Thread: Metrology for Amateurs

Okay Thanks Phil I will give the Anyi gear a miss. I found a Swiss Sylvac on EBay which I hope to win

Originally Posted by welder

Okay Thanks Phil I will give the Anyi gear a miss.

Grasshopper.

Read my post again. Anyi is probably fine, if Ray G recommended's them. Its the BGS Germany ones I tried and found them to be sorely lacking.

I did ask their opinion if the ones I sent back where typical of the quality, and gave them the option of sending me a replacement set.

Zilch correspondence back, they just refunded the buy price, but I did lose out on return postage. It says in the add, it has to be registered. So about $11 bucks.

Phil.

P.S

I found a Swiss Sylvac on EBay which I hope to win

You do know we are all searching Ebay frantically right now, for an apprentice priced set of Sylvac's?

Oops I see I misread Althought I did find that Sylvac caliper on ebay So I am still happy (unless one of you boys outbids me )

Originally Posted by welder

Oops I see I misread Althought I did find that Sylvac caliper on ebay

Is that the one at US $59.95? Postage is $39.95. Thats getting up there. I bought a 0 - 150 digital Starret, brand new for around $120, local industrial supplier, after that BGS affair. Pete F and G.Q got to use that Tuesday a couple of weeks back.

Its not too bad, I still prefer the Mit's it replaced. But at a hundred bucks landed, your'e fast approaching new for a second hand caliper.

Phil.

Well I would rather not link it but so far with 3 days left it's at 1 euro,it comes with certification the seller says it was used in "R & D packaging lab" and it looks brand new the most I will spend on a used set is around $75.

Originally Posted by welder

Oops I see I misread Althought I did find that Sylvac caliper on ebay

Is that the one at US $59.95? Postage is $39.95. Thats getting up there. I bought a 0 - 150 digital Starret, brand new for around $120, local industrial supplier, after that BGS affair. Pete F and G.Q got to use that Tuesday a couple of weeks back.

Its not too bad, I still prefer the Mit's it replaced. But at a hundred bucks landed, your'e fast approaching new for a second hand caliper.

Phil.

I was in General Tools today in Adelaide. They had a M&W 6" (new) for I think it was $58 - they say they've sold several 100 at that price since the beginning of the year. I have a M&W 12", and it's not bad. If you are after a cheap "use and forgot where I left it" caliper the M&W could be the go.
(I was snooping - I bought a hardly ever been used 6" Mitutoyo on Sunday for $40. Made it by $18!)

Michael

Just a note for any lurkers who may not fully understand the "Marco" comments and may think I am poking fun at Marco......I'm in fact poking fun at myself for measuring to 1/20th of what some consider 2/10ths of SFA in the first place.

Now is that any clearer? I'm not so sure.
Am I over thinking things agian?

Stuart

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Am I over thinking things agian?

Surely yes. Let me go get another beer, I'll be right back.

Just back from Melbourne.... so I'm late coming to the discussion...

Long Island Indicator is pretty independant in their views on indicators and metrology.. they have this to say about Anyi

Anyi digital calipers are made in Guilin, China (a picturesque landscape town in the South). Quality workmanship has arrived in China and these calipers are every bit as good as their European or Japanese equivalents. This new company started production in 2005 so it may be a while before you see these tools.

• Sales: not yet available
• Repairs: not yet available
• Parts: not yet available
• Information: contact the manufacturer via their website

And the other one in this thread...


Sylvac digital calipers, made in Switzerland, distributed in the US by Fred Fowler. This is sophisticated equipment with many variations. As with other electronic equipment, if it fails it will probably not be repairable. On the plus side, most of these come with a 5 year warranty, something which no other manufacturer can offer. It sounds good, but that's a warranty on manufacturing defects. It doesn't cover the damage caused when you drop the gage.

• Sales: catalogs and Fowler dealers nationwide
• Repairs: return to the manufacturer
• Parts: generally not in stock
• Information: Fred Fowler catalogs

027 : Long Island Indicator Service : Sales, Repairs and Spare Parts

And for Stuart, I can help with the maths 2/5 ths of SFA is still SFA...


Regards
Ray

PS Moore & Wright are made in China ( "not that there is anything wrong with that!" ) as far as I know...
PPS Also while we are on Sylvac, they supply their caliper electronics to some other German and Swiss companies, not sure which ones... though..

Originally Posted by Machtool

Let me go get another beer, I'll be right back.

Thats code for let me drag out my Sigmund Freud books. There ain't no chapter for you and I Stu.

Your Pics of the Mits height gauge, slapped me in the face. Thats exactly the instument I grew up on. The vernier breaking down the tenth reading wheel. I've looked at that dozens of times and paid it little regard.

I grew up with dozens of high end trades men, Gauge / tool makers / Q.I. We only read to the tenth, because that was the best available commercial indicator of that time. And you would round the vernier up/down to the nearest tenth, because thats all your clock would read too.

On the other hand. The more I think about it. I think your test is valid. Some of those larger travel tests, you have to crank in cosine correction.

I'm gonna sleep on it.

Regards Phil.

Originally Posted by RayG

Anyi digital calipers are made in Guilin, China (a picturesque landscape town in the South).

That settles it. I'm going to buy a pair now. I'd wrongly thought they were made in an ugly part of China.

I seriously want to go and see the Terracotta Warriors in Shaanxi Provence. Find me a caliper maker near there, and I'm bringing back a suitcase full.
Phil.

Originally Posted by Machtool

Thats code for let me drag out my Sigmund Freud books. There ain't no chapter for you and I Stu.

lol I feel cheated! I would have thought we were worth a chapter each

I've been giving my tests a little more thought also.
In the tests I only wound the master one way. So no reversing to worry about.
Cosine error I'd thought about, I did get them set up as close as I could eyeball..... even wore my glasses. Was going to ask someone to work out what an error of 5 degrees might be. Cant think of a way to set them up other than eyeball

Hmm I've just reread your post about cosine errors "over the length of travel"...... I'd never even thought about that. I think the first thing I'd need to know is the tip length. *That would explain the longer range compac having a longer tip I guess?

One thing that would explain some of the 0.00001 noise is I didnt do any Interpolation of the 0.00001"ths as I thought that would have been just a little to far beyond crazy . This leads to "noise" with some numbers numbers, for e.g. its not 5 but its not 6 either, I'd go "ummmmmm call it a 5"... wouldnt take much of an error to turn that into an "ummmmm call it a 6". In fact just to go a little stupid it would take an error just over 0.000001" to change a 5 to a 6

Stuart

Originally Posted by Machtool

That settles it. I'm going to buy a pair now. I'd wrongly thought they were made in an ugly part of China.

Yep... never buy from an ugly part of China.... it's very bad feng shui,.... you have to get get the flow of "chi" right.. especially when you get into sub micron measurements...


Stuart, Just thinking out loud, if you wanted to go deeper into the rabbit hole we should set up the laser interferometer and the height gage together and see what sort of consistency is possible.. I'd be happy to give it a try some time, temperature control might be a bit hard to arrange...

Regards
Ray