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Caliper brands - decent quality at a decent price?

Yotota

Yotota

Truck nerd
Joined
Jun 6, 2020
Member Number
1870
Messages
1,298
Loc
SW WA
I got by with an El Cheapo Crapo Harbor Freight digital 6" caliper for many years, and recently " upgraded" to a General Tools 147 6" digital caliper.

And of course, now that I'm setting up knuckle trunnion bearings I need an 8" caliper to do the job. 🙄

I can get an 8" digital General Tools 1478 just like my 6" for $52. Or an 8" Fowler vernier caliper for $47, which I'd honestly trust to be a little more accurate than a cheaper digital. Or there are the myriad of cheapo $30-40 calipers all over the place.

What do you all recommend for a home shop guy on a budget who wants to be reasonably accurate?
 
Fuck the Fowler’s bought 2 of them and they are allready not working.

Go on eBay type mitutoyo buy one that has a orange box and you’ll be happy. Not sure how they can sell them for $60. I thought they were knockoffs, but they came in legit boxes.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Fuck the Fowler’s bought 2 of them and they are allready not working.

Go on eBay type mitutoyo buy one that has a orange box and you’ll be happy. Not sure how they can sell them for $60. I thought they were knockoffs, but they came in legit boxes.
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Oh hell yeah, I'll absolutely look into those. Mitutoyo calipers are awesome but I had never seen them for less than $100.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Fuck the Fowler’s bought 2 of them and they are allready not working.

Go on eBay type mitutoyo buy one that has a orange box and you’ll be happy. Not sure how they can sell them for $60. I thought they were knockoffs, but they came in legit boxes.
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They're definitely knock-offs, but they're still decent quality. Better than my Mitutogos. :laughing:
 
bgaidan said:
They're definitely knock-offs, but they're still decent quality. Better than my Mitutogos. :laughing:
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ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Fuck the Fowler’s bought 2 of them and they are allready not working.

Go on eBay type mitutoyo buy one that has a orange box and you’ll be happy. Not sure how they can sell them for $60. I thought they were knockoffs, but they came in legit boxes.
Click to expand...

Looked into it, every sub-$100 new Mitutoyo on eBay that I could find is fake as fuck. Some have tons of things wrong, some are much better fakes, but are still fakes.
 
If you have a lot of manufacturing around you, keep an eye out at pawn shops and auctions. My current good pair of calipers is a set of carbide tipped Mitutoyo's. They are about $200 new and I got them at an auction for about $20. I also got an 8" pair at the same auction for not much more, and passed on the 12" pair that went for $80.
 
I got some years ago from Shars, at the time they didn't have a real website of their own and were just doing Ebay sales under "Discount Machine" or something like that: I think that's still their username there. I've still got them, and they're still good: looks like they just stole them off the Mitutoyo line and pried off the name badge. Pretty much identical.

www.ebay.com

Shars 4-5" x 0.0001" Outside Micrometer Solid Metal Frame New Save $20.04 S} | eBay

THIMBLE Rachet Stop. accuracy of <0.3µm +(L(mm)/1200) µm. You may ask for freight cost before buying tools. Fitted case.
www.ebay.com
 
665.0coupe said:
If you have a lot of manufacturing around you, keep an eye out at pawn shops and auctions. My current good pair of calipers is a set of carbide tipped Mitutoyo's. They are about $200 new and I got them at an auction for about $20. I also got an 8" pair at the same auction for not much more, and passed on the 12" pair that went for $80.
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This. Even CL or FB for retired machinist or estate sales.

I responded to a FB add for a nice .0001 DTI and they guy said he had some other things for sale too. I get there and he has a Kenedy box filled with metrology tools, tooling plus a dozen or so other cases with calipers, mics and indicators. I let him throw out a price for everything.....$350. :eek: I couldn't load it up fast enough.

1624296323894.png

1624296357711.png
 
bgaidan said:
This. Even CL or FB for retired machinist or estate sales.

I responded to a FB add for a nice .0001 DTI and they guy said he had some other things for sale too. I get there and he has a Kenedy box filled with metrology tools, tooling plus a dozen or so other cases with calipers, mics and indicators. I let him throw out a price for everything.....$350. :eek: I couldn't load it up fast enough.

1624296323894.png

1624296357711.png
Click to expand...

I'd love to have that pin anvil mic in the yellow case.
 
665.0coupe said:
If you have a lot of manufacturing around you, keep an eye out at pawn shops and auctions. My current good pair of calipers is a set of carbide tipped Mitutoyo's. They are about $200 new and I got them at an auction for about $20. I also got an 8" pair at the same auction for not much more, and passed on the 12" pair that went for $80.
Click to expand...

bgaidan said:
This. Even CL or FB for retired machinist or estate sales.

I responded to a FB add for a nice .0001 DTI and they guy said he had some other things for sale too. I get there and he has a Kenedy box filled with metrology tools, tooling plus a dozen or so other cases with calipers, mics and indicators. I let him throw out a price for everything.....$350. :eek: I couldn't load it up fast enough.
Click to expand...
You wouldn't be implying that these people are getting a backdoor raise by selling company property, would you?:stirthepot:

But yes, if you are okay with this, I can confirm this method of getting hold of quality measuring tools.
 
I personally recommend getting metric dial calipers for cheap, accuracy, and ease of use. The gradation is usually in 0.01mm, which is less than 0.0004in. Most of the specs you find on anything modern are converted from metric anyway. Go buy Fowlers or something else cheap. It's readily apparent when they are off, can be zeroed easily, and as they are geared to the blade, you can sweep the dial and figure out if you have an issue, usually with turning or dirt in the gear. The good ones can be cleaned and reset, just throw the cheap ones away.
 
IowaOffRoad said:
You wouldn't be implying that these people are getting a backdoor raise by selling company property, would you?:stirthepot:

But yes, if you are okay with this, I can confirm this method of getting hold of quality measuring tools.
Click to expand...

I've bought machinist tools off of FB market place from people who were selling personal tools after they left school or a job (at least that what the guy said). The calipers I bought were at an auction of an old guy that ran a welding/repair business out of a shop at his house. He was retiring and selling everything. I also bought a 14x14*3 granite surface plate from an estate auction for $10 because the auctioneer thought it was a chunk of concrete. This auction was an old guy going to a retirement home and selling off his collection of machine tools. It was a sweet set up. They sold a small shaper for $25 because no one knew what it was.
 
I concur with buying out retired machinists. Many are retiring, few are getting into it. Part of it is throwaway culture, part of it is off-shore parts being cheaper than fixing things, part of it is machining not being respected like it used to.
My :stirthepot: was because I've witnessed tools from the places I used to work and others like it end up on the market due to the aforementioned "backdoor raise". I was hoping you were referring to buying out machinists. One of the only issues with this is the old machinists don't usually keep up on the newest ways to advertise equipment, so to get the best deals I find you are often headed to a local in-person auction.
 
IowaOffRoad said:
I concur with buying out retired machinists. Many are retiring, few are getting into it. Part of it is throwaway culture, part of it is off-shore parts being cheaper than fixing things, part of it is machining not being respected like it used to.
My :stirthepot: was because I've witnessed tools from the places I used to work and others like it end up on the market due to the aforementioned "backdoor raise". I was hoping you were referring to buying out machinists. One of the only issues with this is the old machinists don't usually keep up on the newest ways to advertise equipment, so to get the best deals I find you are often headed to a local in-person auction.
Click to expand...

I knew what you were getting at.
 
IowaOffRoad said:
You wouldn't be implying that these people are getting a backdoor raise by selling company property, would you?:stirthepot:

But yes, if you are okay with this, I can confirm this method of getting hold of quality measuring tools.
Click to expand...
That particular deal was a union guy from NJ that retired and moved here and had no interest in doing any machine work in retirement. Most smaller shops still make employees buy their own reference tools. It's the really big ones that supply everything now apparently.


Now I did sell a horizontal band saw to a guy and his friend showed up to help him move it. He whip out a backpack full of carbide cutters and a few metrology tools that were very obviously not purchased at the local tool store.
 
Thanks everyone, l'll poke around ads and check some pawn shops in the near future to see what I can rustle up.

For the job at hand, I need an 8" caliper that is accurate enough to determine knuckle centering/preload shim setup down to 0.1mm/0.004" for the smallest shim while at the 6.5-7" range. And also be well under $100. I don't have anything to act as a gauge block to confirm larger measurements so who knows, maybe a General Tools or even Hazard Fart 8" is good enough for this job.
 


Cheap 8" calipers unless you need to be repeatable to half-thou. Reset the zero every time you turn it on, clean the jaws, double-check your measurements, and the cheap ones will be fine.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:


Cheap 8" calipers unless you need to be repeatable to half-thou. Reset the zero every time you turn it on, clean the jaws, double-check your measurements, and the cheap ones will be fine.
Click to expand...


Good to know, thanks. So perhaps another General Tools will be fine.
 
Weasel said:
Shar brand is what I use. Been happy with them and they replaced several of the Pitsburgh crap at the shop.
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Interesting, never heard of the brand and they have very few Amazon reviews. Are they new?
 
Shars is definitely not new. Middle of the road machine tools. I have a 6" milling vise from them, works well and seems to be accurate.
 
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