Real vs. Fake Mitutoyo Dial Indicator

Thought we might take a look at the difference today. I've been doing some work on my lathe and decided that my no-name Chinese dial indicator needed replacement. It seemed kinda sticky and I've had it for quite a while but I'm far more educated about decent tools now, and I have a decent Noga base, so-a-shopping I went. I settled on a basic Mitutoyo since I have some of their digital calipers and really like them. Found a great deal on Amazon warehouse on the 2416S for right about $65. Normally runs right about $100, figured that if it sucked, I'd return it. Like a lot of AW purchases, it turned out just fine. Looked brand new, but was missing the little pointer that snaps to the bezel, but for $30+ off, I can live with it. Anyhow, in my shopping, I'd noticed that there were quite a few sellers of a "Mitutoyo 2046S" on eBay for about $20. Yes, it's a slightly different indicator, but being metric is about the only real difference, specs are similar both being "Series 2". Not having a metric indicator, and not really needing one allowed me to decide to spend the $20 and have one shipped to my door, knowing full well it probably wasn't authentic, but what the heck. (The pricing for the 2046S is normally 4x that amount.)

My first indicator (ha ha, get it) that something wasn't quite right was the box. Felt flimsy and the finish was matte, not glossy. Typeface was pretty good on the top, but the side started to give away the origin wasn't Mitutoyo. Interestingly, the plastic support in the boxes was pretty similar. In fact the fake one was probably better, being slightly thicker plastic.





After unboxing, at first things look pretty good. (For your reference, the real one is on the left, fake on the right) The dial is pretty much perfect. On dial alone, you probably could not tell the difference. There are a few subtle differences, but it's pretty much spot on.



That is, except for this guy (see the crud next to the 1 in the serial number?) there are a few other "extras" in there as well...hmmm. If you had it in your hands, you'd notice that the bezel on the fake is damn hard to turn. The real one is tight, but not impossibly so.



Let's look at the back. The photo isn't the best, but you can still obviously see the surface finish is quite poor on the fake. Observe the screws and the cutouts for them as well. (Left is real, right is fake) . When I went to put the backs on, the fake only allowed me to put the back on one way - the holes are obviously not drilled/tapped with the precision needed to rotate the back.



Notice the mount for the lock in this photo. Should be no question now. It's also hard to tell, but the real one is painted with a silver flake paint and the fake is more of a brushed, anodized finish. The fakers phoned in this part - a simple screw instead of a clamp mount.



A look at the stem and contact points. Real on the left.



I removed the back to take a look, but before we do, let's look at the back of the plate. Should be obvious who is who here.



And finally, I present you the guts. Whoa, baby...stunning difference here. No plastic...and although I didn't photograph it, my old Chinese indicator looks 90% the same on the inside as the fake Mitutoyo. The difference in feel is noticeable, but only side-by-side. If you only had the fake, you'd probably think it worked pretty good.



So there you are. One interesting thing to note (I didn't photograph) is that with the real indicator, the "Certificate of Inspection" has the serial number that matches my indicator, while the fake one ships with one that isn't even close - That made me chuckle.

EDIT: Just checked the original auction - my serial number matches the one in the photo they are using for sales. If you're gonna fake the damn thing, at least match the freaking serial number on the certificate, especially since they're all the same. SMH.

Anyway, happy to answer any questions, and caveat emptor! If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Must say the real Mitutoyo is pretty nice and a huge upgrade from what I had. Nothing like a good tool.

J

Who'd a thunk it? Thanks for an excellent tutorial on the differences.

jack vines

Thanks for the education, that was an excellent tutorial. I’ve seen lots of talk here about them, but no one I’ve seen yet posted any real details.

Good job!

How about testing them against each other for correct readout...

I'd love to do it, but I don't have the training or standards needed to do that. Besides, one is metric and the other is in freedom units.

J

For $20, it hardly seems worth running afoul of trademark laws. HF sells one for $16.99.

Great work, one of the most interesting things I have read on here in a while.

Nor'Easter said:

How about testing them against each other for correct readout...

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Great job sleuthing, OP. From first blush they did a good job faking it.

Ave did a video on fake mitutoyo calipers awhile ago so other tools being faked isn't a surprise.

bobcatdan said:

Ave did a video on fake mitutoyo calipers awhile ago so other tools being faked isn't a surprise.

Click to expand...

One of his early videos was showing how good (relative) a princess auto/HF digital caliper was. I wonder how good these are (the caliper was pretty darn good).

cptn_zippy said:

...And finally, I present you the guts. Whoa, baby...stunning difference here. No plastic...and although I didn't photograph it, my old Chinese indicator looks 90% the same on the inside as the fake Mitutoyo...

Click to expand...

Yep, as soon as you got it open, I recognized the Chinese indicator guts.
FWIW, I use my Chinese indicator to measure runout on car rims, and to align the table to the arbor on my tablesaw, and it's perfectly up to those tasks.

For proper machining, I pull out my better indicators.

Farmall450 said:

One of his early videos was showing how good (relative) a princess auto/HF digital caliper was. I wonder how good these are (the caliper was pretty darn good).

Click to expand...

His opinion was it was a fairly good copy, but the same cheap guts that will kill the battery very quick compared to real thing. Machining was hit and miss.

I've often thought about punishing the sellers of fakes by using eBay policies. eBay says it's against the rules to sell fakes and fakes do not have to be returned. Basically if you convince eBay that the indicators was fake you can get your money back. I have no qualms about doing this to the sellers of counterfeit goods but I've been worried that eBay won't agree it's fake and then I have to return the calipers. Yes, the calipers are likely to be usable but for the same $40 I'd rather get a set of igaging absolute calipers.

I’d like to see the people importing and selling those burned. That kind of infringement isn’t cool. Perhaps the manufacturer is immune from the rules but the importer and seller need their feet help to the fire.

Yes, The IGaging Absolut calipers are very nice for the money.

I am surprised Starrett combo squares are not faked, either cast or forged versions. At least I have not seen them if they are.

NC Rick said:

I’d like to see the people importing and selling those burned. That kind of infringement isn’t cool. Perhaps the manufacturer is immune from the rules but the importer and seller need their feet help to the fire.

Click to expand...

True. I'd bet the majority of these fakes are actually sold in mainland China. It's kind of a hyper capitalist free-for-all there, and since it's less regulated there's lots more shenanigans like this.

This also might explain why we don't see so many Starrett fakes, I'd guess that Mitutoyo is a much more recognized brand in the Asian markets.

I'm surprised Mitutoyo doesn't aggressively pursue these sellers on Ebay. I know SKF has a group dedicated only to going after counterfeiting.

I know this is an older post, but thank you @cptn_zippy for taking the time to put this together.

​

Years ago I intentionally bought a fake mitutoyo digital caliper. Must say it was darn good quality and I think I also only paid around 30$ on aliexpress. I have original ones too. It would fool a lot of people.

Grinding and finish and even the box are near identical as the real one. Some corners are maybe a bit sharper but really close.

The big sign to me was the slide friction adjuster - on the mitutoyo you can't remove the thumb screw completely, it's riveted on the inside. The Chinese one can be removed completely.
And the other very obvious sign is that the chinese one goes on the moment you move it. The original only goes on when you press the button.

The chinese uses up the battery way faster. I think it is just always on and you turn off the screen. This is so that the "absolute scale" works (a feature most cheap calipers do not have). The Mitutoyo actually goes off.

For the money they are decent but I would not buy it again. If they made the electronics slightly better it would be seriously great.

My first generic Chinese calipers were quite good other than the poor battery life. The grinding wasn’t Mitutoyo good but similar to the iGaging stuff I’ve liked. The latter ones showed clear cost cutting in the hardware. I’ll still use them for quick, rough measurements but they aren’t as good as the first set I had.

The poor battery life is likely a two fold thing. First, the battery draw is higher since they don’t power off. Second, Mitutoyo uses silver oxide batteries instead of alkaline. They have slightly higher voltage and more capacity.

BTW, if you can find them, Mitutoyo did provide calipers to ST Industries. I’ve picked up both a 6 and 8” set for very low prices on eBay. Here is an example (no knowledge of this seller https://shop.idealprec.com/products...0-300mm-range-0005-0-01mm-resolution-open-box)