Picked up a very nice digital caliper

Bolts Missing,
Not saying that you might have gotten a bad one (it happens I'm sure) but lining it up to the line isn't gonna be perfect since the it's your eyeball vs a supposedly precision tool.

I'd say you should try measuring and remeasuring an item like a feeler guage. You should be able to get the same reading every time if its working right. Also try to make sure you slide it open and closed nice and easy using the thumb rest. Pulling them open quickly can cause the wheel to slip and therefore be off.

I don't have one of the digital ones, I use a Starret dial type. Wouldn't mind getting a digital one though, maybe a metric one too.

Good luck
 
blime81 Bolts Missing,
Not saying that you might have gotten a bad one (it happens I'm sure) but lining it up to the line isn't gonna be perfect since the it's your eyeball vs a supposedly precision tool.

I'd say you should try measuring and remeasuring an item like a feeler guage. You should be able to get the same reading every time if its working right. Also try to make sure you slide it open and closed nice and easy using the thumb rest. Pulling them open quickly can cause the wheel to slip and therefore be off.

I don't have one of the digital ones, I use a Starret dial type. Wouldn't mind getting a digital one though, maybe a metric one too.

Good luck
Click to expand...


Ok, I'll test with a feeler guage as you say,
test 1 using the thickest guage; .035inch-.889mm
100 % what the feeler guage says, it shows up on the guage.

tested on the thinnest feeler guage-.0015inch -.038mm
100% on inch and on metric it shows .004

!
Thankyou, I will see the eye doctor and get a refund on my reading glasses.
 
Bolt Missing,
Glad I could help! Thanks for posting the results, I'll buy one for sure now that I know they really are "on".

Sounds like that's a good piece of gear for $20, does inches and metric.... Nice!
 
BTW. Today I was talking to the supervisor at the calibration lab at work - he said to stop by with the caliper I bought & he would check the calibration on it. I'll try to remember to bring it in tomorrow. When I find out, I'll post the results.
 
Follow-up: The supervisor at our Calibration Lab told me the caliper I bought met the quoted accuracy specs (0.001 inch / 0.03 mm) on a three-point check for the inside, outside, and hole depth measurements.
 
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Wow, that one looks very similar to one we sell at summit Racing equipment. Ours retail for $32.95 though....:(
 
Dial calipers are good. And, they don't need batteries. However, in a production environment, where you're copying readings into a log of some sort, especially in a high-volume environment, where you may be making a reading every few moments, dial calipers have a higher operator error rate when reading, than does a digital caliper.

Digital calipers also offer direct feed of the readings into a computer, for statistical process control, and, you can zero at a a non-zero value, (what the standard measurement should be,) and then directly read the difference between the standard, and your part. Again, less error prone in a high-volume environment.
 
I like 'em all. Great grandads had to do with go-no-go calipers and small hole gauges (expanding, split balls, still very good) and with vernier calipers of various size ranges. All quite good.

Really good vernier calipers of even the digital kind resolve down to fractions of a thousandth.

Go-no-go (shim metal) is a great way to home-test ones dial caliper.
Got my first one, dial, mechanical, hardened steel, round dial, for the rather high price for me, then of $25, back about 1975. Used it to gauge piano wire, mostly, for my job. Later got a genuine Starret of the same format.
It was just as good and no better. Later got a Starret digital for a bill and a half or whatever they cost about twenty years ago. Works fine, but...it has seen a lot of shop use.

I like the "General" model 147 from Home Depot, cost a whopping $25 or so in today's dollars. Seems accurate enough for my needs. Easier to read than the dial-types, and today, the LCDs are larger than they were many years ago. That helps. The inside and outside measurement functions on all of these are helpful. The "General" may not even be as "good" as the one featured on the opening page, but so far (out one year old now), it seems like all I need. It does eat batteries even when "off"; the auto off function does not stop all battery drain. It has no data port, but I don't need that.

Bottom line: dial calipers of any sort are a great convenience.
Really good ones, used carefully, resolve to half of a thou.
A good vernier hand caliper resolves to...what? About one ten thousandth.
Not many of us need that much accuracy, but they can be handy too for repetitious measurements of culling parts in a 'go-no-go' situation.

Lots of good tools out there today for very little money, compared against the old Starret-only days, when any of these tools cost the equivalent of hundreds of dollars, for about the same sort of quality.

Have a Starrett cylinder bore dial indicating gage, mechanical, about unused,
about twenty years old, cost new: something like five bills. Have almost no use for it today. It is meant for measuring cylinder wall taper, in particular.
Starrett rulz, I guess, but you pay for what you get, that's for sure!

These new crops of cheap, but precision Chinese calipers offer much better function for the money than what we could get years ago.
It's a golden era now, for the home tool buyer. Chinese is no longer necessarily "cheesey" at all. And the price can't be beat, right!
 
The topic of measurements of small clearances is a fascinating topic.

A quick note: as a piano technician, now retired, I used the handy dial caliper to gauge piano wire sizes. One thousand of an inch was plenty-fine resolution.

But what of the piano action's many "hinged" parts? German silver alloy pins rotating, without ever wearing, in densely woven cloth "bearings" which we call bushings.

The PRECISION of their fit is so important, that we cannot use any tool but for human feel/sense, by which to get the fit of a new pin right in a new bushing.

It is done by feel. The resolution of "feel" (is the pin too big, or the bushing too tight or "fluffy", can be felt, to the ten thousandth of an inch,

NO tools needed, but for educated fingers.

Enough of me. I talk too much. But you, too, with strips of shim stock
and feel, can tell if a piston is too tight or too loose. Taper in a worn bore can be similarly felt, or you can obtain a cyliner bore taper-gauge, etc.

The old time mechanics made their huge steam engine parts using lathes,
chipping chisels, the file, and feel. Their engines often ran for a century or more without wear-out of any key parts.

But, today, for our small jobs, nothing seems to beat the "I want to check this", versatility of the dial indicating sort of slide caliper. So easy to use,
compared with its vernier-scale predecessors.

over. thanks. I opine toooo much!

Call me "ten thousandth-by-feel, reid",
or "big mouth: 2.2342" to be exact. :giggle:
 
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