Thread: What reputable caliper manufacturers are out there?

Mitutoyo....the cost will be long forgotten but the quality remains. The original battery is still operational after two years....never missed a beat and has been dropped once.

"Insize" have been a good mid price option for me.

I get them from Trade Tools.

If you have the money, Mitutoyo is pretty much the gold standard.

Starret are also good quality.

ok in short, Mitutoyo however here is some background for me

I work in a laboratory and we have needed to have calibrated calipers, so what i used to do when we needed quite a few is go to bunning, mitre 10 etc and buy the calipers they sell, they were cheap i think $40 or so. i would buy 10 at a time because i know they wont all pass calibration, and usually 2-4 of them would fail calibration and would go in the bin. but still worked out cheaper for us as they guys kept on breaking/losing them

But yeah thats why you buy Mitutoyo as they are good and will pass calibration.

Mitutoyo vernier scale is the most robust, however i have switched to a digital Mitutoyo

With measuring instruments you get what you pay for

Starrett or Mitutoyo are good as suggested, otherwise with digital I just wouldn't with the cheaper brands. Although to be fair I have two sets here that I ended up with as part of bulk lot tool purchases, and I do use them for their convenience as +/- to a measurement when I'm machining something in the lathe. Otherwise I have a pair of cheaper 'nobrand' vernier calipers which I use for my measuring jobs, and if I have something that needs to be accurate I have a set of Starrett micrometers in a lovely rosewood box. They are really quite nice...

Some of the digital verniers have a bit of an issue with repeatability with how you move the slider, if you move them slowly you can sometimes get one measurement but move the slider quickly and you get a different measurement of the same part. It's something I find a little frustrating, and I ended up with a set of measuring standards that I use as consistency testing for the calipers while using them. I select one that's close to what I'm needing to measure, and between measurements I can close them and make sure they are zero'd OK then hit the standard and make sure they are accurate there as well. Its quite surprising how often they fail on one or other measurement and need to be either turned off and on again or rezero'd at max and then closed and rezero'd there to get them back on song. Often it's as simple as leaving them in the sun after being in the shade and that's enough to knock them out of whack.

The more expensive brands just don't have that issue. It's nice knowing that they are good to go straight off...

You can have mine for parts!��

I've got a Mitutoyo dial vernier I won for the 5th form engineering prize at Ruapehu College in 1983.
They are still in use in the machine shop, and still check against gauge blocks.
Buy once..... something profound - I forget

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

I've got a Mitutoyo dial vernier I won for the 5th form engineering prize at Ruapehu College in 1983.
They are still in use in the machine shop, and still check against gauge blocks.
Buy once..... something profound - I forget

I have one of those too, came in a red box. wonderful instrument. i just switched to digital so i can flick over to imperial easily

I used a kinchrome one at work for 8 years which was still good. Have now got a Starrett one which works fine.
Mitutoyo if you can afford them.

MY Mitutoyo set sits in the garage for measureing random stuff.....I must be a heathen LOL....

Got a kingchrome that shit so Im going to set at 125.1 mm and weld in position as a Paua measure

Originally Posted by m101a1

Got a kingchrome that shit so Im going to set at 125.1 mm and weld in position as a Paua measure

17.5 is a great bottle opener........don't ask me how I know....?

Knockoffs etc to beware of.
https://youtu.be/UdsurNbGRI8

And to verify genuine. This chap also compares expendive vs cheap models.
https://youtu.be/D-YvG_BVfnU

Actually I think that's one of my manual ones - a Kinchrome. It's actually pretty good for a cheap brand, not sure how a digital vernier of theirs would go but the manual has done many years of lathe work and a small amount of abuse thrown in like marking out circles for gas cutting. Still sharp on the tips haha too...