Calipers!! Digital or Dial?

[no704]

I’m training a ME Inturn on some basic machining. He of course has digital calipers. I showed him how easy it is to find the sweet spot on a measurement and how easy it is to see how much still needs to be taken off with dials vs digital.
Next session he showed up with his own dial calipers. I’m very proud!

 

[cannuck]

I have spent a half century with vernier and digitals and seldom used dials. Accuracy to me is about how you handle the caliper. Not sure how any of the three readouts could allow any more accuracy than what is afforded by using properly.

 

[xjfish]

To me a dial is very slightly more accurate based on feel and watching a needle. I mostly use crude digital ones for my non machinist typical crude measurements. I think accuracy depends on the measuring tool and tool holder...

 

[npp]

I learned to read neither, no dial or digital. Still have the old school one in my toolbox but now that my eyes have matured I use the digital.

 

[no704]

I have some old mit veneers too. But I didn’t want to blow the young lads mind just yet.

 

[no704]

To me it’s not really the accuracy of a digital, They can certainly do that. It’s more, with dials you can see what’s there, better than a number.

 

[KwikFab]

 

[Torque&Recoil]

Like Kwik says - there is something to say about both. My advice is, if you go digital... go Mituitoyo. Never Chicom.

 

[paulsomlo]

I have both and favor the digital, but lately, my digital's developed an issue and the display goes crazy on me, so I'm glad to have the dial ones or I'd be dead in the water.

 

[682bear]

The batteries have never went dead in my dial calipers...

I have an 8" Mitutoyo digital... but the only use it gets is to do quick conversions between inch and metric

-Bear

 

[paulsomlo]

What I like about digital calipers is the ability to zero it and have it do my math for me.

 

[RoninB4]

-It's mostly a personal preference IMO. I started in the trades before digital was available and mostly used a Vernier, still have several of them. By the time digital was available it was more expensive and bulky than a Mitutoyo dial caliper. A few co-workers experienced dead batteries at the wrong moment which convinced me to remain with dial/Vernier.

I've stripped a couple of dial calipers down for cleaning/repair and don't think I could do that with a digital. Bought a B&S once to replace the Mit and got something in the "covered" rack I couldn't repair so I gave it away.

The needle of the dial type allows me additional info a digital doesn't, I can do the math in my head. I prefer the Mitutoyo above all others but that's just personal preference. Use what works for you.

A caliper doesn't give you a reading that should be trusted below +/- .002 anyway. If you need to trust the number smaller than that use a micrometer, order of magnitude thing.

 

[Ohmthis]

I have both and use the digital more at work where everything is measured in Metric. I’m not doing machine work, but need them for proper fit up. I completely agree on seeing the sweep and putting it in my head vs just seeing a number.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I have 3 B&S dials spread around in my home shop, along with two Mit digitals. The Mits get used for metric conversion as I can’t bear being focused on something and having to go through the button pushing game or battery replacement to get something ready to use. 30 years of the dials at work programmed me otherwise.

 

[txvwnut]

I started on a vernier and switched to a digital. I used the digital for several years until I noticed one day it wasn‘t reading accurately. It would gain a few thou over the actual measurement the farther you opened the jaws. I switched back to a vernier since I don’t have to worry about batteries or getting coolant or cutting oil on it and messing any of the electronics up.

 

[mark-NJ]

I'm a dial guy. Always have been.....likely always will be.

 

[gahrajmahal]

In my first engineering job I had our third party shop make some expensive adapters based on my measuring the mating parts with the shops digital calipers. Of course they were off by a lot, but the guys on the shop floor liked me and told the boss it wasn’t my fault that I used their faulty calipers. They showed the boss that the digital calipers were way off. With new measurements made with a dial caliper, We had a new adapter made up at great expense and rush rush. I’ve never liked digital calipers since then. Of course I learned from that mistake, learned how to verify measuring equipment and know dial calipers can be off too. Now at home, my very occasional use of calipers I never have to worry about dead batteries with my dial calipers.

 

[slowtwitch73]

I would rather have a high quality version of either.

Many of the 'cons' mentioned for digi cals simply don't exist if you have Mitutoyos.

 

[dscheidt]

I recently saw someone on YouTube shilling a rechargeable digital caliper. It hadn’t occurred to me that this existed, but of course it does. There seem to be a bunch of them, no idea about any of them. They all claim 30min charge and months of use. If I needed a beater pair, I would probably get a pair of the rechargeable ones.

 

[bornbadbob]

I have all 3 types, probably a couple pairs of each but only use the digital ones now

 

[jar944]

I prefer dial calipers and digital micrometers.

 

[dr_clyde]

Dials are fine if you seldom use the caliper and the battery life is an issue just sitting.

If I had to choose between a quality dial or a cheap digital, dial all the way. Cheap digitals **** so bad.

However, Mitutoyo's Absolute Digimatic calipers are so good I can't think of a situation where I'd rather have a dial over a Digimatic.

I use 6" and 12" Digimatics daily, and I can't imagine going back to dials and trying to make money. It doesn't take much to mess up the rack and pinion on a dial, and they just don't ever read the same after a skip and reset. Batteries last for months/years on the Mits and because the encoders are absolute, they don't lose position when the battery voltage gets weak.

Calipers are only really good to a few thou anyway, then you should be measuring with a mic. And Mitutoyo's Quantumikes own the digital mic space too...

 

[RPH]

I have all three styles. They each have a use and place in my world. The hardest thing when doing fine measurements is feel. If you can't repeat the measurements, then the results don't matter. So, from feeler gauges to high tech laser measurements. If it's not a repeatable measurement, it's useless data to cloud minds.

 

[jbltwin1]

Got all three also. Use them all in different situations. I usually end up using two of them to verify that one or the other hasn't taken a dump.

 

[jessesandy]

Can't squint enough to use a vernier.
Drill press operator in the 80s, dial of course.

I wonder, when did the first digital come out.

Now, cheap digital.
Size hardware, pick out a drill bit.
Scribe layout lines.

 

[RoninB4]

I wonder, when did the first digital come out.

-The first digital electronic calipers were introduced in 1977, utilizing a glass scale and a photoelectric reading device.

 

[dffay]

I’ve used both though I prefer the never needs a battery dial. Whichever I reach for in a project, I try to use it all the way through til the end. I’m not having some variance of measurement between two instruments. If one is off by a micron, then it will likely be the same uniformly.