Digital or analog?

[Effie Lever]

I’m looking to buy some new measuring and calibration tools, starting with a Caliper. Is it better to go analog or digital? I’m a bit old school so I lean to the analog types. What do think?

[Dan Stuewe]

I always kinda scoffed at using anything but a vernier caliper "You're just being lazy if you use a dial or digital caliper." was my thinking. Well, my wife wanted a digital caliper for her jewelry, so I bought her an inexpensive one from Harbor Freight for Christmas. She bought me a new planer for Christmas and in the testing out phase I thought I'd use my vernier caliper to check for snipe. As you can guess, using the vernier got old fast so I went into her room and grabbed the digital caliper.

As for dial or digital, kinda a wash, but I think I'm a convert and would go for digital.

[CPeter James]

For woodworking I like the analog better because the visual effect is easier to relate to. For electrical, I like the digital as it is more exact.


Try MSC for some good prices.

www.mscdirect.com


CPeter

[John Miliunas]

I have 3 of those cheapie HF digital calipers (all purchased on one of their sales!) and leave them at what I consider critical areas of the shop. In comparing all three, I only found a .001 difference in their readings. Most recently, invested in another inexpensive digital readout for my planer. Again, most accurate and really helps with efficiency. (IMHO ) I would go digital on more of my equipment were it affordable!

[Dennis McDonaugh]

It doesn't matter to me as long as it measures in fractions of an inch and not hundreths of an inch. Its just easier for me to use without the conversion.

[Bruce Page]

I've been using dial clipers for over 30 years and I have never had a battery die yet.

Seriously, I do not like the “feel” of the digital ones.
The Brown & Sharp dial clipers have the best feel, IMHO.

[Jay Knepper]

It's purely a matter of personal preference. I have an analog caliper which I like, but my next one will probably be digital becasue there is no chance of misreading it.

[Andrew Haynes]

Everything you ever wanted to know about calipers http://www.longislandindicator.com/calipers.html

[Effie Lever]

Thanks guys, good advice as usual.

[Mike Vermeil]

Digital, digital, digital.

My Dad is the oldest of old school when it comes to mechanics, and even he is using digital calipers and micrometers.

[Mark Singer]

I have both and perfer the digital...it is easy to read

[Nick Mitchell]

digital is my preference, I also work in metric

[Greg Mann]

Best bet is digital with auto on and auto off. The battery will last forever (practically). There are new versions that will withstand harsh environments such as cutting fluids. Very robust, shop dust is no issue. There is no rack and pinion mechanism as you will find in dial types. The r/p system is an achilles heel. Mitutoyo, Starret, and a few others have these in their lineup. They are very good.

Greg

[Dev Emch]

I am a hard core machinist as well and run a hardinge lathe among other things. Make many of my own shaper cutters.

I have both. In fact, I will cut you a deal on my digital starrett caliper if you really want it. I think digital calipers are junk. I switched back to a starrett dial caliper which reads the last two figures on the dial. The first figure is read from the stem. Very easy to use. Very accurate. No batteries and poking buttons. Unless you need an SPC RS-232 port for your computer, the dial caliper is often the better choice.

I also have an extensive set of starett micrometers which read in 10ths! Had to special order these as the regular micrometers only read in thousandths. Even though the digital mike can support the 4th significant figure, its accuracy is in question.

So I would get the old fashioned stuff in analog. But I would also make sure I got starrett or brown & sharpe.

[Dev Emch]

By the way, I have an ELO DRO on my shaper. That is Digital Read Out. This device was lifted from the metalworking industry and is dead on accurate and reliable. I think DROs are awsome and the ones I truely love are the Newalls made in England. For woodworking, the A50 looks pretty good. The rest of the linup is metalworking only. Check out www.newallusa.com.

My hang up with digital calipers is the frailty of the unit and the absence of an off button. I was using it heavily and replacing batteries every 4 to 6 months. Also, it would go out to lunch until the auto off kicked in and shut it off. When this happened, you can only wait until the auto off sequences. On power up, it IPLed correctly and life was good until the next out to lunch episode. So I just feel more comfortable with the dial indicator these days.