Good calipers....

[senlow]

Over the years I have acquired several calipers - Fowler, SPI, Mitutoyo, NSK, Starrett, and Horrible Fright. I like Starrett, and have a number of their products. However, calipers are not their best product. Mitutoyo makes an excellent set of calipers. They have as much accuracy as one can expect from calipers. Batteries seem to last forever. I think that it has been almost a year since I replaced the battery in mine, and I NEVER turn it off - it is on 24/7. Also Mitutoyo calipers last a long time. My present set is 6 years old and sees constant use every day. The Horrible Fright calipers are a super value for the cost. They are reasonably accurate. They do eat batteries quickly, and wear more quickly than higher quality products. Most of the others are just also rans. They are no more accurate than HF and cost much more.

I prefer digitals for a few reasons - there is no rack to catch a chip, they read in inches and metric, and can be rezeroed anywhere over their range. The latter is especially useful for measuring bore depths over a pin, and center to center distances between bores. I hope this helps.

 

[Uncle Buck]

This looks a bit different than the generic ones.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QW6OGQ/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I do not think there is a lick of difference under the skin between those and the HF's, but ya know, they look a little flashier than the HS's and the price is really not that much greater, so if you like them get em, you are only talking about a difference of something like $10.00!

 

[Elroy]

If you are doing press fits on small diameter work a good quality micrometer with a slip clutch and some gage pins may be worth considering.

In Elroy's opinion, Based upon the original question:

Looking for a good set of machinist calipers.....
They will basically be used for measuring press fits and small metal parts.....

The "Gorilla Man" has generated the BEST response. No way is a caliper going to give precise enough measurements for "press fits". Any caliper, regardless if digital, dial or vernier is going to be lucky to repeat to .001.

Depending upon the rigidity and size of the parts, a light press fit could be in the .0001" range and there "aint" no caliper going to do that job. Elroy would agree with the Gorilla in that BT Guy needs a micrometer and some "standards"

 

[gorilla]

If you need to do close bearing fits you should use a intra micrometer that measures with three legs and comes with a calabration ring, these are quite expensive but accurate to .0001. Needless to say your outside micrometer needs to be just as accurate. In the machinists world calipers are considered to be accurate to about .002.

 

[JayL]

This is $ 18.01 against $ 88.44. Do you think the cost of getting the more expensive one will justify the cost if I am going to be using this tool for general use only?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

or

http://wihatools.com/400seri/411serie_calipers.htm

 

[Uncle Buck]

This is $ 18.01 against $ 88.44. Do you think the cost of getting the more expensive one will justify the cost if I am going to be using this tool for general use only?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

or

http://wihatools.com/400seri/411serie_calipers.htm

No, get the cheap ones for incidental use, they will do everything you need them to.

 

[JayL]

Ok . I can then spend the money saved for other tools. Tks for the advise.

 

[Kevin54]

They will basically be used for measuring press fits and small metal parts. Not looking for anything in the hundreds of dollars, just something nice. No preference between digital or an older dial model.

If you are doing press fits on small diameter work a good quality micrometer with a slip clutch and some gage pins may be worth considering.

Most difinatley use mics for press fit parts. Mics for the male and pin gages for the female. Calipers, verniers, etc. to me are nothing more than reference. I have a few pair in both dial and digital and never use them for precision measurment. Plus, calipers will not measure tenth accurately and two pwople will get two different readings. Shop around and pick up a good set of 0-1's, 1-2's and 2-3 mics and you should have things pretty well covered.