Calipers...

Hi,

I need to buy good calipers - could anyone suggest me a brand / model? I'm a little bit overwhelmed by the selection of calipers going from $20 to $500 ... and looking fairly similar to me. Now, I understand that there's certainly a difference of quality, and that you get what you pay for, etc, but what kind of tolerance should I look for for knife maing?

Thanks,

JD

You should get something that measures to 1/1000 of an inch. Some people like the digital ones but you can bet the battery will go dead right when you need it. A good dial caliper will meet the need, make sure it 1000's and not 100's on the dial.

Thanks Bob - what about the *maximum* measurement? I can't think of a reason why I would want more than 6" - am I wrong? I'm mostly interested in big fixed blades.

Also, how much have people invested in their calipers? MSC direct seem to have ones at the $20 (cheap imports), $50 (Nuline, Peacock,...), $75 (Mitutuyo, Fowler, Helios), $100, $140, and $200 price points.

Thanks again,

JD

My two sets of dial calipers have served me for over twenty yrs. The one is now about shot, since I got some milling chips into the innards, so I am about to buy another one, too. I'd like to try a digital, but like was mentioned, batteries wear out. If you get a dial, get one with .100" per revolution, as those with .200"/rev. are quite small graduations and are much harder to read. I've got both.

Enco's flyer, that's good until 12/31/01, has them listed from $14.99 to $139, dial and digital. There's a Mitutoyo digital for $69.95 and one for $86.69, which look tempting. A Brown and Sharpe dial for $79.95. You might like the black dial for easier reading. There is also an Enco model for $18.99, which might be worth the price, yoou're certainly not out much if it's not too long lasting. My last one, from MSC lasted a long time and I think it cost aobut $40. MSC would have similar offerings. The Mitutoyo is still perfect, but the graduations are the smaller variety and I like USING the other one the most.

You might srioiusly consider getting a set with carbide jaws, as you'll probably appreciate having them eventually. They'll hold up MUCH better. Occasionally, you'll find yourself scribing a line with the tip of the jaw(s). They'll cost more, however.

I've bought a bunch over the years - 3 names stand out in my experience - Starrett, Mititoyo, and Brown & Sharpe. You'll pay for all three, but quality isn't cheap.

My primary caliper is a 6" Browne & Sharpe with a 0-100 dial (this reads in .001 but you can get a pretty good idea about thenths with it). The 0-50-0 dials are harder to read fine measurements with).

Stay away from the digitals; not only for the battery issue, but their tenths capability is really a joke - you can display to 4 decimal places much easier than a caliper will repeat a measurement to 4 decimal places. Also the zero feature can create a disaster - grind to a measurement and then find out that the caliper was zeroed incorrectly and you'll find out why (don't ask me how I know this).

I've dropped my Brown & Sharpe at least twice (not recommended) and it's still smooth and accurate.

Thanks all. Of those 3 brands, Mitutoyo is the only one where MSC carries a sub-$100 model. I'll check my Rio Grande catalogue later but it seems that Mitutoyo is the way to go...

JD