Thread: Starret vs Mitutoyo

The story of reading a vernier I guess is more common than you may think. Reading a vernier is an aquired skill and with ageing eyes gets more difficult. I know it isn't traditional but with modern technology and those same ageing eyes I prefer to use a digital vernier these days.

Denn

Hello ,

Originally Posted by dennford

The story of reading a vernier I guess is more common than you may think. Reading a vernier is an aquired skill and with ageing eyes gets more difficult. I know it isn't traditional but with modern technology and those same ageing eyes I prefer to use a digital vernier these days.

Aww, I did not mean to say anything or such about someone's physical difficulties or problems when writing about "lack of skills". Plain vernier just defends itself when used in freezing conditions or in the middle of dust and dirt, when a caliper has to fit in a tight place and generally not wanting to worry about dead batteries (there is a solar cell model, too). I think it just is generally easier to maintain than battery models. But it may be that I'm gonna upgrade to digital display model, too. It is very easy thing to read out.

Also I do not want to blame anyone for owning "too many tools not able to use". That really is one's personal decision, to be just an owner with a rag and a can of polishing medium. But then there should be involved certain "honesty", too. I mean, I quite can't say "I can" if I can't. That would be badly prone to present future embarrasment, I'd say. It is then a slightly different thing if I am just dumbass out there and really just guessing what I can or can't . Been there, too...

There seems to be a little machinist living inside of me, and although I usually am always hobbying without any actual real blueprints (only main dimensions, or just the basic aimed purpose), it indeed does not mean I would not ever measure anything . I'm not Frank Klausz, you see.

Those combination squares, like verniers, pair of compasses, precision rulers and such are to me kind of "old world" good tools, to make precision stuff with personality. They are tool making tools. I think those kind of things would be good to have around.

Kippis,

sumu

Originally Posted by sumu

. But then there should be involved certain "honesty", too. I mean, I quite can't say "I can" if I can't. That would be badly prone to present future embarrasment,

That is something that I have allways drilled into my family. I'm a firm believer that even the slightest stretch of the truth will come back and bite your bum one day.

I just completed a piece of furniture for a friend and over the past few weeks I have heard twice from other people how he made this furniture - that I don't mind, I had the pleasure of making it and now have the satisfaction of someone thinking highly enough of it to claim as thier own (it's not that good - I know all the faults in it). What does amuse me is the thought of someone at a future date asking him if he could make one for them.

Originally Posted by sumu

Hello,

I think I need a good combination square. I already have some Mitutoyos, a couple of calipers, one micrometer, some rulers and machinists' straight angles and some precision parallers. In this case, the "natural choice" would be Mitutoyo Combination square as well.

But, there is that Starrett. I looks very nice as well. Has anyone had any problems with it, or is it somehow more like "woodworking type" than for example a Mitu would be? If somebody has experience on both, I would really like to hear about that. Any experience on both alone will be greatly appreciated as well .

By the way, I know a couple of those "tool yuppies" who have bought practically everything what there is for handheld precision measurement equipment. Still, I feel kinda embarrassed when once I asked one of them to tell me what the vernier caliper said for a steel sheet thickness, I heard no answer (actually I heard "close to 3mm" ). It really is not self-evident how to use them, even for basic measurements.

Kippis,

sumu

Mitutoyo measuring tools are well made and accurate ,I have quite a few of them including the combination square set .
2 Micrometers (0-2" and 0-50mm) and a protractor with the magnifying lens and fine adjustment, spring gauges , two verniers and two dial indicators with magnetic bases .
All leftovers from my metal trade .but still in use now that I have a metal working lathe.
The verniers are the non digital type , even though my eyes are not what they used to be ,I can read them as long as I walk out side into bright sunlight.

I worked in a machine shop quite a while back , and the supervisor often asked me to check his measurements ,I would measure the part and give him the measurement I read off the micrometer or vernier and he would say "yep thats what I got too,I really need to get new glasses".
Took me a while to work out that he did not know how to read a vernier or a micrometer .I found out he used to be a cleaner at the factory and his brother in law was the works manager , and got him the job as machine shop supervisor.

Kev

Hello,

Which one of the blades You have, 300mm/12" or 600mm/24"? I am tempted to pick up both, just in the case I would have to pick up the G'damn router again. I kinda hate the router and working with it, because to me, the greatest part of the work will always be missing in the final product, and that's is the jig, usually handmade and precision adjusted. Well, before I complete somekind of ultimate dust control system all over my small workshop, no router will run there.

In the mean time, I'll keep making planes and such, and the shorter blade would do there well, I think.

Originally Posted by Woodlee

I worked in a machine shop quite a while back , and the supervisor often asked me to check his measurements ,I would measure the part and give him the measurement I read off the micrometer or vernier and he would say "yep thats what I got too,I really need to get new glasses".
Took me a while to work out that he did not know how to read a vernier or a micrometer .I found out he used to be a cleaner at the factory and his brother in law was the works manager , and got him the job as machine shop supervisor.

Oh man. I mean, I am not any kind of specialist in sciences of metrology, but That is no more a matter of just reading vernier. A machine shop supervisor is hereabouts a person who is (or should be) able for example to point out and straighten out the warped frame of metal lathe, select or propose the most suitable machining strategy for a given job, calibrate and program all the necessary zero points for a machine (think of X=15m, Y=15m, Z=5m portal machining centre), etc. It is of course nice if Your supervisor was capable to keep at least the displays clean, because now the buttons were out of reach. I really can't say what I would have said in that particular situation.

Well , one thing we still can do, and I think it is these stories we write here. Maybe somebody bothers to catch something said here .

kippis,

sumu

While I'm proficient with a vernier, I prefer dial gauges on my calipers - all of which are Mitutoyo. Some have given 20 years of service, with the first ten being highly intensive, with 100's of measurements a day.

My combination square is a Starret, and is has also given faultless service - I was a patternmaker for years & could not afford to have a crokk square - it was checked against other squares weekly & never dropped. It is still as true as the day I bought it.