Looking to buy a quality set of meaurement calipers (vernier). General purpose use.  Should I go digital or analog (dial) type?  Pros/cons? Any brands to recommend?  Thanks for any tips or feedback.

Starrett's top of the line - $140 or so.  But you can a cheap one made in one of those oriental countries that'll do for most anything +/- 0.0005".

I've got a whole mess of [url=http://www.starrett.com/]starrett[/url] stuff(including a 6" dial caliper as refrence here). So please no bs about what follows, I do my damnest to always buy American.


I was at [url=http://www.harborfreight.com]Harbor Freight[/url] for something.. saw their [url=http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47257]digital calipers[/url] on sale, for less than $20, I thought I'd give them a try, as I did not have any metric calipers and I was needing to measure some metric stuff...  Anyway, You can always take stuff back at harbor freight with a receipt.

Impression:

I was impressed, sure made in China, I had 2nd,3rd and 4th thoughts about even looking at them..

They are very nicely finished, dare I say as nice as [url=http://www.brownandsharpe.com/]B&S[/url].

nice fitted case

spare battery included!

I got out my Starret standards, and this thing was as accurate as my Starret 6" I have (analog dial) (accurate to 0.001 but reads out to 0.0005")

metric & standard in one unit.


not bad for the [i]sale price[/i] of $20, if you don't have the budget for Starret.

Pave:   Get a Starrett 120 series, dial type, stainless steel, made in USA.  Brownell's has them for around $120, but you can find them in new condition on ebay for half price.  Just type Starrett into the search box.  They are quite useful and handy tools.

www.micromark.com

#82556   Digital  $40

#80973   Dial Caliper  $33

I have the Dial Caliper, use it for measuring overall length of brass for reloading, etc.  All I need for this work.  Lots of other good small tools from this company, they will send you a free catalog.

I swear by Mitutoyo. Use their metrology instruments at work every day.

[url]www.mitutoyo.com[/url]

-T.

Mitutoyo is nice - I have their solar/electronic caliper and a Digimike set (non-electronic) that I got as a company christmas gift a couple jobs ago, and I RILLY like them!  Eyes get a little tired trying to read those Vernier scales, y'know?

Buying for myself, I wait until I can afford Starrett or Brown&Sharpe.  Failing USA, I will ONLY go European (German is good) or Japanese with offshore-made stuff.

Same thing with tooling.  I have been looking into getting a compact lathe and mill, or an all-in-one machine.  A buddy tried to turn me on to Grizzly, but all their bases and ways are made in Taiwan - no thanks!  

I'm going to get a Sherline set when I get the scratch together - the set I want (that will do MOST of what I want to do) I expect to run about $2,000 - that's for a compact lathe and an 8-way mill, plus dividing table and other accessories...

FFZ

I tried teaching one of our junior employees how to read a vernier scale. He had no expierience with precision measuring instruments other than a digital caliper.

I stood around the corner where he couldn't see me giggling about remarks such as:

"What the f^%k is this!"
"F*&K this shit!"

Quite amusing..

-T.

Thats funny....I'd like to see him try to use a MARINE SEXTANT!!!!

Enco has a good selection of calipers and other tools. They have a catalog similar in size to Brownell's. [url]www.use-enco.com[/url]

You can get a 6" digital Starrett with carbide face and digital outputs for $220. Expensive, but it can be useful if you need to take a series of measurements and want to capture the output into a computer.

I try to buy everything American, but I'm flexible when it comes to ammo.