Can anyone suggest a quality set of calipers Dig/Dial

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refueler1

refueler1

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Guess I need to buy a set of calipers because I am always sanding on my bushings and hiting them with my tools. What type/brand is a good caliper to purchase?
 
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I bought the Harbor Freight digital calipers. Work fine. I've heard that the battery life is limited, but I've had mine for almost a year and am still using the original battery.
 
I have a set of Starrett, SPI, and Mitutoyo digital calipers.
The Starrett is by far, the best.
 
Honestly, for the tolerances we need in pens, almost any all steel DIAL caliper will work just fine. I have a $10 chinese 6 inch dial caliper on the bench next to my $200 Mitutoyo and can't tell any difference for what I use them for on pens. Now the feel is worlds apart, but TANSTAAFL. To my knowledge there is no such thing as a good cheap durable digital caliper however. If you want digital, and want it to work, be prepared to pay! You almost never find a professional machinist or tool and die maker using anything but a mechanical dial in the real world, and that should tell you something.

Now if you are a fellow tool Junkie like me and just like to fondle fine precision and vintage instruments, nothing beats a pre war starrett dial caliper freshly refurbished at the factory. It only costs one arm to get a good one, and a leg for the guys at the factory to restore it to it's fresh from the box pristine beauty. But it's a work of art in and of itself. Matter of fact they will return it to you in a brand new sealed box, unless you ship it in the original hand fitted wooden ones, in which case they will strip it down, clean it, refit it and hand wax and buff that for you. Brown and Sharpe are also very fine quality precision instruments with a long history.
 
I've got some Lee calipers leftover from when I was reloading for my handguns. To be honest as someone here has already pointed out the cheapest calipers you can find will work fine for pens as long as it has a locking screw. For pens we are not measuring, just comparing the size of the fitting against the size of the wood. What seems to work for me is I measure the pen fitting add 2 thou. and sand with 220 or 240 grit to that. Then light sanding with 320 and 600 add my CA finish and 99% of the time am right on the money. When I sand I take the blank off the bushings and put it between centers hold it just tight enough for sanding. I was considering a set of plastic one's for $6 but no way to lock the setting and I was afraid it would get moved accidentally so I passed on them.
 
I have a Mitutoyo I use and I have had the cheaper ones as well.The cheaper ones work fine for basic pen work. The main advantage to a digital set is you can switch between metric and inches at the push of a button. Since most the parts are made in metric to start with. The better digitals work smoother and the batteries seem to last longer.
 
What seems to work for me is I measure the pen fitting add 2 thou. and sand with 220 or 240 grit to that. Then light sanding with 320 and 600 add my CA finish and 99% of the time am right on the money

Curious...is this about what others are figuring for "oversizing" before sanding to final size AND keeping in mind the thickness of the ca finish?...

Thanks as usual...
JeffG
 
DozerMite said:
I have a set of Starrett, SPI, and Mitutoyo digital calipers.
The Starrett is by far, the best.
Click to expand...

I measure aircraft parts as an inspector at work and have the opposite feelings about the Starrett and Mitutoyo digital callipers. Now I will qualify that by saying I haven't used any of the newer Starrett callipers (company hasn't bought any more) in the last 10 or so years but I hated the older ones with a passion. Hope the newer models are better. I prefer the Mitutoyo but they are overkill for most pen turning.

Pete
 
I have an old plastic General dial caliper that I bought back in the early '80s and it keeps on tickin'! I can understand a machinist needing accuracy, but a pen turner? Not necessary for wood.:usflag:
 
Rick_G said:
I've got some Lee calipers leftover from when I was reloading for my handguns. To be honest as someone here has already pointed out the cheapest calipers you can find will work fine for pens as long as it has a locking screw. For pens we are not measuring, just comparing the size of the fitting against the size of the wood. What seems to work for me is I measure the pen fitting add 2 thou. and sand with 220 or 240 grit to that. Then light sanding with 320 and 600 add my CA finish and 99% of the time am right on the money. When I sand I take the blank off the bushings and put it between centers hold it just tight enough for sanding. I was considering a set of plastic one's for $6 but no way to lock the setting and I was afraid it would get moved accidentally so I passed on them.
Click to expand...

So when you guys use calipers you arent using them to measure just to compare diameter.... Guess I was under the assumption that you use the calipers to measure, thats why I was thinking about buying digital so that you could read the measurements easier than reading the dial. SO,,,,,all I really need is a good dial caliper?
 
I have several digital---battery life is an issue, for me.

I also have several HF dial--I use them ALL the time--no batteries and accurate enough for me.
 
Curly said:
DozerMite said:
I have a set of Starrett, SPI, and Mitutoyo digital calipers.
The Starrett is by far, the best.
Click to expand...

I measure aircraft parts as an inspector at work and have the opposite feelings about the Starrett and Mitutoyo digital callipers. Now I will qualify that by saying I haven't used any of the newer Starrett callipers (company hasn't bought any more) in the last 10 or so years but I hated the older ones with a passion. Hope the newer models are better. I prefer the Mitutoyo but they are overkill for most pen turning.

Pete
Click to expand...

My brother is a certified master machinist and tool and die maker, so I get a lot of his opinions on this stuff, but one thing is for sure.....We are treading on some very touchy subjects here, along the same lines as people's religion, politics, and relative merits of their offspring! :-)

Huge volumes of opinion, fact, myth, deliberate misrepresentation, and outright BS have been written on measurement instrument makers, models and brands. They inspire loyalty in their adherents comparable to that of the proponents of Chevy vs Ford, Aberlour vs Dalwhinnie and Helmans vs Miracle whip! Like anything else of value, there are hand tuned precision instruments capable of remarkable accuracy, and there is machine made crap with lousy QC and manufacturing practices, and often the same company putting their name on both at one time or another. For the most part you get what you pay for, and unless you are really sure of what you need, and how to make sure you are getting it, trying to get something on the cheap will often get you nothing but grief, no matter what name you buy.

There is no doubt that you can pay lots of money for the name on something that is no better than another at half the price if you are not knowledgeable and careful. You can also pick up a bargain on a fine instrument in the used market if you know what you are looking at. But it's a fine line, and even the pro's occasionally get fooled.

For the purposes of turning wooden pens with hand guided tools on a wood lathe, almost any metal dial caliper with a lock screw that is functioning as well as it is intended to will be accurate enough. Even a tool that is nowhere near machining tolerances is capable of measurements more accurate than the tools we use can reproduce.
 
refueler1 said:
So when you guys use calipers you arent using them to measure just to compare diameter.... Guess I was under the assumption that you use the calipers to measure, thats why I was thinking about buying digital so that you could read the measurements easier than reading the dial. SO,,,,,all I really need is a good dial caliper?
Click to expand...

That's pretty well what I do, I don't really care what the actual size of the part is I just have to turn and sand the wood so they are both the same. Bushings I only use as a guide. They may or may not match the parts depending on which company made the kits you are using.
 
Jeff G said:
What seems to work for me is I measure the pen fitting add 2 thou. and sand with 220 or 240 grit to that. Then light sanding with 320 and 600 add my CA finish and 99% of the time am right on the money

Curious...is this about what others are figuring for "oversizing" before sanding to final size AND keeping in mind the thickness of the ca finish?...

Thanks as usual...
JeffG
Click to expand...

That seems to work for me but you would have to experiment for yourself, different lathe speed, more or less pressure applied when sanding or even brands of sandpaper can change everything.
 
"We are treading on some very touchy subjects here, along the same lines as people's religion, politics, and relative merits of their offspring! :-)

Huge volumes of opinion, fact, myth, deliberate misrepresentation, and outright BS have been written on measurement instrument makers, models and brands. They inspire loyalty in their adherents comparable to that of the proponents of Chevy vs Ford, Aberlour vs Dalwhinnie and Helmans vs Miracle whip!"

Please don't misunderstand what I said, my post was to point out that one persons tool of choice is not always anothers. I am not brand loyal and have no problem changing my mind when presented with a better alternative. I have always found each maker has some great tools in their line ups and some less so. I have various kinds of Starrett, Mitutoyo and Asian import at home and am happy with them all. I also have no qualms about using traditional verniers, dial caliper and the digitals. They all have their place and we all have preferences. In the end the user should look around a bit before selecting anything, consider all the features and whenever possible try the tool before buying. Being informed is the most important part of tool buying no matter what the tool type.
 
DozerMite said:
I have a set of Starrett, SPI, and Mitutoyo digital calipers.
The Starrett is by far, the best.
Click to expand...
Wow James ... I'm very impressed!

I personally use a couple of Cheap HF Calipers on the recommendation of a friend who makes Bamboo Fly Rods. He said they are as accurate as his Starrett Dials he used to build his airplane with. Besides, I'm not trying to make a Space Shuttle just pens and reel seats.

I personally don't care if they are accurate to the "nth" degree as what I usually do is use them to measure all my loose bushings that roll around together in a box.
Then I measure the bushing I'm using to make the pen and then lock the caliper in place and then use it as a GO/NO-GO gauge if that makes sense to anyone.

I bought two because the batteries always drain on these things and I use my calipers a lot. Now, both calipers digital displays are blinking ... battery time. I also have an old Starrett(?) Dial caliper that always works ... no batteries but I forget I have it until I saw your post.

Came in the house and grabbed my laser light I use to torment, errr play with the cat and the batteries are dead in it too ... guess I can clean the garage.
 
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Curly said:
"We are treading on some very touchy subjects here, along the same lines as people's religion, politics, and relative merits of their offspring! :-)

Huge volumes of opinion, fact, myth, deliberate misrepresentation, and outright BS have been written on measurement instrument makers, models and brands. They inspire loyalty in their adherents comparable to that of the proponents of Chevy vs Ford, Aberlour vs Dalwhinnie and Helmans vs Miracle whip!"

Please don't misunderstand what I said, my post was to point out that one persons tool of choice is not always anothers. I am not brand loyal and have no problem changing my mind when presented with a better alternative. I have always found each maker has some great tools in their line ups and some less so. I have various kinds of Starrett, Mitutoyo and Asian import at home and am happy with them all. I also have no qualms about using traditional verniers, dial caliper and the digitals. They all have their place and we all have preferences. In the end the user should look around a bit before selecting anything, consider all the features and whenever possible try the tool before buying. Being informed is the most important part of tool buying no matter what the tool type.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, and I'm not fanatical about one brand or another either. I can't afford to buy quality machine tools new, nor do I have the need to justify them, as I'm simply a poor, imprecise woodturner, and I often turn things that aren't even the same size as the drawings! (gasp! shocking, I know. Baby Bro still shakes his head at me over that) I was simply pointing out the often humorous degree some people are attached to their favorite brand of widgit.
 
Curly said:
"We are treading on some very touchy subjects here, along the same lines as people's religion, politics, and relative merits of their offspring! :-)
Click to expand...
Shoot Pete ... want to see some real treading on subjects and touchy feelings???

Visit a Bamboo Rod forum with lots and lots of these great fellows who are very traditional in how a rod is to be made, what kind of glue, what varnish and even as a topic today, what size guides and how many on a rod.

Sometimes things can get a little dicey on opinions ... and then there are some that are pretty good at using a stick to stir things up a bit <LOL>
 
I use the HF digital...the kind with fractions, since I use it for other things besides turning. I just pick up a card of batteries at the dollar store. 3 LR44 batteries for 99 cents.
 
I believe that the quality of a persons tools, reflects in the quality of a persons work. If a person can afford a quality tool, they should own it.

Yes, it's possible to use low grade tools and get an acceptable piece. It just creates more work to achieve an acceptable end product. I'm speaking of tools in general.

The only reason I like the Starrett over the others (which work just fine) is the smooth operation along with the dead on repeatable accuracy, weight and balance.
I'm not loyal to any brand (I used the SPI and Mitutoyo quite a lot before I got the Starrett) , but instead, I use what works best for me.

If at all possible, test several brands and see for yourself which you prefer.:wink:
 
Tools we bought when we were both working are top quality. Retired on a fixed income means Harbor Freight:mad:
 
Nothing wrong with HF, so far, but Sharon----

Sell more pens, you can improve your fixed income!!
(That's part of my plan!!)

(By the way, can you be "broke" when your income has been fixed??? food for thought!)
 
Harbor Greight is kind to the pocket book, works well and leaves money for blanks - I would love to have a Starrett but for me that would be like putting tennis shoes with a tuxedo!!
 
I have plenty of blanks.:wink:
You wouldn't catch me in a tux either.

I do more than just pens... I need reliable tools.
As for calipers, I need one in the dungeon, one in the shop and a spare one to go with me to the in-laws when I'm working on projects there.
I got real good deals on some of my tools when my dad was a millwright. He got great deals through his employer and would let me know when he was placing an order.

With a fixed income, it would be easier to spend a little more for the good stuff. You know what you will have the next pay period. Now days, a person never knows if they will have a next pay period. Jobs get dropped and lost much too often.
 
I have Mitutoyo, SPI, and a few others. I like the feel of the Mitutoyo ones best for myself. If you read the stated accuracy of any of them, it's generally +-.001" and repeatable to .0005". That's the same on the $95 Mitutoyos or the $10 on sale HF ones, so I went ahead and got 3 more pair of the HF ones. They seem to work fine when measured against my gage blocks, although they don't have the same silky feel of the Mitutoyos. Maybe some motion control grease can smooth them. I now can leave them all over the shop and always find a pair of calipers when I need one.
 
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