Good measuring caliper to buy?

[TroyShark]

Looking to purchase a decent caliper. Anyone have any advice brand... digital or dial....

[jaywood]

Budget?

[Fsnow]

Drop a dial once and they are usually done. With digital you can zero it anywhere you want and change from inches to metric with a button. Some of the cheap digital are ok but if you want a good one get a mitutoyo or Starrett. Depends on your budget though.

[nrubenstein]

How good does it need to be?

[Northern]

vernier calipers are only good down to like a thou. I've never had a problem with the cheap ones that everyone rebrands as long as the battery is fresh. IMO if you're measuring anything with a real tolerance of less than 0.005", you should be using a mic anyway.

[jaywood]

I prefer a dial that you can adjust to reset to 0.

[AndrewBird]

There is a reason most machinists still use dials. They are just a better caliper. Only thing digital has over dials is being able to switch to metric. As far as dropping them, just don't. Precision measuring tools should be treated as such.

Brown and Sharpe/Tesa/Etalon are the best you can buy. Starrett sadly is pretty terrible anymore and much of it is made in Asia now sadly. Even the best Starrett though is nothing compared to B&S. Mitutoyo isn't bad, but I wouldn't consider them one of the best. A bit overpriced for an average caliper.

I bought these a few years back and they can't be beat:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/0-6-Dial-Caliper-with-White-Face/T20285

Silky smooth, all metal construction. With the close-out price they are cheap too!

Honestly though, my digital set from Harbor Freight probably get used the most, purely do to the fact I don't need a high precision pair for at home and as stated before, I can switch to metric. When I was working as a machinist though, the Etalon was all I used.

[b*saint]

Yea it all comes down to how accurate do you need to be? What kind of environment are you using it in? I had mitutoyo for years until I got enough grinding dust in it to kill the scale.

Dial calipers have teeth that when they get worn or full of shit, will make the whole caliper go bad. That being said I will replace mine with dial and keep it in a cleaner area. I hate replacing batteries.

[kway]

Harbor Freight digital beater is ten bucks with a coupon. Good enough for anything I've needed it for, and I don't feel bad about touching it with dirty hands.

If I was blueprinting engines or doing fine machine work I'd still keep the beater for day to day use and invest in some finer instruments for when I need them.

[Kershaw]

AvE did a comparison of his mitutoyo ($150) vs his harbor freight caliper ($10). Both digital. They were comparable accuracy wise, but the mitutoyo just felt nicer to use. So the take away is, accuracy is going to be the same, but the tool will feel nicer as you go up the price scale. He also made his feel nicer to use by disassembling it and sanding down manufacturing burrs and crap.

I have a HF one. It works just great for my shade tree mechanic purposes. I'm not a machinist and I like being able to not worry too much about it. Easily replaced.