Canadian Tire Vernier Calipers
- Thread starter 22to45
- Start date
If any of your digital calipers come on at .0005 or .001 then before you zero them open up and wipe a CLEAN finger over the jaws. A speck of house dust or a flake of your skin on the jaws will cause them to register that amount. If freshly wiped they might just go back to zero.
I've got a couple of digital calipers but my go to is the 4 or 5 mechanical dial calipers. They are all no name imports from a few years ago. And when checked against the micrometer standards I have they are dead on to within a needle width. And they don't drift at all. And I don't need to worry about removing the battery.
At this point the only time I use the battery digital calipers is when I need to work in metric. Oh, and the same wipe the jaw trick is needed on the dial calipers now and then. They quite often show a half thou over zero but go right back to zero when I wipe off the jaws.
I've got a couple of digital calipers but my go to is the 4 or 5 mechanical dial calipers. They are all no name imports from a few years ago. And when checked against the micrometer standards I have they are dead on to within a needle width. And they don't drift at all. And I don't need to worry about removing the battery.
At this point the only time I use the battery digital calipers is when I need to work in metric. Oh, and the same wipe the jaw trick is needed on the dial calipers now and then. They quite often show a half thou over zero but go right back to zero when I wipe off the jaws.
I have a cheapo (~$40) pair of 0-6" digital calipers from Lordco (probably the same Asian mfr. as CT, Princess?) and they've been fine for what I use them for. If I were a real macinist I'd probably shell out for Mitotoyo or Starrett, though.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone had any experience with STM or Asimeto? I have a catalogue from Technicut Industrial Supplies in Surrey BC, and they sell both brands, as well as Mitutpyo and Starrett.
If I feel nostalgic when having to measure something less than 1", I pull out this oldie, which I picked up in a secondhand store in Bellingham WA for about $35.00. Still made, but now list for about $155.00 US
View attachment 236373
Just out of curiosity, has anyone had any experience with STM or Asimeto? I have a catalogue from Technicut Industrial Supplies in Surrey BC, and they sell both brands, as well as Mitutpyo and Starrett.
If I feel nostalgic when having to measure something less than 1", I pull out this oldie, which I picked up in a secondhand store in Bellingham WA for about $35.00. Still made, but now list for about $155.00 US
View attachment 236373
My Starrett 0-1" mic was $45.00 new - somewhere in Vancouver, on "clearance" price - Asimeto digital 8" caliper, Asimeto dial 6" caliper, Mitutoyo 12" dial caliper. Dial calipers and actual vernier calipers (I have a 6" mitutoyo vernier) don't wear out batteries.
I have a cheapo digital that I sometimes use for overall length when setting up loading dies, but mostly the above ones were used in tool-and-die in an EDM shop to check if we were in or out of tolerance on the first part out of the wire machine.
I have a cheapo digital that I sometimes use for overall length when setting up loading dies, but mostly the above ones were used in tool-and-die in an EDM shop to check if we were in or out of tolerance on the first part out of the wire machine.
I have a couple sets of Starrett micrometers, I used to use them back when I was in the machine shop and building motors. I can't remember what I paid for them back then, but I'd guess around $40-50.00
They are a very well made tool, that can stand up for a lifetime of use.
They are a very well made tool, that can stand up for a lifetime of use.
- Location
- West Quebec
Thanks what a surprise will have a look I need a better set
Same random quality Chinese low end stuff as any other source, but you sure can't beat the return policy. Not happy? They WILL make good!
Oh yeah, the laughing Pedant in me wants desperately to point out that CTire calipers are Digital Calipers, not Vernier.
A Vernier Caliper uses a series of lines slightly out of phase with the actual ruled measurement scale, to measure the in between thousandths of an inch, and requires decent eyesight but has no moving parts to go wrong.
A Dial Caliper uses a rack (straight gear teeth section) and a pinion (the little wee round gear) to move the needle on a dial (thus the name!) to show the distance traveled. They can get discomboobulated if too muck junk gets in to the teeth of the rack section.
Most makers include a tool for lifting the pinion off the rack, allowing you to adjust the position of where the needle rests at Zero.
Digital Calipers (mostly) use a magnetic reader to read a accurately made scale which is buried under the sticker that runs along the length of the main body of a digital caliper. They have assorted different possible issues, the most common being that people think they are getting a tool that is far more accurate than what it really is expected to be even by the makers. Handy as heck for inch-metric conversions on the fly, as the internal circuitry is counting both at the same time, you can easily set the zero point to a sample and have it read out pluss or minus from there, and if you sprung for good ones, you can even hook them up to record the measurements for quality control purposes. Though, maybe not the CTire ones, LOL!
A clean sheet of paper makes a great tool to clean the jaws. Close the jaws up on the paper and slide it off, then set zero. Do a visual check as well as a tactile one. Close the jaws tight and hold them up to a light and see if you get an even line of light through the gap in the jaws when you look through. Run your fingernail along the faces of the jaws and feel for dings, esp. at the tip.
Small dings can be carefully stoned off. Larger ones relegate the tool to the bin, or for the wood shop or welding shop for laying out rough lines.
A Vernier Caliper uses a series of lines slightly out of phase with the actual ruled measurement scale, to measure the in between thousandths of an inch, and requires decent eyesight but has no moving parts to go wrong.
A Dial Caliper uses a rack (straight gear teeth section) and a pinion (the little wee round gear) to move the needle on a dial (thus the name!) to show the distance traveled. They can get discomboobulated if too muck junk gets in to the teeth of the rack section.
Most makers include a tool for lifting the pinion off the rack, allowing you to adjust the position of where the needle rests at Zero.
Digital Calipers (mostly) use a magnetic reader to read a accurately made scale which is buried under the sticker that runs along the length of the main body of a digital caliper. They have assorted different possible issues, the most common being that people think they are getting a tool that is far more accurate than what it really is expected to be even by the makers. Handy as heck for inch-metric conversions on the fly, as the internal circuitry is counting both at the same time, you can easily set the zero point to a sample and have it read out pluss or minus from there, and if you sprung for good ones, you can even hook them up to record the measurements for quality control purposes. Though, maybe not the CTire ones, LOL!
A clean sheet of paper makes a great tool to clean the jaws. Close the jaws up on the paper and slide it off, then set zero. Do a visual check as well as a tactile one. Close the jaws tight and hold them up to a light and see if you get an even line of light through the gap in the jaws when you look through. Run your fingernail along the faces of the jaws and feel for dings, esp. at the tip.
Small dings can be carefully stoned off. Larger ones relegate the tool to the bin, or for the wood shop or welding shop for laying out rough lines.
- Location
- West Quebec
That's a major reason I buy some things there
The only reason I got a Mitutoyo is I got fed up with having to change the batteries everytime I wanted to use that cheap POS crappy tire caliper/ Crappy tire is like Vortex, you buy it because of the warrenty that youll have to use.
The guys who sell measuring tools to the gun crowd are laughing all the way to the bank. The stuff I see cooked up like rim thickness gauges, micrometer adjustable dies or what have you sold for big dollars can be accomplished with a 15 dollar dial indicator and a cheap magnetic base or a garage sale micrometer.
It’s not fair to blame the caliper for not measuring to a thou, if you want to measure your bullets accurately and sort to a half thou or less a princess auto mic will serve you a lot better then the best mitutoyo caliper you can buy. If that’s to slow measure one and set up a dial indicator with a mag base and have the Point contacting a flat surface and you have a half arsed snap gauge good to under a half thou depending how good your eyes are.
Nothing wrong with mitutoyo, starett ect, but it’s expensive and overkill. I buy em for work and have their digimatics in 8”, 12” and a carbon fibre 24”..........still don’t trust them to measure to a half thou. And have f to do a lot of reworks from guys who try. Probably 80% of my caliper measuring is done with a 12” STM dial caliper I bought 15 years ago for 70$. It gets hosed with WD-40 and blown out with compressed air about twice a year.
Just trying to save you money so you can buy more guns, and help you do some more accurate measuring so you can hit more of what you’re aiming at.
It’s not fair to blame the caliper for not measuring to a thou, if you want to measure your bullets accurately and sort to a half thou or less a princess auto mic will serve you a lot better then the best mitutoyo caliper you can buy. If that’s to slow measure one and set up a dial indicator with a mag base and have the Point contacting a flat surface and you have a half arsed snap gauge good to under a half thou depending how good your eyes are.
Nothing wrong with mitutoyo, starett ect, but it’s expensive and overkill. I buy em for work and have their digimatics in 8”, 12” and a carbon fibre 24”..........still don’t trust them to measure to a half thou. And have f to do a lot of reworks from guys who try. Probably 80% of my caliper measuring is done with a 12” STM dial caliper I bought 15 years ago for 70$. It gets hosed with WD-40 and blown out with compressed air about twice a year.
Just trying to save you money so you can buy more guns, and help you do some more accurate measuring so you can hit more of what you’re aiming at.
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