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Suggestions for digital caliper/vernier

Nero

Nero

Re: Tired
I've been putting up with one I bought for peanuts at Tchibo a few years ago and it eats batteries, and is as flakey as hell these days. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Has anyone got a recommendation for a good general purpose tool, which preferably uses LR44 (I've got a blister pack of those)?

Budget £10-£20 or is that a false economy?
 
How much accuracy do you need?

I use Mitutoyo ones at work. Many years ago, I bought some cheapies for home use and they are horrible. Even when new, the mechanism felt like it was full of sand compared to my work ones.
Now at home I use Rabone plastic (fibreglass) dial calipers (Swiss made). 0.1mm accuracy is good enough for me for home stuff. Plus, the battery never dies just when you need them.

Rabone do not seem to be available any more, but these seem equivalent:

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/WIHA-27082...e&pageci=3c16b611-21df-4513-8582-5a9d9575d0b5

We use some Wiha stuff at work, and the quality is very good.
 
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I`ve had a number of digital callipers over the years, originally expensive Mituyoto then cheaper versions.None of them last particularly well but cleaning the battery contacts sometimes helps.

Currently I`m using one I bought in Lidl for less than ten quid, I bought a spare at the time but have not needed it yet.

Dial callipers are great so long as you don`t get grit in the mechanism but I find the instant Metric / Imperial changeover of the digital types a real boon since these days most drawings are metric and my drills and machines are imperial.
 
Jamie's comments above are spot on. I use Mitutoyo almost exclusively and have also used the Rabone unit, but the former last forever. I'd pick up a good used one off eBay or Homeworkshop.org.uk; typical price £25 to £40.

CHE
 
I used many different ones at work and always came back to Mutitoyo and now I stick to this brand because I wasted too much money on other second quality crappy toys.
Mutitoyo lasts a lifetime.
 
I'm just wondering what is wrong with non-electronic, 100% mechanical calipers? Quck and easy to use once you've understood the way to read the lined up lines for tenths of a millimetre. I've used them for about 45 years, in one case the same one, and have never had a problem. These days, though, I have to put on close-up specs to read it easily. But still simpler than having to mess about with batteries.
 
The £8 ones from Aldi/Lidl are fine as long as you take the battery's out when you aren't using it.

Pete
 
Yes, I think the Aldi ones come from the same disposable stable as mine. I'd like something a bit better and I think I'd want better than 0.1mm. Thanks for the Rabone/Mitutoyo suggestions - both brands which give me a good feeling, although I bet they all come from the same Chinese factory :)

I'll report back
 
Another vote for Mitutoyo. Bought a cheapie, it was shit, did what I should have done and paid £70 or so and got one forever.

Top quality mechanical are lovely if you can find a nice one.
 
PaulMB said:
I'm just wondering what is wrong with non-electronic, 100% mechanical calipers? Quck and easy to use once you've understood the way to read the lined up lines for tenths of a millimetre. I've used them for about 45 years, in one case the same one, and have never had a problem. These days, though, I have to put on close-up specs to read it easily. But still simpler than having to mess about with batteries.
Click to expand...
My eyes can't see the verniers any more. Even with glasses it's hard.
 
Yep Netto one here and fine so long as battery removed. The basically same unit from China is sold under loads of different brand names and there are at least two quality grades, the better (in theory) has a stainless steel body but the same "measuring head". You could pay say £8 from Aldi or say £25 for the same unit with Halfords (whatever) branding.... Whether the better toleranced examples are sold under brand names and the ones that "scrape through" at the likes of Aldi I couldn't say...
 
A Vernier is a very clever and simple scale, a method of accurately measuring to tenths, hundredths, thousandths. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any specific measuring device.

Look it up.
 
I don’t have to look it up thanks. My, you’re a grumpy boy. Oddly, all other contributors seemed to get the gist.
 
I’ve been using Mitutoyo at work for longer than I can remember. I’ve never had a problem with them in those.... over 30 years?

I like to use non-digi every now and then just to remind myself, and our bore gauges at work aren’t digital.
 
I bought 3 sets of shite ones before I ended up with a digital Mitutoyo for about 70 euros. Much better. I needed them for work we have clutch slave cylinders manufactured and tolerances are 0.1mm. I found that the cheap calipers also had the same tolerance or worse so I never really knew where I was with measurements at that level of detail.

My eyes aren't good enough to read that detail either. So I got digital.
 
amazon has some decent cheap ones.

that being said watch this:
(inexpensive calipers though flawed can be surprisingly good for most applications)

 
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