Calipers at Maplins

I bought one of these at a recent exhibition.I've no complaints and it has a large digit display.

Tim Leech wrote:

Keep an eye on your local Liddl they do em at about £8.

GBP 8.50 inc VAT (plus GBP 3.95 postage if that is all you get.) However with such things as "self-adhesive and blood-stemming plaster" and a "Special Rabbit Bottle" on offer it is hard to see how that is all one would order.

The web site is dire but the catalogue is well worth getting as it has lots of things you never knew you needed :-).

"Made of extra-strong carbon fibre" - ie, some sort of plastic resin. And I don't see a thumb-wheel.

No these are the plastic crap one made for woodworkers. They only read to 10 thou, and that's on a good day.

Arc Euro is still doing his show offer on calipers. £8.99 for 6" and £14.99 for 8" That's including VAT but postage is a bit extra.

Not sure what postage is, check his website out.

Same price as Aldi and Lidl when they have them in but at least for a phone call you are guaranteed of getting them.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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I have two digital calipers, one is 150mm and the other is 300mm, both have certificates of accuracy, neither works when I decide to try to use it because they both eat expensive batteries. I didn't buy them, sort of inherited them for free. (another story)

My cheap and cheerful 150mm vernier caliper, now 40 or 50 years old never fails and has cost me nothing more than the original purchase price. It is no less accurate than the two above which were originally intended and used in practice for calibration purposes.

I could go on to extol the virtues and ultimate satisfaction gained from using firmer calipers in creating things that fit without having to worry about exact numbers.

Enough said.

Donald

I have two digital calipers, one is 150mm and the other is 300mm, both have certificates of accuracy, neither works when I decide to try to use it because they both eat expensive batteries. I didn't buy them, sort of inherited them for free. (another story)

My cheap and cheerful 150mm vernier caliper, now 40 or 50 years old never fails and has cost me nothing more than the original purchase price. It is no less accurate than the two above which were originally intended and used in practice for calibration purposes.

I could go on to extol the virtues and ultimate satisfaction gained from using firmer calipers in creating things that fit without having to worry about exact numbers.

Enough said.

Donald

For me the digitals have two great virtues:-

1)They are easy to read - I struggle now to read a vernier without a magnifying glass

2) they can be used easily for differential measurement

Of course any cheap electronic measuring device has to have its readings taken with a bit of a pinch of salt, but that doesn't stop them being useful.

Your two digitals may be early ones if they eat batteries at a high rate?

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Sounds right.

I have a Mitutoyo digital caliper that seems to last for about a milennium on one battery (well at least, I haven't changed the battery since the last milennium ;-)), and a cheap Chinese digital mike that seems to last about a nanosecond before needing new batteries.

Regards, Tony

I have a Mitutoyo digital mike which is a nice piece of kit except that there's no off switch, so the battery lasts about 9 months. That wouldn't bother me if I was using it all day every day, but it's a bit pricey for an average maybe two or three times a week. I suppose I could take the battery out, but life's too short...

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Very odd - mine has an onn/off switch.

Regards, Tony

Mine doesn't have an on switch either

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

The mitutoyo digital mics we use at work are the same, no off switch on them. They power down after a while then power up again when you spin the thumbwheel. Mind you we also have a mitutyo digimatic holtest bore gauge where the battery has lasted about 10 years, 'cos thats the last time it was used. It was bought for one particular job then consigned to the draw after 6 months when we bought a CMM. Given the cost of the things it was quite a badly planned purchase.

Peter

In message , Tim Leech wrote

I know this is probably in the teach grandparent how to suck eggs but still.

At work we found that the digital mic's batteries lasted longer if we locked the barrel after use, because that way they wouldn't get accidentally switched on if the barrel was moved.

As an aside at work a couple of years ago they effectively banned callipers (digital or very near) from being used for critical measurements IIRC because of errors from flexing of the back/shaft/ruler bit/whatever its called. In my bit of work we favour non contact measurement but that's p/r/o/f/e/s/s/i/o/n/a/l/ /v/a/n/d/a/l/s/ fatigue testers for you.

hi,,just a quick note on these digi verniers,,dont get them wet, at all

they tend to switch off, and if your really unlucky they wont wor again,,if you do happen to get a little coolant fluid in the working then place it on a radiator over night to dry it out, if you got a bo with your digi vernier its best to replace in the box overnight an place some desicant bags in the box to soak up any dampness, they ar easily taken apart and cleaned, i had to do mine the other day, work fine again, there is now a carbon fibre one on the market for aroun £10.99 from linear tools

its worth a look a this site plenty of good stuff to be found here.

bil

-- blueswar

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Maybe mine are faulty - they don't appear to power down, there's no mention of that in the instructions either. Bit late to take them back after at least 4 years, though :-(

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

I seem to have struck lucky with my unbranded caliper that I bought unseen from a catalogue three years ago. Despite using it every few days it is still on the original battery, so I shall probably lose the two spare batteries that were supplied long before I need them. The only problem I have had was breakage of the plastic retainer for the thumbwheel, which that was easily replaced with a piece of brass. Its accuracy does not matter to me as I only use it for comparative measurements.

Cliff Coggin.

I think I've put two batteries in my Mitutoyo in 15 years, plus the original one of course so about 5 years per battery. It's got the on/off switch but I'm a bugger for leaving it on for days on end which always annoys me when I spot it. Doesn't seem to run the battery down much though. It's only failing is that it's become quite magnetic now so I'm always wiping swarf off the jaws when I'm trying to measure anything. If there was an easy way to demagnetise it without removing all the electronic gubbins first I'd like to do so. Any ideas?

-- Dave Baker

Economics lesson one

New battery £0.50

New glasses £150.00

Ipso Facto - case rests.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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