to metric and some of them even convert to fractions. It can save a lot of time to realize your 28.518mm or whatever part is actually just 1 1/8” and you can find it on McMaster for $3.

[redir]

In guitar making I have to be pretty accurate with some of the measurements and I had purchased some reasonably priced lower budget calipers and they were plenty good enough. I now have a whole tool box full of Starette stuff from my father and honestly they measure the same as the cheap. I'd still be a bit weary of going total bottom of the line cheap though.

+1 on the analog dials too.

[Dired]

If you can wait a couple of weeks, there are a ton of ridiculously cheap options on ali.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale...pensearch=true

[fmradio516]

Ive always used Vernier, but recently got an amazon digital. Its pretty good but yeah, the battery thing sucks.

Really want a dial caliper. Any good ones around that arent a ton of money?

[unterhausen]

I have a couple of Chinese dial calipers that are pretty solid. Name brand dials cost $15 less than compatible digital calipers

Looks like most of the metric dial calipers also do inch. I think that would drive me nuts.

[kingpin75s]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

how much accuracy do you need?

you may laugh, but if you only need to read to the 1/2mm level, i have a couple of the $1.99 harbor freight jobbers that work perfectly fine.

i also have a thousand dollars worth of Starrett calipers that i used to use at work when super accuracy was needed, and i can say that the harbor freight thing is adequate for anything bike related.

https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-u...per-63664.html

I would say I have pretty good success with reading these to the 0.1mm level if you are careful with your measure.

Certainly a 1/2mm may be a fair tolerance especially if you so not know the number to expect, but have been spending a lot of time lately measuring 26.8mm seatposts and I get this to read dead on.

I keep a bunch of them around for bike stuff and a big plus that they are plastic so do not have to worry about scratching anything.

Cannot beat $2.

[m_sasso]

I had the same battery draining/drawing issue with my inexpensive Chinese set.

Callipers are not something I use everyday so pulled the battery, eliminate the draw and store the battery loose in the calliper storage case. I have now had the same battery for a few years, 20 seconds to install or remove it when I need to use the callipers.