Please post your experience with calipers that you have used. I am looking at a set of dial calipers that only cost $13.95 from Enco.
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/IN...NLMPA
I am looking at the ones in the upper right corner. If anyone knows of some better calipers for a similar price please let me know.

 

ENCO is a very good supply house. I have a set of Fowler as well as Mitutoyo ones and there is a difference. If you go with the plastic ones they are less accurate than the higher priced all metal ones. You might want to consider the next price level if you plan to use them a lot. Otherwise the ones you are showing will do for general use.

 

They look like my cheap harbor freight ones, and my cheap ones seem to work just fine.

Scott

 

I wouldn't go cheap on something like a micrometer, but usual calipers aren't super-precise anyway so I think that those sound as good as anything else.

 

Thanks for the replies. The ones I showed for $13.95 are metal from what I can tell from the description:
Scale surface satin-chrome finished with clear, crisp, engraved graduations.

And no, I am not planning on using them for hours every day. Please keep any other suggestions coming.

 

I got a Cen-Tech one from harbor freight, it was ~$15, metal w/ digital display, I use it at work for quick measurements and it seems to be accurate enough, but am looking to get some Mitutoyo mics soon. If its just for quick measurements you should be fine with that one.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlicedBread &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I got a Cen-Tech one from harbor freight, it was ~$15, metal w/ digital display, I use it at work for quick measurements and it seems to be accurate enough, but am looking to get some Mitutoyo mics soon. If its just for quick measurements you should be fine with that one.</TD></TR></TABLE>

http://www.harborfreight.com/c...47257

Cool, thanks! Did yours come with a carrying case?

 

I have the Cen-Tech one, very nice little caliper... I got mine from md-metrics.com, but their price isn't as good as HF. Only complaints about mine are that my case didn't come with a metal rod in the hinge, so the case comes apart. You might consider putting a piece of electrical tape over the battery cover, mine comes off sometimes. I've used mine quite a bit for 10 months now. Analog calipers annoy me, I like my measurements to be relatively brainless. Caliper unit conversion is nice too. Mitutoyo definitely seem to have a smoother measurement action, but when I've compared mine to a Mitutoyo, thus far they've come up with identical readings on both. Good enough for my projects so far

 

splurge and get the mitutoyo digital

you'll thank yourself later

 

I like digital calipers as well for quick and easy measurements.

They zero out with a touch of the button, and are easy to read, so you don't have to fiddle with it when you're only trying to take a couple of quick measurements.

I've got a dial caliper and my friend has a digital caliper. I steal his all the time.

 

Dan,
Nice bike!!
As much as I want a pimpy mitutoyo, I really dont think I will use it enough to justify the cost.