Shopsmith Forums

Father's Day Sale: Can someone help me understand why a plastic, manual dial caliper costs more than a stainless steel electronic digital caliper, both before and after they are on sale?

Is one better than the other?

Thanks, Mike

What I do not understand is how HF can sell a ss digital 6" caliper for less than $10 and vxb bearings can give one away for an order of $25 or more.

Both seem to be quite accurate(for now) and appear durable. A digital caliper is much more easy to read than the dial or vernier type.

There seems to be a 'flood' of these currently available at widely varying prices(0 to $30+). Their functionality varies also(in/metric, in/frac in).

I suspect that the cost of the electronics used in digital calipers have come down a great deal in the past few years. Dial calipers are entirely mechanical and have ultra precision moving parts. It is highly likely that electronic calipers are now cheaper to make than the dial type, a situation probably similar to that encountered with modern wrist watches.

I still have a couple of dial calipers, and I like them. It seems like I'm always buying batteries for the electronic calipers, at $5 a pop. I have one electronic caliper that quit functioning after a short use. My dial calipers are twenty years old and will still be useful long after the electronic calipers fail. I even have an older vernier caliper, but don't use it anymore.

For ease of use, the dial caliper is much better than the vernier caliper. Similarly, the digital caliper is much better than the dial caliper. If you only have to make a few periodic measurements then there probably isn't too much difference between the dial and digital, however you will really appreciate the digital if you have to do a lot of measuring.

As mentioned above, batteries can be a problem. I have used a Mitutoyo digital caliper for about ten years, the batteries last for years. A great tool.
The guy who ran the Aerospace Engineering machine shop bought a Brown and Sharpe digital and hated it. It went through batteries in no time and more importantly would continue to give measurements even after the battery lacked the power for the caliper to function properly. He banished them to a drawer after ruining a few parts.

I'm not thrilled with the plastic calipers, there are too many inexpensive stainless steel calipers on the market to bother with plastic.

Troy

Been wanting to post here for a couple days, but couldn't think of the name "vernier":o . Geeze! I hate it when that happens! This morning had a chance to get out my dial caliper. As soon as I opened it the word came back!:)

I now have both xxxx (actually vernier) and digital (electronic). Although the digital is very accurate and easier to read, I keep asking myself, "Why do I need this much accuracy?" Frankly, I really don't give a damn if a piece of wood for a project is X+33/64" wide. All I really care about is that it is X+1/2". When using the vernier caliper, I can quickly and easily see that piece of wood is slightly over X+1/2. Using the vernier scale, I can very accurately see how much more! The difference in the lines shows me!

This means the piece might need a little tweaking to for a perfect fit. The dry fitting will tell me.

The only issue I have with the vernier caliper is it is sometimes hard for these old eyes to see it clearly, especially in some light. However a hair over or a hair under is a lot easier to see on the dial than to work with the many fractions on the digital.

Yeah! I could go to mm. or thousandths on the digital, but to me that again would be too many numbers. The less complicated the numbers, the easier the fine measuring and the easier the project.

ANOTHER OBSERVATION - With any measuring with a caliper, there is always a chance the caliper is not exactly 90 degrees to the object, thus making the figure slightly larger than reality. This difference is shown exactly on a digital, and may be believed more than a dial unit.

Oh Oh.

Am I wrong? I have been looking at Shopsmith because it is so accurate. Do I read here that I should be satisfied with accuracy to 1/32"?

I have been thinking 1/64" while sometimes interpolating to something in the middle.

stitcher wrote:Oh Oh.

Am I wrong? I have been looking at Shopsmith because it is so accurate. Do I read here that I should be satisfied with accuracy to 1/32"?

I have been thinking 1/64" while sometimes interpolating to something in the middle.

You can cut 'pieces' of wood to 1/64" and measure them more accurately.

Just do not expect them to measure the same thing tomorrow(especially if it rains overnight);)

Keep in mind we are not working with solid metal!(even that changes with temperature variations)!

By the way.. If anyone wants to know the difference between the different types of calipers, checkout this page.. I've got a dial caliper as well but have no idea where it came from..

[ATTACH]9197[/ATTACH]

I use them all but I probably rely on the Digital from Wixey a little more than the others.

For years the only one I had was the Brown and Sharpe Vernier which I have had for much longer than my Mark V.

I must think like Charlese. I like dial calibers over digital because I can see how much I'm over or under.

I like clocks with hands better than digital clocks. It is easier for me to see 5 to 12 than it is to visualize 11:55.

That said I would have loved to have a set of digital calibers as I was arguing with the garage door repair man that came to replace my torsion springs. He kept wanting to install .225 gauge wire springs and I kept telling him the originals where .234-235 gauge.

Finally after two sets of 225 of various lenghts he installed a pair of .235 in the correct lenght and guess what the door started working right. And I paid $200 for the exercise in frustration. Nobody will sell spring anymore. I was going to order from the internet but I needed them to quick.