Digital Caliper Preferences

[Warren Lake]

I kept my caliper under my pillow for the first year. Its paid for itself 20 times over, yeah my post states ive been hard on it, so what. Its still accurate. Ive used it as a marking gauge on wood 100's of times and metal whatever number of times with the blue die stuff. The worst thing that ever happened to it is it fell into a rubber maid container with some other tools, the bad was i couldnt find it for a few days then had to use the back up one I dont like. Happy day when I found it which solved the mystery.

[John K Jordan]

I kept my caliper under my pillow for the first year. Its paid for itself 20 times over, yeah my post states ive been hard on it, so what. Its still accurate. Ive used it as a marking gauge on wood 100's of times and metal whatever number of times with the blue die stuff. The worst thing that ever happened to it is it fell into a rubber maid container with some other tools, the bad was i couldnt find it for a few days then had to use the back up one I dont like. Happy day when I found it which solved the mystery.

I don't use mine to mark wood (usually doesn't need to be very precise, especially on the lathe), but I do scratch marks in Dykem Blue on metal for machining. Most often it's on the metal lathe with a hand-held or for the mill on a granite surface plate with this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007EMPCQ4
510fT2tGicL._SL1000_.jpg

I was taught that marking on metal by scratching through layout fluid was an acceptable use for calipers. The guy who does the amazing Clickspring videos uses this method a lot, for example at 0:40 in this video:


I could watch his videos all day. Wait, I've done that.

JKJ

[Warren Lake]

thats cool John, amazing what metal guys can do. Remember being at the tool and die maker he would zero out his Bridgeport,. (real one and he had bought it new) then just dial in his numbers on the digital read out to .0005. I asked for a bushing .020 thick to go on a router bit bearing, he said you want slip fit, interferance fit or press fit? I thought you can actually make a thing like that and have such control on tolerances. Unlike me his calipers always stayed in the case He took good care of his machines but his shop was cluttered and you walked through narrow isles of stuff to get to machines. I told another German friend if they saw how messy his shop was they would take his German Citizenship away. Made a part for Honda once and they said it was the best quality they ever had made.

[Keith Hankins]

Mitutoyo for me! Although, I bought a cheaper model (not cheap) and wondered what the diff was? Found out the cheaper model, did not have auto off! Sucks, as I've killed a few of the batteries (my fault).

Love love it it's more accurate than I can get with wood!

[Nick Decker]

Before I purchased the Starrett I looked around for a Mitutoyo fractional dial caliper, couldn't find one.