Digital Vernier on sale at Maplins - £10

[Franco B]

Just a quick heads up, Maplins have a Digital Vernier on offer for £10 reduced from £30.

Its not branded and probably not up to Mitutoyo etc. standards but would be ideal for home use.



Click the pic for the link.

[FhM]

Thanks I will get one ordered at that price. Like you say ideal just for a casual reference use.

[Orclord]

They do come in handy.....

I bought one when they were on sale a while ago.....

[Fozzy The Bear]

Woolworths, (in the UK) currently have exactly the same item on sale for £7.00  At least my local one does and they are up to Mitutoyo standards. In fact the £7.00 one is slightly better than my actual Mitutoyo one that I've had for the last 12 years.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[patrickl]

I have seen these in the Netherlands for 10 or 12 euro in bargin bins. Was afraid they might be poor quality. Guess I should go check if they still have some.

Thanks for the heads up.

[councilface]

Woolworths, (in the UK) currently have exactly the same item on sale for £7.00  At least my local one does and they are up to Mitutoyo standards. In fact the £7.00 one is slightly better than my actual Mitutoyo one that I've had for the last 12 years.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

Sorry Fozzy, I work as a quality engineer. No way will a seven quid vern come close to a Mitutoyo. Mitutoyo are the benchmark.



Sorry for this post, Ive managed to bore myself

[Fozzy The Bear]

Sorry Fozzy, I work as a quality engineer. No way will a seven quid vern come close to a Mitutoyo. Mitutoyo are the benchmark.

You're right....The seven quid vernier doesn't come anywhere close to the Mitotoyo one... Over the six inch scale the seven pound one is actually more accurate by 0.0005 of an inch.  1/2 a thousandth of an inch more accurate!!!  I've had them both set over gauge blocks today to confirm this.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[ratzz]

Sorry Fozzy, I work as a quality engineer. No way will a seven quid vern come close to a Mitutoyo. Mitutoyo are the benchmark.

You're right....The seven quid vernier doesn't come anywhere close to the Mitotoyo one... Over the six inch scale the seven pound one is actually more accurate by 0.0005 of an inch.  1/2 a thousandth of an inch more accurate!!!  I've had them both set over gauge blocks today to confirm this.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

Sorry, just to confirm Fozzy - the seven quid one is MORE accurate that the Mitotoyo?

If so, I'm off to Woolies!

Ratzz

[Franco B]

Sorry Fozzy, I work as a quality engineer. No way will a seven quid vern come close to a Mitutoyo. Mitutoyo are the benchmark.

You're right....The seven quid vernier doesn't come anywhere close to the Mitotoyo one... Over the six inch scale the seven pound one is actually more accurate by 0.0005 of an inch.  1/2 a thousandth of an inch more accurate!!!  I've had them both set over gauge blocks today to confirm this.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

Sorry, just to confirm Fozzy - the seven quid one is MORE accurate that the Mitotoyo?

If so, I'm off to Woolies!

Ratzz

I wouldn't be suprised. The seven quid one is much newer than the 12 year old Mito so it will probably be more accurate if the Mito has not been regularly been calibrated.

At the end of the day we are splitting hairs. The cheap one will be fine for everyday use. Hell, digital verniers are not that accurate anyway, you can easily change the reading depending on the pressure you put on the vernier.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Sorry, just to confirm Fozzy - the seven quid one is MORE accurate that the Mitotoyo?

If so, I'm off to Woolies!

Ratzz

Yup!!  more accurate by half a thou over 6 inches.

Calibration doesn't come into it with digital calipers like these. They work by measuring a reference grid built into the the surface of the slide. So theoretically they should never go out of calibration (you set the 0 reference point every time you turn them on).  That said they all suffer to a greater or lesser degree in terms of thermal expansion which alters the length of them by a minute amount. On the gauge block test today the £7 one was out performing the Mitutoyo.

As Franco said, you can change the reading based on the amount of pressure you apply. It's down to learning the correct technique of using them, when you need to be accurate to + - 0.0005" which is more than enough for most engineering and way more than enough for arcade building. 

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Franco B]

Correct, in theory they shouldn't go out of calibration 

They should still be checked though, its unlikely but something could go wrong with the electronics but you also have to take jaw wear into consideration, especially the relieved part of the external jaw and also the inner jaw too.

Obviously wear etc will be small but it can occur occur over a long period of time and so they don't need to be checked as frequently as other gauging,  IRC ours are calibrated every two years, compared to micrometers with are every three months.

[Teknique]

Honest question but semi derail-

In what types of applications would this tool be useful when building a cabinet?  Knowing most dimensions of the items I am working with, I can't think of a time Id even use it. 

[Franco B]

Personally, I use it mostly for measuring components at home for any parts that I want to make at work. I can then write the program in Notepad or whatever and its ready to go when I get to work.

Ive also used mine to measure wire diameters, screw/bolt diameters, hole spacing etc. The depth leg is also handy for measuring distances from edges in certain circumstances as well as depths when drilling holes for t-nuts etc

I wasn't saying they were particularly useful for this hobby, there just a handy thing to have in general.

[polaris]

Honest question but semi derail-

In what types of applications would this tool be useful when building a cabinet?  Knowing most dimensions of the items I am working with, I can't think of a time Id even use it. 

have a look at francos cocktail project, all will become clear

[Orclord]

Honest question but semi derail-

 Knowing most dimensions of the items I am working with, I can't think of a time Id even use it. 

If you know all the dimensions of everything then you will not need it.....

It's when you don't know the dimensions it comes in handy.....

If you build your own cab from scratch then you will probably know most of the dimensions....

When you refurb/Mame an older original/generic cab that's when it comes in handy...

[RandyT]

I just want to support what Fozzy has been saying.  I've been using these things for years.  Last place I worked, we spent almost $300 on a set of Mitutoyos, and everyone was always fighting over them.  I got tired of it and ordered a half dozen of these, based on the set I bought for myself earlier.

They always read the same as the Mitutoyos, but were just a shade lower in quality of the overall construction.  One of my past machinists told me these were junk when he sent me some out of spec parts one time.  So we got out his gauge blocks for some tests and he whistled a different tune.

For about $10 more (maybe not from this source) you can pick up a set that has a larger display.  The display isn't the only difference. That model also seems more sturdy and more Mitutoyo-like in construction.

In any event, yeah, if you need a set, don't hesitate.  But for most in this hobby, a cheap set of plastic ones will suffice (or a ruler )

RandyT

[councilface]

 Im not having a dig guys but I've worked in metrology for over ten years now. There are scores of reasons why the mitutoyos arent measuring accurately anymore, but brand new - they are the best. What you guys are doing is a bit like comparing a Ford to a Rolls Royce (Or a sinclair spectrum to the supreme C=64 - if you like).
 Saying that these verns will be fine for what we use them for. I use a crappy pair of mitutoyos that failed UKAS calibration. They also come in handy when I cant find my adjustable spanner 

[Franco B]

They also come in handy when I cant find my adjustable spanner 

When I was at secondary school I found a boy using a vernier caliper as some kind of adjustable wrench to do the nuts up on his bike, now that was funny!

[RandyT]

Im not having a dig guys but I've worked in metrology for over ten years now. There are scores of reasons why the mitutoyos arent measuring accurately anymore, but brand new - they are the best. What you guys are doing is a bit like comparing a Ford to a Rolls Royce (Or a sinclair spectrum to the supreme C=64 - if you like).

I used to grind and polish glass flat to within 1/10 of a wavelength of light, but to apply those same considerations when sanding a wood panel is silly.  I think what is being said here is that, for anything but the most demanding measurement requirements, these are as good as the Mits.  The error is is about +/- .001"  My experience is that, when used properly, it is less than that.

How many here will know the difference in accuracy of a single thousandth of an inch (or less) between these and the Mits?  Certainly not enough to quibble over the superiority of something costing 10x more.  Verniers aren't capable of the same accuracy as micrometers or gauge pins for the really tight tolerance stuff anyway.

RandyT

[Fozzy The Bear]

I used to grind and polish glass flat to within 1/10 of a wavelength of light, but to apply those same considerations when sanding a wood panel is silly.

I have to agree with Randy...... It reminds me of a story told by a friend of mine who sent an engine crankshaft to a formula1 race car manufacturer that he knew, to have it reground. It came back with a tolerance sheet showing the grinding marked to 0.010 which he assumed was 100Th of an inch!! he rang them up and ranted that his crankshaft was going to be way too far out of tolerance and he wanted his money back and a replacement shaft.  He had this little rant and then the person on the other end of the phone said... "you do realise that we ground it to a tolerance of 100Th of a micron not 100Th of an inch don't you!!"  there was more than an embarrassed silence at that point....

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Minwah]

I might have a look in Woolies on my way to the chippy in a mo....

[Minwah]

I might have a look in Woolies on my way to the chippy in a mo....

Typical...they only had about 5 things in the tools section and I got the expected blank expressions when I asked for it!

Decent chip butty tho...

[AndyWarne]

Another bargain from Maplin is this multimeter: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=37279&doy=28m1
I bought a couple of them and prefer using them to my Fluke. They are lighter, the display is better and they even have a 10 amp current range which I only had before on my Avo Model 8 (Yes I still have one!).
They are listed at £5.99 on the website but in store they have them at £2.99 (or they did last time I was there). Even includes the PP3 battery.
Hurry as they only have 10119 of them in stock!