Digital Caliper Purchase Help Please

[John Coloccia]

I have lots of dial and digital calipers in my shop. I really like the mechanical dial for measuring inside diameters, for instance, because finding the longest dimension is easier. There's uses for both. If I could only have one, I'd take the mechanical, but fortunately I can have more than one

[fRED mCnEILL]

My caliper that I got from Lee Valley does fractional, decimal and metric. I like the fractional because my saw AND planer also have decimal readings so there is continuity among all three. However, my favorite tape measure is fractional so that cause a problem from time to time.

[Dar Lounsbury]

Have a 6" Mitutoyo dial I bought 35/40 years ago to use in the motorcycle shop. Have used it for about 10 years in the wood shop and it is still going strong. Love it. Digital or dial will work well for you. To do over, I would buy a digital that reads fractions also. I have used the under $20 units with good luck. Cost is not the important factor here, buy what feels good.

Dar

[Alan Schaffter]

I started with a HF but it quit in a month.

I have a Wixey and like the way it shows decimal and fractions at the same time.

To all those who wonder about the short battery life for many of the digital calipers (and other small digital measuring devices- It is only partially the battery's fault (when it uses tiny button batteries or is supplied with cheap ones).

The reason battery life is limited is because even when the display is off the sensor circuitry stays powered up so it retains calibration. You can't do it in a small caliper but you can use larger batteries on bigger devices the AAA's Wixey is starting to use on his new remote reading planer height gauge, angle tilt box, etc.

[Stephen Pereira]

I got tired of buying batteris at four bucks a pop and now used my dial Starrett or Yuasa caliper. They don't have all the bells and whistles..instant conversion to metric or fractional reading but I figure if you need the accuracy of a caliper you shouldn't be thinking in fractions of inches in the first place.

[Matt Day]

I've had one of these for about 4-5 years and love it. http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-...per-47257.html

I probably go through a battery or two a year, but you can pick the batteries up cheap at places like HF and even the dollar store I think.

I don't mind the decimals (let's not get into why we have inches & feet in the first place!), and frequently use it as a depth finder. I couldn't be without it!