although its a shockingly bad device inside.. it still doing its job well for 10 bucks.. for a lot of people an accuracy of 0.5T is way above what any tool is capable doing in a home shop...
i think its much better to get a manual caliper for that price instead of the digital one (unless you are one of those sickos who doesnt know how to use one)
I have the exact same set in my toolbox at work, they are my "loaners" When someone wants to borrow a set of calipers I throw them the cheapo set. They always come back because they are not worth stealing, and they are crappy enough to scare some people from borrowing my tools. I have an extra crappy set of socket head wrenches to loan out too. And if you borrow a screwdriver from me, it will be bent AND rounded off.
Anyone who works with tools around co-workers should adopt this procedure... It will save them a lot of stolen or "misplaced" tools.. Then, funny enough, a year later you find the person you loaned the tool to, the person who "misplaced" it, using it again..
I don't loan out my name brand tools anymore. If I loan out a tool its the cheapest in my tool box. Unless I know you and trust you to bring it back not f##ked up.
As an engineer, you match the tool to the job. If your job requires high level accuracy, then use the $150 models. Both units will be destroyed if you drop them, so there's no reason to blindly buy the $150 unit just because it's technically better. There will always be a place for cheap tools and the user needs to make that decision on a case by case basis.
bumpo628 I’m an engineer, and I wouldn’t use the $10 items for anything. You’d be better off with $10 analogue calipers. You’re right that you match the accuracy to the requirements, but these rubbish calipers aren’t good enough to build a timber fence. Chuck em out!
Here is the best use for the $10 calipers: When Father's days rolls around and the kiddies want to get Dada something, but they're on a budget (being kids, and they're going to use your money anyway). drop hints about the affordable calipers at Harbor Freight. After you gush about how you always wanted calipers, and let the kids see you use them a time or two, go out and buy the Mitutoyo and swap them. The kids and wife will never notice the difference. Kids think you love their gift. Wife thinks you got a cheaper alternative to the expensive one she didn't want you to spend money on. Win Win Win (though you might have to put up with the wife's "I told you you didn't need something that expensive.")
@@juanfo7307 So you missed the part about how the kids (or wife) get to think they got you something really cool when they couldn't have afforded the good one.
Who buys a $10 tool and expects the same results as a $150 tool? The people who buy these, such as myself, are probably replacing a steel rule, not doing precision machining.
At the machine shop I work at, I'm responsible for checking all the measuring tools in the shop every 6 months. What I can tell you it's cheap calipers may be within .001 when new but typically only last a few years before they start to generate an ever increasing error. On the other end of the spectrum there are numerous Mitutoyo calipers in our shop that are 15+ years old that still measure within .001. It's the quality out of the box and the long term accuracy that you're paying for.
@Eli Z Sometimes "good enough" IS good enough. I will never wear out my HF digital calipers. They do not get used that much because they sit in a storage cabinet right beside my HF torque wrenches and the digital torque adapter I use solely for calibration purposes. If I used them professionally, I would have professional grade tools, but these are good enough for a post-retiremnt garage workshop. Having said all of that, I am not particularly happy that the USA, rightfully or wrongfully, has ceded the low to middle end of the instrument market (electronic and mechanical) to foreigners. I am seeing the same thing here that I saw in the '70s with the US shortwave and amateur radio market (Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, National, etc.) closing their doors.
I just made a comment about this putting my HF specials up against a set of lightly use Mitutoyo’s and it was a 0.1T difference in favor of the Mitutoyo’s. I guess since all this Mitutoyo’s will ever be used for is reloading. They should last me a life time no more hard work for these babies. I have to say I’m extremely happy to have them !!!!
I've got both. Cheapos work great for general woodworking, scribing lines (can't even imagine doing that with my nice set), finding center lines, etc... Not for reliably precise work in metal. Much of my use of calipers doesn't even depend on the exact measured distance - but work great to transfer distances from one part to another (usually using the lock screw) feature. They have their place in doing things the Mitutoyos shouldn't be doing.
They are great for many applications. You don't want to wear out a $200 caliper scribing lines for drilling holes. Plenty accurate for scribing holes and drilling.
Working as a mechanic I wouldn't need that amount of precision, usually im just trying to find the measurement of something to order a suitable replacement. Not to mention I'd probably destroy the nice ones. I can't have nice things.
When i was 18 i was in a machining trade school and my first week someome gave me a pair of mitutoyo calipers. Ive had them for 7 years and i still use them accurately.
I own a small engineering company and i use the mitutoyo instruments for all the important jobs. but even in my shop , which is a precision engineering shop , there is a place for those creepy chinese calipers .... at the welder machine for instance , or at the band saw , or even just to sort the materials when i'm looking for one particular bar or plate ... i mean in any job where there are high probability to make damage at the caliper it self :)
You use Chinese calipers where you wouldn't want to put a sweet brown and sharpe one in to risk damage. The Chinese ones are actually good for the price for the job intended.
They work great for anything that is standard measurements, where you can just round to what it should be, but mine are mastercraft, which is basically cheap but just not
The Japanese calliper is superior because it is forged from steel that is folded 1000 times. Mendeleev himself discovered all the elements by measuring them with glorious Japanese callipers.
ya, they're fine for that but when you're dealing with some of the crap machinist have to deal with like say, the tolerance of a feature on the blueprints calls for +0.002"/-0.000", you're going to want something a little more accurate and precise. You could go with micrometers when it's that close but a good set of calipers is usually preferred so you don't have to go fetch another one for every 1-inch deviation.
But it’s also a pointless comparison because why would anyone even consider using a $10 tool for a serious job that requires accuracy? This is for hobbyists, home improvement guys, and people around the world that can barely afford a $10 tool let alone $150, and when their $10 tool breaks, they tape it back together. The $10 version is actually surprisingly good, especially for guys that use it once a year.
Waste of time comparison. One is made for machinists, the other for hobbyists and DIYers. For my use, it does not matter if my measurements are off by .001.
Good review, but I can't fully agree with a couple of comments you made. First off, these calipers have been around for a very long time, and from my observation the basic design and look has been copied/made by multiple manufacturers, with varying degrees of cheapness and subsequent finish. Even the electronics are not the same - eg. some have a low battery indicator (the display will flash), the really cheap ones do not. I have one of the more upmarket ones ($20) and it's still going well after 10 years of heavy use. The finish is way better than the $10 one shown. Of course you get what you pay for. Do I trust it? Not fully. Repeatability is questionable at the 0.01 mm level. But then they don't claim that level of accuracy. For precision work I use an NSK vernier or Mitutoyo dial caliper. Not all instruments made in China are crap - just check out Igaging calipers (yep got one of those as well) which while way cheaper than a Mitutoyo, is still an excellent piece of kit. Cheers Rob
I'm wincing every time I see the Mitutoyo thrown down like that. I used to work for a company where the engineering department had good Mitutoyo calipers like these while we sold (or gave away) these same Chinese ones with our own logo on them to the customers. The difference is noticeable if you use them all the time, but the cost is hard to justify if you don't use them frequently.
Back in the mid-1970s I was building up my mechanic's tool set and also started getting machinist measuring tools. I was considering getting something like the Brown & Sharpe line of instruments when I looked closely at a Japanese line of instruments from Mitutoyo. The Mitutoyo instruments were significantly cheaper but the quality seemed top-notch to me. I had worked with hand tools since I was a young boy and had a job at a large hospital in Miami where I evaluated medical/surgical instruments for quality and functionality; I had a good feel for evaluating the quality of an instrument. The Mitutoyo instruments served me very well for many years and I was surprised, and pleased, that I had found a maker of very high quality instruments at an affordable price.
I have to say after watching your video I am actually pretty impressed with the $10 calipers. Seems with a tiny bit of filing tweaking cleaning up the board greasing deburing maybe a quick spot weld of that beam. they appear to be a pretty "decent" set of calipers. if you NEED 1/1000 acuracy/precision. ok not for you. but if a couple thousandths is "enough" then it seems these are pretty darned nice (and for a hobbyist that is typically enough most of my stuff 1/100 of a mm is more than sufficient. would I prefer nice ones? absolutely. no question. but it SEEMS they are not all that bad for $10. it would be INTERESTING to see someone actually "use a set" long term and see how they actually hold up over time with real heavy use as well as being "cared for" as you would the nice set. ie "can we make" them a nice alternative for those of us who do not make money from our tools and can't justify $150 for a set of calipers.
There are Chinese calipers for around $40 that are stainless and very good value. Keep in mind that back in the 60s everyone was saying that mechanical stuff coming out of Japan was junk, now look at them.
"Tap and Die chart. Useless, unless your working on a Frogeye Sprite." You have no idea. No original bolts, that chart (and a larger one I found) was my lifeline when a friend enlisted my help to rebuild his A-H.
I am not sure what anyone expects from a caliper that costs just $10. If your an engineer that relies on them all the time, well, you just would not buy them. If your someone that might find a use for them once a year, well i think common sense tells you not to chuck a load of money at something. Go spend a decent amount of money on a set, then you have the right to pull it apart. Really, for just $10 that thing could get you out of trouble.
You missed a major point in this video. China has a very unique 0 loss method of QC. Its all luck of the draw. I have a set of these that are very accurate and were smooth out of the box. The pair in this video is why you buy 3 when ordering anything from china : )
TunedCavityLasers i can confirm this comment. I bought a cheap one exactly like the one presented here in 2010, i exp. the same problems [sharp corners, bad feedback ... and not in this video the really bad battery lifetime (Replacement Panasonic Battery which i mostly use because they are cheap) if you compare it to a Mitotuyo] BUT its still working (5 years, i think i replaced battery at least 6 times) and i have to say that i never had a precision problem caused by "using it". Not a fan of it but when i bought it i expected it to fail miserably which it didnt and still dont...
Last set I got were under 10$ and have some new features. A nice large display, auto shut off so batteries will last much longer, and when they are off if you move the slide they are auto on. They also hold memory of the position. Add all that to decently accurate and its a good deal IMO.
TunedCavityLasers I would use them just for building sculptures and stuff. I do geometric sculptures, but art doesn't have to be as precise as CNCing, I just need a rough number. Even at $10 these are overkill.
inthefade I do a lot of prototyping and machining working with laser which is pretty demanding on accuracy. These type calipers by nature are limited as are their expensive counterparts. Yet more than enough for the average user.
The ultimate truth he spoke, "When you are troubleshooting something, your cognitive load is so high that you don't want to be second guessing your meter, you want to be confident."
Festool, and some DeWalts, Boschs, Milwaukee and pretty everyone that makes some stoopidly designed tool, even among perfectly good ones. And before any of the DeWalt fanboys there, I have a DeWalt air compressor that has its share of just BAD engineering aspects. Does it work?, Yes. at least for a while, but read all those Amazon bad reviews that properly point out the deficiencies.
I recently disassembled a milwaukee and a dewalt cordless and inside were the same chinese motor of my 35 euro cordless drill, and for the same i mean the code stamped on the motor is the same exact but for 2 letters at the end...
I have the $10 harbor freight calipers. I’ve had them for at least 10 years and I don’t think they’ve ever failed me other than the batteries. Word of advice for the cheapies; take out the batteries after every use because if you leave the battery in it will be dead in a month. And frankly if you get 2 batteries with a new unit you might as well just throw it away when the two batteries are dead because the cost 2 for new batteries is more than 10 bucks.
Son of a Zombie Those would be 100 one-hung-low batteries. Collectively they'll last longer than 10 name-brand batteries, but you will have to change them way more often. Also, I'd be more worried about a cheap battery leaking and pissing corrosives on the PCB.
+johnfranks - I never buy batteries online anymore. Dead or almost dead batteries delivered are the problem. On the flip side I have never had a dead battery from any of the local big box hardware stores like Home Depot. If you have a truly RELIABLE online source please leave a link. Oh also get yourself a good battery tester like the ZTS MBT-1. Worth every penny as an investment.
Even though we came to different conclusions about the Chinese calipers, I just want to say I very much enjoy both of y'alls channels. Thanks for the effort, gentlemen.
LOL, you clearly have no idea what I am talking about. "Do you even Metrology bro!?!" We, professionals know that calipers, of any brand, have limited accuracy despite the ability to provide precise measurements. I use tools like a Mitutoyo absolute digital height gauge on a calibrated surface plate to take very accurate measurements. I also use a Mitutoyo CV-2000 Contracer to profile the radius on stamped parts. Not to mention the Zies Contura G2 or Brown & Sharp Mistral CMMs, or the optical comparator, ect, ect. My company makes safety components for automobiles, like airbag difusers, seat belt tounge plates, D-rings, and slider/rail assemblies. Do you want me to be confirming +/-0.200mm tolerances on the safety components that might be saving your life or the life of your child with a $10 pair of chinesium calipers?
Recently got a manufacturing engineer internship with a local medical device company taking tooling and fixtures and making solid works models out of em and was handed one of the mitutoyos. Sooo good feeling to use in comparison to the crappy harbor frieght ones I've been so accustomed to using most of my life.
You never checked the jaws for parallel, the wedge ends (where your fine measurement is done) can be gappy, if you polish the faces with diamond grit paper the accuracy can be vastly improved..You should have clamped the calibration bar in a vise to do proper square on measurement.
I bought an even shittier one made from plastic and .... actually it replaced my regular, nice steel one for most tasks. It is just so cheap, handy, and working with electronics a lot: the insulation comes in quite handy! There is no fear of bending my tool - it is plastic, no fear of having to replace it - it was just 8 bucks. I feel weird because you certainly cannot get super-precise measurements off that thing but I would suggest to everybody who wants to have a caliper to try a shitty one first. Upgrade when you need to. But actually: how often are you doing actual precision engineering that requires the higher precision etc?
My German dad was a die maker by trade and completed his apprenticeship in the 1930s at a technical college. As part of the training, he made a vernier calliper. In the later stages of his training he made a lathe. He never owned a digital vernier, but had 3 traditional verniers made by: Mauser (arms manufacturer), Helios and TESA. The Tunguska of measuring instruments.
@@johng1077 that's exactly what attracted most of us, I know it was for me. My formidable years were spent at a machine shop, with a very old machinist and the language was almost exactly the same.
I left my butt off... At 3 minutes and 47 seconds there's a commercial coming across your channel for harbor freight tools just after you slammed them for the crappy stuff.... Keep up the good work my friend keep reminding us that you get what you pay for.
I own a cheap 15€ Chinese caliper. That said of course it is not that precise. But for what I use it for it definitely works out. However if you are a machinist working with lathe and mills, a good one is at some point neccesary. I still would buy a cheap one first to get started and when it fails a good one. If you say a cheap 15 bucks lasts 1 year and a good 150 bucks one lasts 10 years, there is no difference in budged. Getting started requires many many tools, so buying some cheap stuff is neccesary or you have to wait 10 years for enought money, to get all tools in a good shape. Time is worth more than anything.
$150 vs $10 and it's nearly as accurate? do me a flavour. Its amazing the lengths you go to to defend your initial purchase. (Methinks he doth protest too much). Personally I don't need to measure that many things better than with a tape measure, so I watched the video with a rye smile upon my face. Just dragged one that I bought 3 years ago out of the cupboard and it works fine though have to say that I think I've used it twice since I bought it . So just remember the 90-10 law and ensure you spend 90% of your money on things you use 10% of the time! That's the way to get real value!
Loyd anonamous it is because the buyer said the guy at next door is selling for $1.8, and it is his mercy to give that supplier $2.0 for an order of 2,000 pieces. But frankly speaking, when most of the works in China requires accuracy of 0.1mm, giving $2.0 calipers to workers doesn't seems unwise. When they really require precision, they will take out their Mitutoyo ( the dial caliper instead of a digital one ).
If you work with devices that require precision, being a cheapskate is not an option. How would you feel if someone built your car using the 10 dollar caliper over the more expensive system? What if i built your airbags using questionable measurements? They may go off, they may not. Leave it to chance. Should they use your 90-10 rule for the pacemaker that keeps you alive?
You should have compared them to the dollar store plastic calipers that don't even have a tightening knob. Found a pair in my dad's shop room, they're quite something to behold!
Great video, as a calibration tech who works with 20-30 calipers a week I agree with everything you've said. I think the biggest factor in buying "precision tools" is the amount of use. $10 use them 2-3 times a week...all is good for semi-precision work. Use them 2-3x a day... Don't be stupid, spend the $150. Newly subbed, love your style, keep up the great content 👍👍👍
Still pretty accurate though and if your on a budget it's very acceptable, especially if you are too bothered about the aesthetics of your measuring tools....... A lot of the shortcomings are precisely to keep em cheap - I'm sure they could make them look as nice as the 'mirrors' but they would also share a price tag......
Reading some comments here leads me to believe that a ton of people have not used an expensive caliper nor do they need the caliper for speed and accuracy.
Some of us use good enough, until we need better. I have a lot of "good enough" tools, that I don't mind loaning out. Touch my better tools, and someone will lose a hand. Except AvE. I'd trust him not to accidentally break anything.
Yea that’s for sure. I use a cheap pair and never have used a good pair so mine are fine for me and my needs. I just don’t get butt hurt over it because I also have lots of the stupidly expensive tools, like snap on screwdrivers, hammers, Benchmade knives, etc so I know once you hold something truly good it makes everything else seem like trash, even if it’s good enough for almost everyone.
Depends. If ur job depends on calipers then u should invest in more quality. My cheap one says not for professional use. I mean what else donu expect for 10 bucks?
I have the Harbor Freight ones and I love them. They aren't $100+ level of quality, but they have been very accurate and easy to use. I've checked their calibration, and they are right on.
There's a slight slant when you were measuring the 3 inch rod with the cheap Chinese caliper. No slant when you measured with the expensive Japanese one.
i have on old set of Mitutoyo and they are nice but they don't have an auto off ..and my cheap set do so most times the good one have a flat battery so the cheap ones get the most use....same with multimeters i have to have a set that autos off
I think it's all too easy to laugh at Chinese products by selecting the very worst things they're willing to produce and sell. I happen to own a pair of Chinese digital calipers, of similar specifications, but which actually meets them. Obviously I payed 75, - Euros for them, but that's still just over half of what Mitutoyo will charge you for the same pleasure. They're straight, properly finished and as tight as any brand named calipers I've ever used. Now, will these calipers stand up to being used day-in and day-out? -I don't know because I don't do that... I'm starting to wonder why I even bought them in the first place, because I very rarely have to measure anything *that* accurately. It just seemed like a good deal at the time I needed better than 5/100ths accuracy, I guess... and that went nowhere commercially.
don't know if it works but I remember being told to magnetise a tool you rub a magnet over it on one direction, to maybe if you just go all parkinsons on it maybe it will help to demagnitise? never thought of demagnitise to be honest.
There are so many of these out there..There are clones of clones of clones.. I have a cheap caliper also.. though I don't think it was $10. It may have been... $14 on sale.. I bought it years ago.. maybe.. 10, 12 years. So of course after watching this I had to dig it out of the pile and inspect it. Though it may look identical to this, slightly different graphics... the printed gauge is black and yellow.. same chincy chart on the back.. it is no where NEARLY this bad in fit and finish. It is straight for one thing.. and has no noticeable pitting in the steel. So everyone whining that their cheap caliper is better then this $10 pile.... then congratulations... it probably is. This one is a cheap clone of a cheap clone... $10.. its cheap.. he just showed you how cheap it is.. (good video BTW). You can not deny its crap... so go hold your slightly less crappy caliper tightly and be thankful.
But using a $20-30 caliper to scribe lines is better for most jobs. Do you really want to use a $200 caliper to scratch lines? $30 caliper will do just fine for most jobs. Save the $200 caliper for the real important jobs
You perfectly described my dad at the end their hahahaha! I think he gets a thrill out of buying (lots of) cheap stuff & thinks he doing over the company by getting it cheap.. Such flawed thinking
Can you give me a recommendation for a good brand of files? I’ve looked online but it seems some of the brands that used to be good, are no longer. I got a Nicholson triangle file and it was crap. I heard a lot of bad things about the new Nicholson files but I needed it in a hurry and couldn’t find one in store that would work.
Since watching your channel I realize how badly I've been ripped off, I paid the equivalent of 50 USD for a caliper that looks identical to that 10$ one
the cheap calipers are definitely the better buy universally. why spend 10 to 15 times more for a tool that is not that much more accurate? tbh I don't even know of anything that is so critical to benefit from the more expensive set. tbh a better comparison would be a real world test. I.e using both to produce various items in your machine shop. I bet in reality there wouldn't be a major difference.
well then guess again. If you are working in a machine shop they expect 1 thou tolerance. If your caliper is off you might ruin 10 parts you where making, that might cost about 200-300dollars or maybe even more. And that is just 10 parts. If you run it like that for a month it might be 1000 or even more. That way the good caliper would have payed for itself a lot of times allready.
But would that actually be noticed? Like I would expect that the average manual machinist would not be able to produce products repeatedly within a thou tolerance. It's easy to say someone will lose money using that tool but is that really the case? If he used both calipers to make a set of gears or a ball bearing housing more likely than not both would come out exactly the same.
Who said a manual machinist is using the calipers? I occasionally make parts that need to be accurate under a thou. Or at least repeatable under a thou.
for starters. if you are swedish or german engineer you dont want any possible inaccuracy when building something by hand. if you were to make a object with shitty calipers and were to repeat the process a few times all you measured was inaccurate. its all about consistency. it would be like you trying to use a shitty architects scale and most of the numbers and lines are rubbed off plus its bent a little so I think that would be the same consistancy as useing a pair of shitty calipers
i HAVE FOUND THAT A CRAFTSMAN,generally knows his own tools,give him a tool with a different tension on the slide ,he will take more time and do more checks to convince himself of the accuracy of the tool,and most manufacturing now is done using cnc machines these machines do all the mesuring by computer,so to measure the progress is not needed
I have these and use them in reloading ammunition and general gunsmithing. They aren't perfect but they get plenty close enough for the purpose and are certainly more accurate than I am on anything I am making/working on. I don't use them daily or for a job, I might have bought more expensive ones if I did. I take care of mine and I've had them about 5 years. Mine don't feel like you describe yours as feeling. I'd suggest going to the store and just opening up the one you are going to buy. If it feels bad, open the next one. If I make 10 of the same thing, they aren't all exactly the same. I wouldn't expect if a factory makes the cheapest tool possible that they would all be the same. Also, wouldn't a piece of steel wool clean up the slide OK without messing it up?
Have you noticed that these vary in part number and design, ever so slightly on the Harbor Freight shelf? I wonder if they have gotten any better than this?
what do you expect for ten dollars!? you get what you pay for ... and for you over there (I live in Europe) it's good enough! you do not have metric ... so do not talk about precision
+AvE do you know if there are any Digital Caliper that don't use a slide roller and can use a better griped one maybe even have teeth to grab so it only moves when you turn it, as when i trying to get 14mm i usually end up pushing to much and either end up with 13.7mm or 14,7mm even with the tension screw on top as i have a heave hand when i try to do small mm movements.
well thanks, ave, I just bought ~$100 calipers that I probably didn't need :D hopefully I'll have them kicking around for 10 years+ like you have. these mitutoyo calipers are so, so nice.
Isn't all these rhetoric a bit childish ? For a $10 caliper, and you expect precision and quality ? It is just not possible even with cheap Chinese labor. Ultimately, you get what you pay and who is to blame ? Those that bought it on one and only one factor, thinking that they got a good deal.
My take away from this video isn't really anything about the calipers. Rather, you can get a cheap ass tool and bitch an' moan about how shitty it is, or you can get some grease and a file an fix that shit right up. Truth is anyone can bitch an be critical, but it takes skill and quality of character to come up with a solution; making it work with what you got (could be i'm just taking this shit too seriously, but the compliment stands :)
+McBrappin I was wondering if anyone else would take the time to notice he spent the whole video trashing a $10 caliper, while simultaneously showing us how to turn them into $17 calipers!
+McBrappin I wouldn't want to spend a couple of hours to repair something I just bought so it works right. That would mean around 50$ to 80$ on top off my wallet (comparing with average net salary). For something that won't last as long... No thanks. Btw I just bought a brand new Mitutoyo 500-196-30 today for 45.69$USD... Just saying ;-)
I think you were too concerned with telling the internet about your salary and good deal to understand the point of my comment. That said, congratulations! :)
McBrappin 1) I just thrown you back your own ball. You don't like it? Then psycho-analyze yourself. 2) I was *not* talking about my own personal salary, read again. 3) If people have a salary of between 50$ to 80$ for *two* hours... What's wrong with them? You seem to insinuate that they should feel guilty, why, because they wouldn't be engineers with such a lower salary? Consider a salary of about 10$ to 15$ per hour, you'd get to my same conclusion. 4) Given the last point, I'd add another argument: most people don't have the money nor their time to throw away so easily. It's better to pay 30$ to 50$ for a better quality caliper then risk throwing it in the trash right out of the box if not a couple of month later. Especially if they must use this caliper for whatever job they're doing. A tool is not a toy... Unless they like to repair brand new stuff as a hobby of course, like the guy in this clip... 5) The fact that you're trying to ill-willingly psycho-analyze my "character" instead of sticking to the point of the topic, is a blatant sign that you have no valuable argument whatsoever about the topic, shit-digging like this shows a real lack of any dignity and especially _respect_. Leave your mad ego in the closet and get over it, this is just a caliper.
When I worked on TV's with CRT's we used home made toroid coils to demagnetize the surface of the tube before setting the purity. In a pinch we used a Weller 300 watt soldering gun to generate a magnetic field for the same purpose. It sorta worked. Perhaps a version could demagnetize your tools. As to the cheap caliper, I buy them to lend to people son-in-law's etc. I get the Harbor Freight digital meters for the same reason. The Fluke stays in my tool box.
This is a silly comparison. You can't compare a $10 caliper to a $120 caliper. What did you expect ? What's your point, I don't get it sorry. These differences are just obvious, the opposite result would be the fantastic miracle. There is no quality assurance in China (except toll manufacturing for western firms). There is very high level quality assurance in Japan.
***** I had no intention to offend you, and you ride the high horse. I wasn't offhand with you. "can't compare" means "shouldn't compare" in that context. And clearly I don't get it because its pointless, unmeaning. You compared a $10 crap to $120 good quality product, and you came to the conclusion that $10 caliper is much worse than a $120 caliper. And when someone asks peacefully "what's you point", you're being smartass. Hmmm. Nevermind. The service job is interesting, but the comparison is silly, meaningless. This is what you can expect for $10. Or maybe a dinner.
telelaci2 Basically he's posing the question on whether or you not you need to invest the bigger bucks into a product versus purchasing its much cheaper counter part. I question I know I ask myself whenever buying anything. He points out the pros and the cons for both arguments for us the viewers to decide. Then he states his opinion at the end. Very basic review setup, informative, and allows you to see the thought process of someone like him, so that you can agree or disagree at your own leisure.
+Cam C Theoretically its a nice try, but the lack of quality assurance means that the Chinese crap is ineligible for the comparison. First you should compare 10 craps to each other, to see how big the quality deviation is. Because if you just pick up a random crap, that could be quite good crap if you are lucky, and it could be an unusable bad crap also. If you pick up a Japanese anticrap, that won't be crap, never, the randomness and luck don't count , there is no quality deviation. That's the essence of the quality assurance. Its pointless to compare these things to each other, they are in very different weight-class.
I M Mr Rios We don't know for sure, it's just that the Chinese make what they are most asked for: cheaper alternatives, cheaper meaning less attention to details - because they have to make a profit too, even though they are communists.
+soupflood they also steal every freaking piece of technology/IP they can from any and everything that a reputable company sells in China. Of course this always becomes extremely worse when a company send stuff to be manufactured there to save a buck. I'd love to see a review of the dial version calipers. They are decent for crap jobs, but the pair I use have very noticeable high spots in the rack & pinion. But I'll never let go of my Mitutoyo coolant proof calipers & micrometer's for real jobs.
I have some that have the same look but they did not have a crusty feel to them and they are good enough for basic things. If you're not a car guy do you buy a V8 to just go to work, take the kids to school and do the grocery run or do you do you buy a little car like a honda jazz/fit to do the same job
its 8 years later. do you still read all the comments hhhhmmmmm?
No.
although its a shockingly bad device inside.. it still doing its job well for 10 bucks.. for a lot of people an accuracy of 0.5T is way above what any tool is capable doing in a home shop...
Right on point !
I've had a bunch of these cheap Chinese calipers and the digital part always craps out.
Just end up using them to scribe Dykem lines for layout.
You demagnetize tools with a degausser.
Works for me.
i think its much better to get a manual caliper for that price instead of the digital one (unless you are one of those sickos who doesnt know how to use one)
Ahhh, those are just wood worker callipers. The "give" is to allow for the natural expansion and contraction of organic materials.
It's to allow for the bow in the wood from home depot lol
My master would slap you left and right for that remark ;-)
Dam Charlotte that sounded good enough you probably almost convinced yourself.
Yeah there just the ticket for wood butchers they double as a glue applicator and scriber..
Haha ding dong China
I have the exact same set in my toolbox at work, they are my "loaners" When someone wants to borrow a set of calipers I throw them the cheapo set. They always come back because they are not worth stealing, and they are crappy enough to scare some people from borrowing my tools. I have an extra crappy set of socket head wrenches to loan out too. And if you borrow a screwdriver from me, it will be bent AND rounded off.
Anyone who works with tools around co-workers should adopt this procedure... It will save them a lot of stolen or "misplaced" tools.. Then, funny enough, a year later you find the person you loaned the tool to, the person who "misplaced" it, using it again..
I don't loan out my name brand tools anymore. If I loan out a tool its the cheapest in my tool box. Unless I know you and trust you to bring it back not f##ked up.
MrRatkilr it's best not to do it with people you trust, because if they lose/break it then it puts some strain on the friendship haha
You should never loan: 1. Your tools. 2. Your wife. In this numbering. :-))
Haha best response I have yet seen.
As an engineer, you match the tool to the job. If your job requires high level accuracy, then use the $150 models. Both units will be destroyed if you drop them, so there's no reason to blindly buy the $150 unit just because it's technically better. There will always be a place for cheap tools and the user needs to make that decision on a case by case basis.
bumpo628 I’m an engineer, and I wouldn’t use the $10 items for anything. You’d be better off with $10 analogue calipers. You’re right that you match the accuracy to the requirements, but these rubbish calipers aren’t good enough to build a timber fence. Chuck em out!
@@sp4nrs video shows they're accurate within 5 thou... plenty good enough for lots of things
@@sp4nrs yes they are good enough to build a timber fence... check bolt dia , hole sizes
david jones might as well just use a small steel rule, at least it can’t self calibrate to completely the wrong value haha
@@sp4nrs i like simple tools too
Here is the best use for the $10 calipers:
When Father's days rolls around and the kiddies want to get Dada something, but they're on a budget (being kids, and they're going to use your money anyway). drop hints about the affordable calipers at Harbor Freight.
After you gush about how you always wanted calipers, and let the kids see you use them a time or two, go out and buy the Mitutoyo and swap them. The kids and wife will never notice the difference. Kids think you love their gift. Wife thinks you got a cheaper alternative to the expensive one she didn't want you to spend money on.
Win Win Win (though you might have to put up with the wife's "I told you you didn't need something that expensive.")
You are an evil genius!
Sneaky sneaky & best dad award at the same time, you are a hero!
Great :)
So glad I don't have to hide shlt from my wife.
@@juanfo7307 So you missed the part about how the kids (or wife) get to think they got you something really cool when they couldn't have afforded the good one.
Who buys a $10 tool and expects the same results as a $150 tool?
The people who buy these, such as myself, are probably replacing a steel rule, not doing precision machining.
Can confirm - my $10 calipers are about 10X better than the dollar store ruler they replaced.
At the machine shop I work at, I'm responsible for checking all the measuring tools in the shop every 6 months. What I can tell you it's cheap calipers may be within .001 when new but typically only last a few years before they start to generate an ever increasing error. On the other end of the spectrum there are numerous Mitutoyo calipers in our shop that are 15+ years old that still measure within .001. It's the quality out of the box and the long term accuracy that you're paying for.
So, at $10 - $20, you can afford to replace them every three years or so.
@@johnc8910 At €29 you won't need to replace them for 20-30 years. Those are the cheapest Mitutoyo offer.
@Eli Z
Sometimes "good enough" IS good enough. I will never wear out my HF digital calipers. They do not get used that much because they sit in a storage cabinet right beside my HF torque wrenches and the digital torque adapter I use solely for calibration purposes.
If I used them professionally, I would have professional grade tools, but these are good enough for a post-retiremnt garage workshop.
Having said all of that, I am not particularly happy that the USA, rightfully or wrongfully, has ceded the low to middle end of the instrument market (electronic and mechanical) to foreigners. I am seeing the same thing here that I saw in the '70s with the US shortwave and amateur radio market (Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, National, etc.) closing their doors.
I just made a comment about this putting my HF specials up against a set of lightly use Mitutoyo’s and it was a 0.1T difference in favor of the Mitutoyo’s. I guess since all this Mitutoyo’s will ever be used for is reloading. They should last me a life time no more hard work for these babies. I have to say I’m extremely happy to have them !!!!
I've got both. Cheapos work great for general woodworking, scribing lines (can't even imagine doing that with my nice set), finding center lines, etc... Not for reliably precise work in metal. Much of my use of calipers doesn't even depend on the exact measured distance - but work great to transfer distances from one part to another (usually using the lock screw) feature. They have their place in doing things the Mitutoyos shouldn't be doing.
Definitely agree; not going to use nice granite in place of a red brick. All depends on the application.
They are great for many applications. You don't want to wear out a $200 caliper scribing lines for drilling holes. Plenty accurate for scribing holes and drilling.
Working as a mechanic I wouldn't need that amount of precision, usually im just trying to find the measurement of something to order a suitable replacement. Not to mention I'd probably destroy the nice ones. I can't have nice things.
If you want precise measurements then use a micrometer.
Maritime Misfits what about bearings with no low tolerances
It's 5 years later. Do you still read ALL of the comments?
No.
hahhah
Algorithm, yeah I've completed it
@@arduinoversusevil2025 fuk
@@arduinoversusevil2025 Ha, Nerd!
When i was 18 i was in a machining trade school and my first week someome gave me a pair of mitutoyo calipers. Ive had them for 7 years and i still use them accurately.
I own a small engineering company and i use the mitutoyo instruments for all the important jobs.
but even in my shop , which is a precision engineering shop , there is a place for those creepy chinese calipers .... at the welder machine for instance , or at the band saw , or even just to sort the materials when i'm looking for one particular bar or plate ... i mean in any job where there are high probability to make damage at the caliper it self :)
You use Chinese calipers where you wouldn't want to put a sweet brown and sharpe one in to risk damage. The Chinese ones are actually good for the price for the job intended.
They work great for anything that is standard measurements, where you can just round to what it should be, but mine are mastercraft, which is basically cheap but just not
Watching this as I look at my calipers that are sitting on my desk; Seeing that they are the $10 ones; feeling bad.
The Japanese calliper is superior because it is forged from steel that is folded 1000 times. Mendeleev himself discovered all the elements by measuring them with glorious Japanese callipers.
Still less hype than a katana.
Tell me why one would need Damascus calipers.
Lil Girty ´Tis a meme about hattori hanzo
But you aren't biased.
If you are really concerned about accuracy and repeatability, spend the money and buy micrometers.
Agreed no one should be thinking they can measure +/-.001" with a caliper. Rough and quick measurements yes but accurate finish work use a micrometer.
@@pchrosto Old post, I know, but the mitotuyos I use at work get within a thousandth reliably every time. Mics are more accurate though of course...
It’s a $10, digital wing nut wrench!
The 10 buck ones have done every nicely for my RC hobby and are still going strong after 8yrs.
ya, they're fine for that but when you're dealing with some of the crap machinist have to deal with like say, the tolerance of a feature on the blueprints calls for +0.002"/-0.000", you're going to want something a little more accurate and precise. You could go with micrometers when it's that close but a good set of calipers is usually preferred so you don't have to go fetch another one for every 1-inch deviation.
You ain't lying I worked for a company ours tolerances were dead on or it was gonna be redone i miss my mitutoyo set. Came with a micrometer
But it’s also a pointless comparison because why would anyone even consider using a $10 tool for a serious job that requires accuracy? This is for hobbyists, home improvement guys, and people around the world that can barely afford a $10 tool let alone $150, and when their $10 tool breaks, they tape it back together. The $10 version is actually surprisingly good, especially for guys that use it once a year.
Waste of time comparison. One is made for machinists, the other for hobbyists and DIYers. For my use, it does not matter if my measurements are off by .001.
Good review, but I can't fully agree with a couple of comments you made.
First off, these calipers have been around for a very long time, and from my observation the basic design and look has been copied/made by multiple manufacturers, with varying degrees of cheapness and subsequent finish.
Even the electronics are not the same - eg. some have a low battery indicator (the display will flash), the really cheap ones do not.
I have one of the more upmarket ones ($20) and it's still going well after 10 years of heavy use. The finish is way better than the $10 one shown. Of course you get what you pay for.
Do I trust it? Not fully. Repeatability is questionable at the 0.01 mm level. But then they don't claim that level of accuracy.
For precision work I use an NSK vernier or Mitutoyo dial caliper.
Not all instruments made in China are crap - just check out Igaging calipers (yep got one of those as well) which while way cheaper than a Mitutoyo, is still an excellent piece of kit.
Cheers Rob
xynudu ..
I'm wincing every time I see the Mitutoyo thrown down like that.
I used to work for a company where the engineering department had good Mitutoyo calipers like these while we sold (or gave away) these same Chinese ones with our own logo on them to the customers. The difference is noticeable if you use them all the time, but the cost is hard to justify if you don't use them frequently.
Back in the mid-1970s I was building up my mechanic's tool set and also started getting machinist measuring tools. I was considering getting something like the Brown & Sharpe line of instruments when I looked closely at a Japanese line of instruments from Mitutoyo. The Mitutoyo instruments were significantly cheaper but the quality seemed top-notch to me. I had worked with hand tools since I was a young boy and had a job at a large hospital in Miami where I evaluated medical/surgical instruments for quality and functionality; I had a good feel for evaluating the quality of an instrument. The Mitutoyo instruments served me very well for many years and I was surprised, and pleased, that I had found a maker of very high quality instruments at an affordable price.
Amazing... My rod grows when I warm it up too! :) Very much enjoy your vids... Subbed! Also love my $10.00 China Calipers!
I have to say after watching your video I am actually pretty impressed with the $10 calipers. Seems with a tiny bit of filing tweaking cleaning up the board greasing deburing maybe a quick spot weld of that beam. they appear to be a pretty "decent" set of calipers.
if you NEED 1/1000 acuracy/precision. ok not for you. but if a couple thousandths is "enough" then it seems these are pretty darned nice (and for a hobbyist that is typically enough most of my stuff 1/100 of a mm is more than sufficient.
would I prefer nice ones? absolutely. no question. but it SEEMS they are not all that bad for $10.
it would be INTERESTING to see someone actually "use a set" long term and see how they actually hold up over time with real heavy use as well as being "cared for" as you would the nice set.
ie "can we make" them a nice alternative for those of us who do not make money from our tools and can't justify $150 for a set of calipers.
I have one of those Chinese callipers. The battery holder broke off, now it's just regular callipers. Well, or a doorstop.
*****
LOL. The least accurate doorstop ever XD.
You removed the self-lapping compound! Ohh-no...
There are Chinese calipers for around $40 that are stainless and very good value. Keep in mind that back in the 60s everyone was saying that mechanical stuff coming out of Japan was junk, now look at them.
"Tap and Die chart. Useless, unless your working on a Frogeye Sprite."
You have no idea. No original bolts, that chart (and a larger one I found) was my lifeline when a friend enlisted my help to rebuild his A-H.
I am not sure what anyone expects from a caliper that costs just $10. If your an engineer that relies on them all the time, well, you just would not buy them. If your someone that might find a use for them once a year, well i think common sense tells you not to chuck a load of money at something. Go spend a decent amount of money on a set, then you have the right to pull it apart. Really, for just $10 that thing could get you out of trouble.
You missed a major point in this video. China has a very unique 0 loss method of QC. Its all luck of the draw. I have a set of these that are very accurate and were smooth out of the box. The pair in this video is why you buy 3 when ordering anything from china : )
TunedCavityLasers i can confirm this comment. I bought a cheap one exactly like the one presented here in 2010, i exp. the same problems [sharp corners, bad feedback ... and not in this video the really bad battery lifetime (Replacement Panasonic Battery which i mostly use because they are cheap) if you compare it to a Mitotuyo] BUT its still working (5 years, i think i replaced battery at least 6 times) and i have to say that i never had a precision problem caused by "using it". Not a fan of it but when i bought it i expected it to fail miserably which it didnt and still dont...
Last set I got were under 10$ and have some new features. A nice large display, auto shut off so batteries will last much longer, and when they are off if you move the slide they are auto on. They also hold memory of the position. Add all that to decently accurate and its a good deal IMO.
TunedCavityLasers I would use them just for building sculptures and stuff. I do geometric sculptures, but art doesn't have to be as precise as CNCing, I just need a rough number. Even at $10 these are overkill.
inthefade
I do a lot of prototyping and machining working with laser which is pretty demanding on accuracy. These type calipers by nature are limited as are their expensive counterparts. Yet more than enough for the average user.
I got a set of these because I don't use them much and thought it would do. Wasted my money, random number generator is not what I needed at all.
The ultimate truth he spoke, "When you are troubleshooting something, your cognitive load is so high that you don't want to be second guessing your meter, you want to be confident."
Long and the short, you get what you pay for, except for Festool
Festool, and some DeWalts, Boschs, Milwaukee and pretty everyone that makes some stoopidly designed tool, even among perfectly good ones. And before any of the DeWalt fanboys there, I have a DeWalt air compressor that has its share of just BAD engineering aspects. Does it work?, Yes. at least for a while, but read all those Amazon bad reviews that properly point out the deficiencies.
I recently disassembled a milwaukee and a dewalt cordless and inside were the same chinese motor of my 35 euro cordless drill, and for the same i mean the code stamped on the motor is the same exact but for 2 letters at the end...
I have the $10 harbor freight calipers. I’ve had them for at least 10 years and I don’t think they’ve ever failed me other than the batteries. Word of advice for the cheapies; take out the batteries after every use because if you leave the battery in it will be dead in a month. And frankly if you get 2 batteries with a new unit you might as well just throw it away when the two batteries are dead because the cost 2 for new batteries is more than 10 bucks.
Brand name LR44 batteries are cheaper by a order of magnitude when you buy in bulk online. Digikey 10 x Energizer LR44 = $4.73
There are these door / window alarm things from china, they contain three of those batteries. The alarm thing costs around a dollar or so :)
johnfranks u can literally buy 100 LR44's for 10 bucks on ebay. lol
Son of a Zombie Those would be 100 one-hung-low batteries. Collectively they'll last longer than 10 name-brand batteries, but you will have to change them way more often. Also, I'd be more worried about a cheap battery leaking and pissing corrosives on the PCB.
+johnfranks - I never buy batteries online anymore. Dead or almost dead batteries delivered are the problem. On the flip side I have never had a dead battery from any of the local big box hardware stores like Home Depot. If you have a truly RELIABLE online source please leave a link. Oh also get yourself a good battery tester like the ZTS MBT-1. Worth every penny as an investment.
Thanks for sharing just how bad those calipers are. I think I'll stick to my Mitutoyo and Staretts.
Even though we came to different conclusions about the Chinese calipers, I just want to say I very much enjoy both of y'alls channels. Thanks for the effort, gentlemen.
I work with Mitutoyo tools everyday in the QA lab. They really are worth the cost if you need to have accurate measurements every time.
LOL, you clearly have no idea what I am talking about. "Do you even Metrology bro!?!"
We, professionals know that calipers, of any brand, have limited accuracy despite the ability to provide precise measurements. I use tools like a Mitutoyo absolute digital height gauge on a calibrated surface plate to take very accurate measurements. I also use a Mitutoyo CV-2000 Contracer to profile the radius on stamped parts. Not to mention the Zies Contura G2 or Brown & Sharp Mistral CMMs, or the optical comparator, ect, ect.
My company makes safety components for automobiles, like airbag difusers, seat belt tounge plates, D-rings, and slider/rail assemblies.
Do you want me to be confirming +/-0.200mm tolerances on the safety components that might be saving your life or the life of your child with a $10 pair of chinesium calipers?
+AaronAlso you feel like a guy to get turned on by calipers
AaronAlso As a fellow machinist, please use the good stuff!
Harsh. I have two sets of the cheap callipers and they're perfectly fine. Accurate, reliable and nice to use. I'm more than happy with them.
Recently got a manufacturing engineer internship with a local medical device company taking tooling and fixtures and making solid works models out of em and was handed one of the mitutoyos. Sooo good feeling to use in comparison to the crappy harbor frieght ones I've been so accustomed to using most of my life.
"comes in roman noodle flavor" FUCKING KILLED ME XDD
You forgot the most important feature: Which one do you keep to loan to people who borrow tools?
Never loan out your tools! Even to your kids! Somehow they never get back home... or the proper spot in the shop!
William Ward Or else they come back broken, and they didn't break them ;)
thats what i thought aswell
***** Very good point.
You never checked the jaws for parallel, the wedge ends (where your fine measurement is done) can be gappy, if you polish the faces with diamond grit paper the accuracy can be vastly improved..You should have clamped the calibration bar in a vise to do proper square on measurement.
I bought an even shittier one made from plastic and .... actually it replaced my regular, nice steel one for most tasks. It is just so cheap, handy, and working with electronics a lot: the insulation comes in quite handy! There is no fear of bending my tool - it is plastic, no fear of having to replace it - it was just 8 bucks. I feel weird because you certainly cannot get super-precise measurements off that thing but I would suggest to everybody who wants to have a caliper to try a shitty one first. Upgrade when you need to. But actually: how often are you doing actual precision engineering that requires the higher precision etc?
My German dad was a die maker by trade and completed his apprenticeship in the 1930s at a technical college. As part of the training, he made a vernier calliper. In the later stages of his training he made a lathe. He never owned a digital vernier, but had 3 traditional verniers made by: Mauser (arms manufacturer), Helios and TESA. The Tunguska of measuring instruments.
cheap n nasty - oh my, they are quite reasonably accurate despite appearances - oh but of course we can't have facts ruining a good rant can we.
I call bullshit, show us the inside of the good calipers too, that would be the best comparison. for example, is the tang on the good calipers welded?
nikotwenty notice he said .005 of warp on the good one but never showed it
RIP apart your own high precision measuring tool 😉
This channel is so undersubscribed
his language i think is what holds it back.
@@johng1077 that's exactly what attracted most of us, I know it was for me. My formidable years were spent at a machine shop, with a very old machinist and the language was almost exactly the same.
I left my butt off... At 3 minutes and 47 seconds there's a commercial coming across your channel for harbor freight tools just after you slammed them for the crappy stuff....
Keep up the good work my friend keep reminding us that you get what you pay for.
The link to the update video about the battery drainage comparison in the video description does not work. Has the video been removed???
Keep my stick on the ice?
How do you know my wife?
I own a cheap 15€ Chinese caliper. That said of course it is not that precise. But for what I use it for it definitely works out. However if you are a machinist working with lathe and mills, a good one is at some point neccesary. I still would buy a cheap one first to get started and when it fails a good one. If you say a cheap 15 bucks lasts 1 year and a good 150 bucks one lasts 10 years, there is no difference in budged. Getting started requires many many tools, so buying some cheap stuff is neccesary or you have to wait 10 years for enought money, to get all tools in a good shape. Time is worth more than anything.
$150 vs $10 and it's nearly as accurate? do me a flavour. Its amazing the lengths you go to to defend your initial purchase. (Methinks he doth protest too much). Personally I don't need to measure that many things better than with a tape measure, so I watched the video with a rye smile upon my face. Just dragged one that I bought 3 years ago out of the cupboard and it works fine though have to say that I think I've used it twice since I bought it . So just remember the 90-10 law and ensure you spend 90% of your money on things you use 10% of the time! That's the way to get real value!
Alistair Lumb $150 is too much and $10 is too little.Why can't they double
or triple the price and build a perfect caliper.Why?
Loyd anonamous it is because the buyer said the guy at next door is selling for $1.8, and it is his mercy to give that supplier $2.0 for an order of 2,000 pieces.
But frankly speaking, when most of the works in China requires accuracy of 0.1mm, giving $2.0 calipers to workers doesn't seems unwise. When they really require precision, they will take out their Mitutoyo ( the dial caliper instead of a digital one ).
If you work with devices that require precision, being a cheapskate is not an option. How would you feel if someone built your car using the 10 dollar caliper over the more expensive system? What if i built your airbags using questionable measurements? They may go off, they may not. Leave it to chance. Should they use your 90-10 rule for the pacemaker that keeps you alive?
sounds a bit like my jeep with the death wobble
Careful there's a billiondollar airbag class action going on with almost every car manufacturer on the planet.
You should have compared them to the dollar store plastic calipers that don't even have a tightening knob. Found a pair in my dad's shop room, they're quite something to behold!
Great video, as a calibration tech who works with 20-30 calipers a week I agree with everything you've said. I think the biggest factor in buying "precision tools" is the amount of use. $10 use them 2-3 times a week...all is good for semi-precision work.
Use them 2-3x a day...
Don't be stupid, spend the $150.
Newly subbed, love your style, keep up the great content 👍👍👍
Still pretty accurate though and if your on a budget it's very acceptable, especially if you are too bothered about the aesthetics of your measuring tools.......
A lot of the shortcomings are precisely to keep em cheap - I'm sure they could make them look as nice as the 'mirrors' but they would also share a price tag......
Reading some comments here leads me to believe that a ton of people have not used an expensive caliper nor do they need the caliper for speed and accuracy.
Some of us use good enough, until we need better. I have a lot of "good enough" tools, that I don't mind loaning out. Touch my better tools, and someone will lose a hand. Except AvE. I'd trust him not to accidentally break anything.
Yea that’s for sure. I use a cheap pair and never have used a good pair so mine are fine for me and my needs. I just don’t get butt hurt over it because I also have lots of the stupidly expensive tools, like snap on screwdrivers, hammers, Benchmade knives, etc so I know once you hold something truly good it makes everything else seem like trash, even if it’s good enough for almost everyone.
JW Smythe He'd just fix it till its broke
yeah, he only breaks stuff on purpose.
Depends. If ur job depends on calipers then u should invest in more quality. My cheap one says not for professional use. I mean what else donu expect for 10 bucks?
Ah yes one of the few RUclips's who stays true and keeps the good ole original content
I have the Harbor Freight ones and I love them. They aren't $100+ level of quality, but they have been very accurate and easy to use. I've checked their calibration, and they are right on.
Shrimp and mothballed flavor... 🤣😂🤣
There's a slight slant when you were measuring the 3 inch rod with the cheap Chinese caliper. No slant when you measured with the expensive Japanese one.
You can get one ONLY $8 at www.gearbest.com/other-instruments/pp_314432.html?vip=337577
International shipping
nah, 4 bucks 50 cents www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Electronic-Digital-Gauge-Stainless-Vernier-Caliper-150mm-6-inch-Micrometer-/141686154520?hash=item20fd272518:g:zQEAAOSwPCVX41J7
The one he linked was solar powered.
Love the channel... I love it so much I might buy the house next to you😂. But have you ever taken a nutrabullet apart,?.... Keep smiling.!!
At 4:09, I spied the infamous CE mark on those Mitutoyo calipers. What gives AvE??
Curious if the test was done with the battery that came with it versus a battery equivalent to the more expensive caliper?
i have on old set of Mitutoyo and they are nice but they don't have an auto off ..and my cheap set do so most times the good one have a flat battery so the cheap ones get the most use....same with multimeters i have to have a set that autos off
I think it's all too easy to laugh at Chinese products by selecting the very worst things they're willing to produce and sell.
I happen to own a pair of Chinese digital calipers, of similar specifications, but which actually meets them. Obviously I payed 75, - Euros for them, but that's still just over half of what Mitutoyo will charge you for the same pleasure.
They're straight, properly finished and as tight as any brand named calipers I've ever used. Now, will these calipers stand up to being used day-in and day-out? -I don't know because I don't do that... I'm starting to wonder why I even bought them in the first place, because I very rarely have to measure anything *that* accurately. It just seemed like a good deal at the time I needed better than 5/100ths accuracy, I guess... and that went nowhere commercially.
My cheapo harbor freight one has lasted me almost 8 years and still working fine 🤷♂️.
don't know if it works but I remember being told to magnetise a tool you rub a magnet over it on one direction, to maybe if you just go all parkinsons on it maybe it will help to demagnitise? never thought of demagnitise to be honest.
What does it mean when the 10 dollar caliper sends random numbers at you? that's what happened to mine.
Tosses fine precision tools like pistachio sheels......
There are so many of these out there..There are clones of clones of clones.. I have a cheap caliper also.. though I don't think it was $10. It may have been... $14 on sale.. I bought it years ago.. maybe.. 10, 12 years. So of course after watching this I had to dig it out of the pile and inspect it. Though it may look identical to this, slightly different graphics... the printed gauge is black and yellow.. same chincy chart on the back.. it is no where NEARLY this bad in fit and finish. It is straight for one thing.. and has no noticeable pitting in the steel. So everyone whining that their cheap caliper is better then this $10 pile.... then congratulations... it probably is. This one is a cheap clone of a cheap clone... $10.. its cheap.. he just showed you how cheap it is.. (good video BTW). You can not deny its crap... so go hold your slightly less crappy caliper tightly and be thankful.
spdwebdotnet i have a very similar one too but it's newer (~1 year) and it's also better than the one he showed.
But using a $20-30 caliper to scribe lines is better for most jobs. Do you really want to use a $200 caliper to scratch lines? $30 caliper will do just fine for most jobs. Save the $200 caliper for the real important jobs
My cheapy from HF is pretty good. Of course, I sorted through almost a dozen store samples and picked the best one they then had.
You perfectly described my dad at the end their hahahaha!
I think he gets a thrill out of buying (lots of) cheap stuff & thinks he doing over the company by getting it cheap..
Such flawed thinking
How do you use the data port on the calipers?
I actually thought these worked by encoder principles, but I guess not, how do they work?
Can you give me a recommendation for a good brand of files? I’ve looked online but it seems some of the brands that used to be good, are no longer. I got a Nicholson triangle file and it was crap. I heard a lot of bad things about the new Nicholson files but I needed it in a hurry and couldn’t find one in store that would work.
good for somone who just needs a pair to be somewhat accurate
Better off with dial calipers
Since watching your channel I realize how badly I've been ripped off, I paid the equivalent of 50 USD for a caliper that looks identical to that 10$ one
They are a dime a dozen on ebay.
the cheap calipers are definitely the better buy universally. why spend 10 to 15 times more for a tool that is not that much more accurate? tbh I don't even know of anything that is so critical to benefit from the more expensive set. tbh a better comparison would be a real world test. I.e using both to produce various items in your machine shop. I bet in reality there wouldn't be a major difference.
well then guess again. If you are working in a machine shop they expect 1 thou tolerance. If your caliper is off you might ruin 10 parts you where making, that might cost about 200-300dollars or maybe even more. And that is just 10 parts. If you run it like that for a month it might be 1000 or even more. That way the good caliper would have payed for itself a lot of times allready.
But would that actually be noticed? Like I would expect that the average manual machinist would not be able to produce products repeatedly within a thou tolerance. It's easy to say someone will lose money using that tool but is that really the case? If he used both calipers to make a set of gears or a ball bearing housing more likely than not both would come out exactly the same.
Who said a manual machinist is using the calipers? I occasionally make parts that need to be accurate under a thou. Or at least repeatable under a thou.
for starters. if you are swedish or german engineer you dont want any possible inaccuracy when building something by hand. if you were to make a object with shitty calipers and were to repeat the process a few times all you measured was inaccurate. its all about consistency. it would be like you trying to use a shitty architects scale and most of the numbers and lines are rubbed off plus its bent a little so I think that would be the same consistancy as useing a pair of shitty calipers
i HAVE FOUND THAT A CRAFTSMAN,generally knows his own tools,give him a tool with a different tension on the slide ,he will take more time and do more checks to convince himself of the accuracy of the tool,and most manufacturing now is done using cnc machines these machines do all the mesuring by computer,so to measure the progress is not needed
What do you think about the 38€ Mitutoyo analog Calipers? I mean they are also "pretty cheap" but they have been working just fine in my experience.
Wow... a $150 tool is better quality than a $10 one. No shit Sherlock...
Like You say You get what you pay for John
u don't actually
usually your buying a brand name
A 10$ Chinese Caliper is about as exact as a 150$ Us one? Well how about comparing it against a 10$ Us one? Does one of those even do digital?
It's a $150 JAPANESE caliper not US...
PROBLEM #1: Finding a $10 US-made caliper, mechanical or digital.
PROBLEM #2: Finding anything made in the US.
I have these and use them in reloading ammunition and general gunsmithing. They aren't perfect but they get plenty close enough for the purpose and are certainly more accurate than I am on anything I am making/working on. I don't use them daily or for a job, I might have bought more expensive ones if I did. I take care of mine and I've had them about 5 years.
Mine don't feel like you describe yours as feeling. I'd suggest going to the store and just opening up the one you are going to buy. If it feels bad, open the next one. If I make 10 of the same thing, they aren't all exactly the same. I wouldn't expect if a factory makes the cheapest tool possible that they would all be the same.
Also, wouldn't a piece of steel wool clean up the slide OK without messing it up?
I once got a starrett micrometer for $30 and it has better precision than I have needed yet, I need to get around to make a case for it.
Have you noticed that these vary in part number and design, ever so slightly on the Harbor Freight shelf? I wonder if they have gotten any better than this?
what do you expect for ten dollars!? you get what you pay for ... and for you over there (I live in Europe) it's good enough! you do not have metric ... so do not talk about precision
I'm not saying that it less accurate but metric is simpler
www.radiolab.org/story/meter-measure-man/ read up... your guys measured wrong when developing the meter. How's that for precision?
really … and that is why we measure metric in the scientific world
Wolverine I hope you guys are better at measuring now than you were a couple hundred years ago...
I hope so too ;)
same thing happens to my nether regions when i heat em up
1.2K AliExpress retailers down voted this review.
+AvE do you know if there are any Digital Caliper that don't use a slide roller and can use a better griped one maybe even have teeth to grab so it only moves when you turn it, as when i trying to get 14mm i usually end up pushing to much and either end up with 13.7mm or 14,7mm even with the tension screw on top as i have a heave hand when i try to do small mm movements.
well thanks, ave, I just bought ~$100 calipers that I probably didn't need :D
hopefully I'll have them kicking around for 10 years+ like you have. these mitutoyo calipers are so, so nice.
How do you demagnetize your caliper blades? Buy a $10 demagnetizer.
Mark Gray I think the $150 demagnetizer works a lot better..and does not have any micron of play or fluctuation in it!
StiloNautica It was a joke.
So was mine... -_-
Oh....lmao....Both dry sense of humors....I always think that no one gets me cuz of it...my bad.
Isn't all these rhetoric a bit childish ? For a $10 caliper, and you expect precision and quality ? It is just not possible even with cheap Chinese labor. Ultimately, you get what you pay and who is to blame ? Those that bought it on one and only one factor, thinking that they got a good deal.
+Henry Ting
I didnt, I needed a caliper as long as it tells me approximate measurement for general garage stuff, 10 bucks is a steal
"Youlong Dingdog China" ROFL. Nearly spit my coffee out.
How accurate is it? While I like an heirloom sometimes I need good enough.
For demagnetizing you can use a soldering gun. Energize the gun and insert magnetic tool between the pillars where the tip screws in
0:39 Coming outta Newlawn Ding Dong, China....Noodle spice packet... LOL. You deserve more subs.
My take away from this video isn't really anything about the calipers. Rather, you can get a cheap ass tool and bitch an' moan about how shitty it is, or you can get some grease and a file an fix that shit right up. Truth is anyone can bitch an be critical, but it takes skill and quality of character to come up with a solution; making it work with what you got (could be i'm just taking this shit too seriously, but the compliment stands :)
+McBrappin I was wondering if anyone else would take the time to notice he spent the whole video trashing a $10 caliper, while simultaneously showing us how to turn them into $17 calipers!
+McBrappin I wouldn't want to spend a couple of hours to repair something I just bought so it works right. That would mean around 50$ to 80$ on top off my wallet (comparing with average net salary). For something that won't last as long... No thanks. Btw I just bought a brand new Mitutoyo 500-196-30 today for 45.69$USD... Just saying ;-)
I think you were too concerned with telling the internet about your salary and good deal to understand the point of my comment. That said, congratulations! :)
There's that quality of character I was talking' about!
McBrappin
1) I just thrown you back your own ball. You don't like it? Then psycho-analyze yourself.
2) I was *not* talking about my own personal salary, read again.
3) If people have a salary of between 50$ to 80$ for *two* hours... What's wrong with them? You seem to insinuate that they should feel guilty, why, because they wouldn't be engineers with such a lower salary? Consider a salary of about 10$ to 15$ per hour, you'd get to my same conclusion.
4) Given the last point, I'd add another argument: most people don't have the money nor their time to throw away so easily. It's better to pay 30$ to 50$ for a better quality caliper then risk throwing it in the trash right out of the box if not a couple of month later. Especially if they must use this caliper for whatever job they're doing. A tool is not a toy... Unless they like to repair brand new stuff as a hobby of course, like the guy in this clip...
5) The fact that you're trying to ill-willingly psycho-analyze my "character" instead of sticking to the point of the topic, is a blatant sign that you have no valuable argument whatsoever about the topic, shit-digging like this shows a real lack of any dignity and especially _respect_. Leave your mad ego in the closet and get over it, this is just a caliper.
At _WonHungLow Calipers,_ Quality is job Won.
When I worked on TV's with CRT's we used home made toroid coils to demagnetize the surface of the tube before setting the purity. In a pinch we used a Weller 300 watt soldering gun to generate a magnetic field for the same purpose. It sorta worked. Perhaps a version could demagnetize your tools. As to the cheap caliper, I buy them to lend to people son-in-law's etc. I get the Harbor Freight digital meters for the same reason. The Fluke stays in my tool box.
got this 25 y old mitutoyo from my dad, with the nice brown plastic wrong side belt slide holder
still works like a charm
maybe thats why chinesium buildings fall and factories blow up?
This is a silly comparison. You can't compare a $10 caliper to a $120 caliper.
What did you expect ? What's your point, I don't get it sorry.
These differences are just obvious, the opposite result would be the fantastic miracle.
There is no quality assurance in China (except toll manufacturing for western firms).
There is very high level quality assurance in Japan.
***** I had no intention to offend you, and you ride the high horse. I wasn't offhand with you.
"can't compare" means "shouldn't compare" in that context.
And clearly I don't get it because its pointless, unmeaning.
You compared a $10 crap to $120 good quality product, and you came to the conclusion that $10 caliper is much worse than a $120 caliper.
And when someone asks peacefully "what's you point", you're being smartass. Hmmm. Nevermind.
The service job is interesting, but the comparison is silly, meaningless. This is what you can expect for $10. Or maybe a dinner.
telelaci2 Basically he's posing the question on whether or you not you need to invest the bigger bucks into a product versus purchasing its much cheaper counter part. I question I know I ask myself whenever buying anything.
He points out the pros and the cons for both arguments for us the viewers to decide.
Then he states his opinion at the end.
Very basic review setup, informative, and allows you to see the thought process of someone like him, so that you can agree or disagree at your own leisure.
+AvE This guy must also go to the chinese discount dentist. Only pays 10% as much and his teeth almost never fall out.
+Cam C Theoretically its a nice try, but the lack of quality assurance means that the Chinese crap is ineligible for the comparison. First you should compare 10 craps to each other, to see how big the quality deviation is. Because if you just pick up a random crap, that could be quite good crap if you are lucky, and it could be an unusable bad crap also.
If you pick up a Japanese anticrap, that won't be crap, never, the randomness and luck don't count , there is no quality deviation. That's the essence of the quality assurance. Its pointless to compare these things to each other, they are in very different weight-class.
+telelaci2 You just don't get it. Please go away.
Just imagine the working conditions those metal workers have there...
Just what the US will be like in ten years
I M Mr Rios We don't know for sure, it's just that the Chinese make what they are most asked for: cheaper alternatives, cheaper meaning less attention to details - because they have to make a profit too, even though they are communists.
+soupflood they also steal every freaking piece of technology/IP they can from any and everything that a reputable company sells in China. Of course this always becomes extremely worse when a company send stuff to be manufactured there to save a buck.
I'd love to see a review of the dial version calipers. They are decent for crap jobs, but the pair I use have very noticeable high spots in the rack & pinion.
But I'll never let go of my Mitutoyo coolant proof calipers & micrometer's for real jobs.
I have some that have the same look but they did not have a crusty feel to them and they are good enough for basic things.
If you're not a car guy do you buy a V8 to just go to work, take the kids to school and do the grocery run or do you do you buy a little car like a honda jazz/fit to do the same job
what caliper, do you recommend ?