Cheap vs. Fancy Caliper Shoot-out

So back in the fall I bought a nice pair of "EZ-Cal" digital calipers for about $27. A few months later I saw some cheap Malaysian-made plastic calipers on eBay for $0.75 each and thought I'd buy 2-3 to have around the house/office just in case I wanted to get a quick reading and didn't have my fancy calipers to hand. Today I thought I'd see how close they were. The answer is: pretty darn close.






I do like the heft and large digital readout of the nice calipers. But the moral of the story is, if you have 75 cents, you can get a pair of calipers that are probably adequate for most amateur collectors.

Here's the ebay link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/112251897059?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

BTW, on an unrelated note, I got this digital scale for under $10 and am happy with it. Again, more demanding collectors or dealers might want something nicer, but once I bought the appropriate calibrating weight, it's worked very well for my needs. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IXHSPDK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

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I have never used a caliper, not even a digital version. But I can't even make sense of your plastic caliper! How do you read that thing?

 

I also recently bought calipers. I bought two kinds.

"6 Inch Carbon Fiber Composite Vernier Digital Caliper Ruler With Big Screen" for $9 from Amazon and "iGaging 8" Digital Outside Calipers" for $26.

The $9 calipers are very convenient. I am now recording the diameter of my coin to 1/10 of a millimeter. Because they are carbon fiber I feel they don't scratch coins. The downside is that I chose this caliper because it promised to include a depth gauge, but didn't.

I can't give a full review of the $9 calipers until the battery wears out and I have replaced it.

The $26 outside calipers are not convenient to take the diameter of coins. Their only use is to take the thickness of cupped scyphate coins. The outside calipers I chose are also accurate to 1/10 mm. I have only been using them for very thin coins, and it is somewhat frustrating to have all of my coins at .3 or .4mm.

 

I just bought one, thanks for the heads up. 99cents shipped to Australia, I don't know how they do it.....

 

I've always used a mm ruler, now I want something I didn't know I wanted just a minute ago.

 

I have been using these Digital Calipers for several years: Engineering work, product development, competitive analysis, factory floor QA, etc. etc. Been trusty and true for me... Works well on my coins. I am also very used to and careful how I measure, so I do not worry about scratching or damaging...

 

It looks to me like it is reading 25mm which is 1.5mm less than the reading from the digital calipers. Hmmm! For some of my medals that are 50-75mm, it would mean the reading would be off by 3-4.5mm. No thanks! I'll stick to the digital calipers I bought through the ANA for $10 back in 2005. I've only replaced the battery once.

Chris

 

one problem with the plastic ones is how are they calibrated? Not that I worry about calibrating my digital model; but it was calibrated before I got it. I would expect that the plastic ones would wear out or start to have other issues versus a decent digital caliper.

 

Well, maybe *I'm* using the calipers incorrectly and have just cost Ancient Aussie 99 cents. Am I supposed to be looking at the edge of the bottom slide (POINT 1) or the "0" point of the bottom slide (POINT 2)?

I think I need a manual calipers tutorial.

This is what happens when English professors try to do math.

 

I have a set of metal calipers I used in science classes long ago but a plastic mm ruler is more than enough for coin diameters. When I collected early stamps and was interested in fine measurements for position plating I photographed a very accurate metal mm scale on litho film at a very precise 1:10 ratio giving me a good scale that could be overlaid on a stamp and give good results. I still see no need for measurements that fine on coins because of the extreme variance you get from coin to coin. Overheated die expansion would even make measurements across a diameter enough that he last digit would not be significant.

Vernier calipers work like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernier_scale


I guess CT s/w won't allow moving in a gif?

 

I am pretty sure it is point 2 (the 0 mark). I haven't seen too many where it uses the cut out edge. But check your book any way if I am wrong I will send you a 99c invoice...

 

From the zero if they line up when its fully closed

 

When you close it, the zero points match up... 0-0. That is the reading point: 0

 

Well, here are the cheapo calipers closed. The way I read them, these calipers show the O mark between the 26 and 27 mm. point, which seemed surprisingly close to the digital readout. But caveat emptor. I wouldn't use these for professional precision. But for an office spare, they were worth 75 cents to me. I will await Ancient Aussie's invoice. I hope a personal check is OK.

 

LOL, no, it is the FIRST 0's...actually, to the LEFT all FOUR 0's line up...

 

Yes, I understand that. With my comment on the 26-27 measurement, I was referring the original measurements taken above, not the closed calipers.

 

Even if they are within half a mm, that is close enough for me, as a sheet-metal worker years ago, I always took pride in working within half a mm tolerance. Gee-wizz if you measure an ancient coin across diameter in a few places you will get different measurements any way.

 

LOL, ok, cool! I was looking at your pic thinking... "he MISSED all those zeros!" All's well!

 

that's why you takes the widest and smallest measurements...I always record the smaller number first, like 17x19mm

 

The bottom scale is the vernier scale to get the next digit.
(Edited) in the metric scale, and the top vernier is for closest 1/128 of an inch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernier_scale