Dial calipers or Digital, which is better, easier to use

I'm 70 years old and have chronologically gifted eyesight and like digital calipers with big numbers. That being said I have a cheap digital caliper that reads to .0005 and that is good enough. Watch the video below.

 
I made the mistake of buying cheap digital Mastercraft calipers from Can. Tire. They work but the thumb wheel is mushy and will give variable readings depending on force, and there is no way I can train muscle memory to use the same exact force every time. Also I cannot trust that the zero does not wander, and find myself re-zeroing alot. Battery life has been good. I mostly use them now for metric measuring.

I switched to using Hornady dial calipers, (inch units) and mostly use these for everything. I wear bifocals but don't have a problem with reading them. They feel very solid, very repeatable. When using the bezel to zero it I have confidence its not moving. I am guessing its made in China and no where near as good as a high-end dial caliper, but so far it seems to work good.

In comparison tests I find these two calipers give different readings of a thou or two. I should buy a gauge block for testing.
 
I use Mitutoyo digital at work, and Mitutoyo dial at home for reloading, etc. The digital is more convenient because of the pushbutton conversion from metric to standard, and the ability to zero it at any opening size.
Having said that, the dial is very good to use as well.
The last Starrett dial I had at work was a piece of junk compared to the 30 yr old Mitutoyo I have at home.
 
I started with a cheap digital caliper. Eventually I got tired of batteries running low, and a screen that always seemed to be zeroed somewhere other than zero, or set to inches when I wanted metric, or vice versa. So I switched to a moderately priced (I think $60) dial, metric only, and I'm glad I did.
 
Many good points above that I also learned the hard way. A big difference between an "accurate" gauge and one that is reading out 4 places after the decimal - on the one I bought it says on paper that it is accurate to plus or minus .001". Does not matter that it read .0231" - that still means the real measurement might be .001" less or .001" more from that reading - or somewhere in between. I found that I got a real lesson when I got a Mitutoyo micrometer and attempted to read to .0001" - just the hand tension / finger tension that you use will change the result. Not a hope that any sliding thing is going to allow you to measure to a .0001" accuracy - it might give you that many numbers, but nothing says that is the "real" measurement. The classic for me was as stated above - measure something 5 times - how many different measurements did you get? I am finally down to 2 or three values, if I measure the same thing with the Mitutoyo micrometer. For me, an awesome improvement from where I started. And then there is checking that it reads "0.0000" when closed, and "1.0000" when it is on the standard gauge. None of the callipers that I have bought came with a standard - a ground precision reference gauge. Tells me something about how accurate the makers think they are.
 
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I use CT digital calipers. Seeing as I don't compete in the precision category, these suit me. I just pop the battery out when I am done using them. They were about $15.
 
4n2t0 said:
I use a cheap digital because really, really, really, really close is good enough for me.
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x2 I use the CT ones as well. More than accurate enough for reloading hunting ammo. Battery is still going strong after 7 or 8 years - at least.
 
I guess that makes me a bit of an measuring instrument snob??

My calipers as well as micrometers are all either Starrett or Mitutoyo
 
I have both. I think a dial can eke out a bit more accuracy as it is analog, but it is also prone to grunge on the rack mucking up measurements. Digital is definitely simpler to use. I have enough measurement tools that I can check them all against each other and some artifacts I have. Cheap Mastercraft calipers are hit and miss- I have 2 since they fell off the ark and they both measure great. I had a third that just wasn't up to snuff.
 
Started off with the cheap CT digital and it did not last long, just stopped working after half a year.

I could not justify the cost of a Mitutoyo and bought an Igaging Absolute Origin since it had good reviews, its been great so far.
 
Potashminer said:
Many good points above that I also learned the hard way. A big difference between an "accurate" gauge and one that is reading out 4 places after the decimal - on the one I bought it says on paper that it is accurate to plus or minus .001". Does not matter that it read .0231" - that still means the real measurement might be .001" less or .001" more from that reading - or somewhere in between. I found that I got a real lesson when I got a Mitutoyo micrometer and attempted to read to .0001" - just the hand tension / finger tension that you use will change the result. Not a hope that any sliding thing is going to allow you to measure to a .0001" accuracy - it might give you that many numbers, but nothing says that is the "real" measurement. The classic for me was as stated above - measure something 5 times - how many different measurements did you get? I am finally down to 2 or three values, if I measure the same thing with the Mitutoyo micrometer. For me, an awesome improvement from where I started. And then there is checking that it reads "0.0000" when closed, and "1.0000" when it is on the standard gauge. None of the callipers that I have bought came with a standard - a ground precision reference gauge. Tells me something about how accurate the makers think they are.
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No dial, digital or vernier caliper can be used for accuracy greater than a .002" tolerance, that is, +/-.001". The manufactures never claim they can do better than that.
For four digit precision, even micrometers graduated in ten thousandths require a skilled hand to get a repeatable AND accurate reading.
 
Cocked&Locked said:
No dial, digital or vernier caliper can be used for accuracy greater than a .002" tolerance, that is, +/-.001". The manufactures never claim they can do better than that.
For four digit precision, even micrometers graduated in ten thousandths require a skilled hand to get a repeatable AND accurate reading.
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Not to mention over time wear on the tips will result in a few thou difference.
 
I use a Lyman dial caliper for reloading and work around the house, not precision work but does everything I need it to do fast and reliably.

The first time I used a digital caliper was when we were issued one with our tool set at work. It wasn't a great quality one but it didn't really have to be. Anyway shortly after we started using it I noticed something wasn't right. Randomly it would be off by 0.200" and occasionally by 0.400". What scared me wasn't that it had such a gross error but there was no way to know that it wasn't right; no erratic needle movement, no binding, nothing. Cleaned it, changed the battery, still messed up. Company replaced it and the new one failed it's calibration check after a year, no warning. We have since purchased a $50 dial caliper which has given us 8 years of service with no issues.

Just my view.
 
Machinist here. Go digital - just make sure it has a home position and doesn't treat 0 as wherever you turned it on. Those are BS and too painful to deal with in 2021.

0.004 is a sheet of paper. If you can measure 0.001, you're golden. Maybe get a 15$ chinese 1-2-3 block as well to use as a gage and reference one. The more contact you have, the better reading you'll get.
 
I started with a Mitutoyo & Mauser verniers (one in metric the other imperial). I switched to a $16 Mastercraft digital (on sale) and have not looked back in years. Less human error and more than accurate enough for the reloading bench. The need to reset is usually a warning that I need to wipe it clean then it goes back to 0.
 
Boltcarrier said:
I have never owned a dial style caliper before so I am asking for experienced opinions

right now I have a digital caliper and I can't seem to get the same reading, so when I try to measure the case for example, first time it give a reading and when i measure again, it gives another reading, and it never goes to zero, i always have to push the button to set it to zero.

i am planning to get a new caliper with the budget of around $50 to $60

and i am looking at the dial style ones but i wonder if it would be more reliable and provide a more consistent reading than the digital ones.
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I have a few different calipers. I started out with vernier, and were my eyes better (younger) I would not hesitate to use them today. I have a Master-Craft I bought on sale for $10.00 years ago, and that was my fabrication rough caliper at work for years when I ran the fab shop. The metrologist calibrated it annually, and the last year, the depth measurement was out of spec, but the internal/external was still OK. I have retired it. In my reloading tools I use a dial caliper. Why? bought it about 10 years ago for 25 bucks on sale at a local industrial supply store. I take it into work and get it calibrated once a year also. My main caliper that I use now is an 8" Mitutoya Collant Proof Digital, and it is as good as it gets. Worth about $300-$350, but super reliable, and batterys last forever, I also have access to, and ocassionally use a Mitutoyo 1000 mm digital caliper as well, and it is very repeatable:
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