Can anyone recommend a good digital caliper?

You guys are an inspiration.

After seeing the image of Watthours measuring tools I wanted to show off mine. But I held off and decided to mention how much I love the precision measuring tools.
All were purchased at yard and estate sales and all come in handy for helping me with my projects.
My brother in law I spoke of is a Tool and Die machinist and I admire his abilities and thought process in fabrication of some of the items I come-up with. (Kind of jealous, actually)
A side note: I have that plastic one on my desk for quick access, keeping all the good ones in a Kennedy metal machinist box. So I hand the cheap one to my brother in law and never hear the end of it. :dunno:

A image of the cheap plastic one. It seems to be the go-to one for me. The nice thing is, it's non-conductive. A big advantage in our work.
The scale of "mm" and "inches" together makes for easy mm to inch conversions as well.

DSC05075.JPG
 
Last edited:
I gave up using digital calipers years ago because if I left the battery in them, the battery would be be dead the next time I picked it up. I switched over to dial calipers and it's the best move I ever made.
 
Last edited:
I just take the battery out when not in use. My case has a little circular countout to hold the battery securely...
 
The best digital caliper is not digital, but a dial caliper. The battery never fails. Mitutoyo, Starrett, B&S are all decent quality.

There are a lot of good answers in the thread. Here's my 0.02$. (background: I did photo-chemical machining [fancy term for precision etching] for 12 years and lived with a set of calipers or micrometer in my hand all day every work day).

As others have said, it all depends on the accuracy needed and how much use the tool will get. For stone cold simplicity you can't beat vernier. But they are slow to read if the lighting is bad or your eyes aren't good. Keep in mind that the numbers that you are seeing with a digital caliper might show a measurement into the 0.0000 range but that doesn't necessarily reflect reality. No caliper can reliably measure in the ten thousandths range. And like everything else in life, you generally get only what you pay for.

My personal preference is a dial caliper. Easy to read and no batteries. If you are using the tool a lot having a thumb-wheel makes a huge difference in how easy the tool is to use. If you are using the calipers a lot then the "feel" of the slide makes or breaks the use of the tool and repeatability of measurements and the thumb-wheel helps a lot with that.

Starrett makes top quality tools. The thing that I didn't like about their calipers was the blunt, rounded tips. They are strong but limit the use of the tool when you have to measure in a small space, which was a requirement with the work that I was doing.

I used a lot of Brown & Sharp calipers, very good quality and a very smooth feel. Very nice to use all day long.

My personal preference is a Mitutoyo dial caliper. Very repeatable, very smooth slide, a thumb-wheel and they can be bought with carbide faces which helps with the life span of the tool if they are getting heavy use. I have a Mitutoyo in both metric and inch (the inch caliper has carbide faces).

DSC06376.jpg DSC06379.jpg

OP doesn't mention micrometers but here are my thoughts concerning them. I much prefer a vernier micrometer over a digital one. The reason being that if you are using the tool all day long and doing hundreds of measurements per day you learn to hold the tool one-handed with your pinky finger through the jaw curve and measure by turning the barrel with index finger and thumb. The digital micrometers available that we tried out back when I was doing that work (1985-'97) were just huge, bulky and heavy, making one-handed use all day long a serious pain. Once one gets used to vernier they are simple to use and stone cold reliable.

Cheers,
James
 
Batteries will never last forever.

If you purchase a digital caliper without the automatic off feature you should also purchase a larger supply of batteries for it. Small batteries stored in the refrigerator will last significantly longer than the ones you throw in a drawer. I keep a collection of various batteries in a zip lock bag in the vegetable bin (so it won't slip through the shelving).

I cannot imagine why a caliper would need more than one battery. Maybe some of them also have a laser pointer.
 
The harbor freight digital calipers should be ok. The problems with those are parasitic drain, they draw current even when off and drain the battery. Take the battery out when not in use. Mitutoyo calipers are much better about it, but they still have parasitic drain.

Another problem is they have 2 screws on top to eliminate slop. Those usually aren't adjusted well from the factory. Snug them down, and back them off until it slides easily with a little drag.

I have a bunch of those harbor freight calipers, and they are ok. Mitutoyo is better though.
 
Warren: After using the iGaging calipers, do you have any observations on the fractions mode, or the utility of the computer data interface? Any value added?

Does this model have "auto off"?
 
Last edited:
There are a lot of good answers in the thread. Here's my 0.02$. (background: I did photo-chemical machining [fancy term for precision etching] for 12 years and lived with a set of calipers or micrometer in my hand all day every work day).

As others have said, it all depends on the accuracy needed and how much use the tool will get. For stone cold simplicity you can't beat vernier. But they are slow to read if the lighting is bad or your eyes aren't good. Keep in mind that the numbers that you are seeing with a digital caliper might show a measurement into the 0.0000 range but that doesn't necessarily reflect reality. No caliper can reliably measure in the ten thousandths range. And like everything else in life, you generally get only what you pay for.

My personal preference is a dial caliper. Easy to read and no batteries. If you are using the tool a lot having a thumb-wheel makes a huge difference in how easy the tool is to use. If you are using the calipers a lot then the "feel" of the slide makes or breaks the use of the tool and repeatability of measurements and the thumb-wheel helps a lot with that.

Starrett makes top quality tools. The thing that I didn't like about their calipers was the blunt, rounded tips. They are strong but limit the use of the tool when you have to measure in a small space, which was a requirement with the work that I was doing.

I used a lot of Brown & Sharp calipers, very good quality and a very smooth feel. Very nice to use all day long.

My personal preference is a Mitutoyo dial caliper. Very repeatable, very smooth slide, a thumb-wheel and they can be bought with carbide faces which helps with the life span of the tool if they are getting heavy use. I have a Mitutoyo in both metric and inch (the inch caliper has carbide faces).

View attachment 1345254 View attachment 1345255

OP doesn't mention micrometers but here are my thoughts concerning them. I much prefer a vernier micrometer over a digital one. The reason being that if you are using the tool all day long and doing hundreds of measurements per day you learn to hold the tool one-handed with your pinky finger through the jaw curve and measure by turning the barrel with index finger and thumb. The digital micrometers available that we tried out back when I was doing that work (1985-'97) were just huge, bulky and heavy, making one-handed use all day long a serious pain. Once one gets used to vernier they are simple to use and stone cold reliable.

Cheers,
James

I really like the Mitutoyo dial calipers,and like yours,I only use the carbide-faced models.Although I'm not much of a fan since they went to the plastic-bodied construction....If I wanted plastic I'd buy a 15 buck Chinese digital from Crappy Tire (also known as a light duty 8'' adjustable wrench and scriber combination:rflmao:)
 
Hi folks. I need a caliper to measure screw diameter, wire gauge, inner and outer diameter on idler wheels, that sort of thing. Digital would be nice. Any suggestions?

Something like 20 years ago, I did a brief stint in a plant that made fasteners. The QC people used Mitutoyo calipers.
 
I was an accomplished "Metrologist" to DCC controlled and optical measuring systems. I also calibrated, as certified and performed many a' gage R&R study'. Calipers require "light touch" as they are not wrenches. :D Pressure can greatly influence readings from user to user w/dig. or mechanical. I seriously doubt most of us need to follow mil-std.105D or ISO equivalents.

Me? I have a pair of "brown&sharpe" (made in (Switzerland) dial type. 0.001" and a plastic pair with linear printed scales. Yeah, you have to read scales!! what I need to read.. better than 0.005 at 1/128th accuracy or 0.05mm scale! fast and no risk to the B&S.

Now if you guys want to talk. 10ths of millionths in.or mm or strange shit like 'newton meters'.... I'm the guy!!

Btw.. the avg. human hair is approx. 0.002".
 
This is the one to buy. I guy on Amazon posted a review of several calipers and this on e was the best. We ordered it for work and it is accurate and well made.

Yes, I am stoked with mine (iGaging Absolute Origin), and have been using it for around 6 months and no problems with the battery, it even comes with a new spare battery. Accurate and easy to use, never knew what I did without it.

Now if you guys want to talk. 10ths of millionths in.or mm or strange shit like 'newton meters'.... I'm the guy!!

Btw.. the avg. human hair is approx. 0.002".

I use mine to measure router bits and height and depth of cuts in wood, so I doubt I need anything that accurate, mine even measures the dust between the jaws, so its definitely overkill.
 
Last edited:
Believe it or not, Harbor Fright has a nice one for $15.00
My brother is a Tool and Die machinist and was visiting. When using my plastic calipers he made a comment about how primitive it is in my shop.
The next week in the mail was a Harbor Fright caliper.
He had taken the calipers to work and checked them against the standards and found they performed better that the Starrett's the tool room had.
All the Machinist's were amazed. No joke!
Harbour Freight Tools are good enoguh for those of us that don’t use our tools for a living.
 
The Harbour Freight calipers work fine for about a year and then start giving bogus readings. We had 3 of them at work and all failed the same way. We did not use them that much, either.
 
Had a Fowler just like this back in the late 70's, I see they still make it and it's a lot cheaper now lol. Nice to have both inch/metric in a dial caliper.

contentonly.jpeg
 
One feature I'd like to see is a "HOLD" button. I frequently have to move the caliper to see the display after taking a measurement, and feel certain that the reading changed.
 
One feature I'd like to see is a "HOLD" button. I frequently have to move the caliper to see the display after taking a measurement, and feel certain that the reading changed.
yep it doesn't take much unlike mechanical micrometres .. my digital one has a screw to lock it .maybe this is the hold function ?
 
If I could get my eyeballs and fingers into position to tighten the screw I could read the display/dial.

I think the screw is to adjust tension on the slide, and 100% tension happens to = HOLD.
 
Back
Top Bottom