Digital calipers

[Jim Foster]

I have a Starrett dial caliper that's been in my shop for 20yrs, no problem w/dust in the rack&pinion. If anyone makes a decent dial caliper for a decent price anymore, I think the dial has merits. The biggest is it's always easy to read, and it never runs out of juice.

[Keith Outten]

I own three of these 6" instruments.
The first is a 30 year old Craftsman dial caliper, it has always worked well.
The second is a Mitutoyo digital that is the best of the lot but an expensive caliper and way to accurate for woodworking.
The third is a recent purchase, its a Wixey digital that provides both metric, SAE and fractions.

For day to day measurement I prefer the Wixey hands down. This is a nice instrument that is very smooth, reliable and accurate. I own a 1.000" certified standard that I use to check my calipers periodically so I know they are accurate.

30 years ago I was issued a Brown and Sharpe 6" dial caliper when I worked for Stone and Webster Engineering. I carried the B&S in the case in my back pocket for three years using it every hour of every day doing pipe inspections. I don't think the digital instruments existed in those days but the B&S was the smoothest caliper I have ever used and it was checked in our CAL lab every six months.
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[Kent A Bathurst]

I have a Starrett dial caliper that's been in my shop for 20yrs, no problem w/dust in the rack&pinion. If anyone makes a decent dial caliper for a decent price anymore, I think the dial has merits. The biggest is it's always easy to read, and it never runs out of juice.

Agree.

The thing I like about the fractional dial calipers is that they are analog - and each "tick" on the dial corresponds to a "tick" on my TS fence, and my PC routers. I think in "ticks", not decimals: "One tick under 7/32" - that kind of stuff.

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

I own a 1.000" certified standard that I use to check my calipers periodically so I know they are accurate.

I would think that this just confirms that they are accurate at 1.000", not necessarily their entire range.

[Mark Burnette]

I would think that this just confirms that they are accurate at 1.000", not necessarily their entire range.

In my entire career I have never seen an exception. Even on dial-types which use gears...they just go round n round & dont accumulate error.

[Jerome Stanek]

Where I work we have a Starrett, a Mitutoyo, and a cheap Harbor Freight and they all are accurate. The Harbor Freight gets used the most.

[Keith Outten]

I would think that this just confirms that they are accurate at 1.000", not necessarily their entire range.

Harvey,

Your right, it doesn't provide any proof that the instrument is accurate beyond one inch but it does give me a reference metric. As Mark indicated it would be very rare for an instrument designed as these are to provide a measurable error over its range of measurement.

If I didn't own a standard I would at least find a piece of material that I could use to check my calipers periodically. If they produce the same measurement every time I would develop some confidence that they are accurate. If I had two or three instruments that all provided the same readings I would be even more confident that my instruments were working properly.
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[Ronald Blue]

With a quality set of calipers with clean jaws they should read and repeat zero when you close them. Obviously digital could read erroneously as you open them and without a standard you couldn't be sure of accuracy. However as previously stated dial type don't have accumulative error. If they read zero and 1 inch you can be confident that they are correct throughout their range. I have had dial calipers jump a tooth because of a fine metal chip but it is simple enough to "jump" them back into correct clocking. As I recall 1 tooth off was a .020 error on the dial.

[Mike Heidrick]

Great point Ron. I finally read the word "dial" in your message vs digital.