Electronic VS manual calipers

[Ol` Joe]

I have inexpensive dial calipers but frequently use my grandfather's Mitutoyo digital and in a lot of ways prefer the analog. There are no dead batteries, fragile electronics and screens, and no turning on and off for the dial calipers. No doubt the Mitutoyo are more accurate, but for reloading I have compared the two and both are adequate.

I`ve a set of Mitutoyo dial calipers that are ~15 yrs old now. They replaced a Midway dial set the dog knocked out of my hand and bent the slide on that was ~10 old at that time. I had access to machinist standard blocks at work until my retirement and a time or two each year would take them in with me and check them. I never had a "bad" reading from either of them testing on .2500" and .5000" standards.

I don`t really think that degree of accuracy is needed anyway for reloading. A tool that measures within 0.005" of true, if it is giving the same measurement everytime is probably accurate enough. Dead-nuts accurate to a standard isn`t as important as a consistant measurement, IMO.

 

[NotSoFast]

Zeede -

So, cost-wise, the electronic ones are still cheaper, but have some advantages in speed or by tare functions? But, some of the electronic ones are lemons.

Cameron

Stick with the medium priced ones and you probably won't go wrong. I would consider the ones at MidwayUSA to be fairly good quality and worth looking into.

Chuck

 

[Galil5.56]

I would consider the ones at MidwayUSA to be fairly good quality and worth looking into.

My Midway house brand (Aerospace) stainless steel analog calipers have been plugging away for about 12 years of hard use, still repeatably accurate as ever, jaws parallel, smooooth as can be. Used vernier's for 14 years prior, so "moving up" to these was welcomed change at the time.

Definately good stuff if they kept the same vendor/same model.

 

[ranger335v]

Some years ago, I bought a Swiss made 6" vernier caliper reading to tenths, it is surpurb but hard to read. Maybe 10 years ago, I bought a 6" dial caliper from Midway for about $20, it's Chinese and it's dead accurate to a thousandth anyway. Three years ago I bought a Harbor Freight 6" Chinese dial caliper for about $12, it's identical to my Midway. Since then, I have bought another HF dial caliper and two of their digitals. I do quit a bit of home shop machine work as well as reloading and my calipers always seemed to be in the wrong place. They are too cheap now to bother having to go look for one when I need it so I just have one for each place I use them now.

What I've learned is that high grade tools are the only way to go - if you're a professional. Otherwise, the cheap stuff is plenty good. Every reloader branded caliper I've seen appears to come from the same Chinese factory as the Harbor Freight tools, no difference at all.

The digitals vary in how fast they burn batteries but good old dials don't need them to work and that's a good thing. You can read them to within a quarter thousanth easily. You can zero them to read anything with changes up to +- .050 inch, full scale. They can be damaged by dropping or dirt.

The Digitals are a little easier to read but not by much. They can be zeroed at any point you wish for comparison readings and go beyond a full inch of variation or change. They can be switched from English to Metric with the push of a button. I haven't dropped one yet but suspect they can be damaged easily too. Digitals can't read between half thousanths at all.

If you expect to read diameters under an inch and wish better resolution than a full thousant, get a micrometer reading in tenths. That's much better than trying to use a caliper of any kind.

In my opinion, most reloaders will be best served by purchasing one of the Harbor Freight 6" stainless steel dial calipers AND one of their 1 inch micrometers (at their frequent "on sale" prices, only!).

 

[scrat]

i started working in a machine shop in the late 80's. i learned on manual calipers. in the mid 90's i was a co owner of a machine shop here in ca. For a short time. There too we used manual calipers. im out of the business of machining. however all i have are manual calipers. i have a lot of pairs too. whats most amazing is how accurate and how in accurate some are. the top dollar mics do the best of course. They will measure the smallest things and give you the best readouts. We used to compare them to digitals all the time and they were always off. However its different when measuring a case for a bullet. or an overall case. on machining a hundreth of an inch can be a problem. so the measurement has to be correct. i have seen too many inconsistancies with electronics. But with reloading its not that bad. For me still today its easier to pick up an old manual. I dont have to worry about the batteries on those digitals as they may sit around more than you use them. my recomendations will always be manual.

 

[Owens]

I've found that it depends on what I am doing as to whether I use digital or dial. Sometimes I even reach for a vernier type - no batteries, no calibration to get out of. Case length, I reach for the dial. Measuring group sizes, grab the digital, put a bullet of what I am shooting in it, hit the zero button, and start measuring groups. Just measure the widest points on your group and your bullet diameter is subtracted, giving a true center to center measure.

 

[Navy joe]

Vernier. I don't trust those newfangled dials. Sadly I am often the only one around that knows how to read a vernier.