For pity's sake guys, BUY CALIPERS !!!

[iiipopes]

...And that is accuracy, not just precision.

It is good to again see someone who knows the distinction, in context.

[gwwilk]

I went to my local Harbor Freight here in Richmond,Va. . Sold out ! But ....... they gave me a rain check ! They even asked me how many I wanted to buy with the rain check. Maybe I should buy 2 . The regular price is $29.99.

I was at the local Harbor Freight at 8:15 AM Friday to pick up a couple of calipers and other bargains I couldn't resist. While I was at the checkout a couple more people came over and asked the checker where the calipers were located, and another person had them in the line as well. This was a very popular sale. On Thanksgiving one of the questions was "Are you going shopping tomorrow, and what for?" My family laughed at me when I told them I was getting up to buy calipers on Black Friday. The extra calipers are going to be my part of the $45 blind gift our family exchanges on Christmas Eve (men give to men, women to women of course.) Ho ho ho!

[imperialbari]

If you follow bloke’s advise, you will be able to play the music measure by measure.

K

[sloan]

the primary advantage of these calipers is that they work exactly the same after being dropped on the
concrete shop floor.

[jstrother123]

Thanks for posting the coupon, I took it to the Harbor Freight in Tulsa and they still had 5 (now 4) on the shelf. A great addition to my tool collection.

Jim

[Rick F]

Thanks for posting the coupon, I took it to the Harbor Freight in Tulsa and they still had 5 (now 4) on the shelf. A great addition to my tool collection.

Jim

Yes thanks Joe,

I used the coupon and got one today too. This one is normally $24 marked down to $19.99 - but half that price with the coupon. There was only one in the store which had the exact item number (98563) as the coupon. Looks to be a pretty nice set of calipers too... even measures depth.

[Rev Rob]

When I worked for an organ builder, I was advised to purchase an 8" Mitoyo digital caliper. I then worked as a machinist and put them to use there. Digital calipers can give you accurate readings if you do not try to "fudge" the reading by squeezing/pushing too hard. Bloke, is also correct is saying you need to take a number of readings, to get an reasonably useful reading. As you use digital calipers you will develop a touch in using them, and you will gain confidence in the results they give you. Believe the numbers they give and not the numbers you want to see.

[imperialbari]

Ever so fine calipers cannot solve the problem that brass tubing hardly ever is perfectly round, so please remember that the main bore of any given brass instrument invariably is found at the meaty side of the mouthpiece.

K

[Paul Scott]

I would also say beware of the cheapest digital calipers. I bought an inexpensive brand from Harbor Freight and the unit was so inaccurate as to be useless. We're not talking slight inaccuracies here: the thing was off by about .025 inches. Oddly, the inaccuracy only occurred when using the inner diameter calipers and not the outer. Spend a little more and get something decent-you get what you pay for.

[Rick Denney]

I've never been a fan of digital calipers. They need batteries and are subjec to losing their calibration with only a minor whack. My good calipers calibrated in inches use a Vernier scale, and provide a reading precision down to .0005" or so. They are certainly accurate to the nearest thousandth, as compared with my Fowler micrometers, which are an order of magnitude more precise (and which also have a Vernier scale).

My metric calipers are dial calipers, and are not quite as accurate, though they are accurate enough and very easy to calibrate.

Neither cost more than about $40 for decent quality.

I've never noted any difference between the outside and inside calipers. But measuring holes and bores is notoriously difficult--it requires considerable technique to find the actual diameter of a hole, and not be off slightly.

Rick "whose SAE Vernier calipers are at least 60 years old--and still perfect" Denney