Thread: Rusty micrometer.

steel wool...

As stated or Scotch bright or it may be an insult.

I use Inox spray and a finger rubbed vigorously, I find using abrasive pads ruins the "silver" finish. This takes the calluses off my fingertips too
Nice find too by the way.
Kryn

I cleaned it up with a scotch brite and shelite, fortunately the rust on the barrel was only surface so that came up like new. The anvils are in excellent condition but the plunger is a little pitted and the coating on the lock lever is little thin, otherwise it looks pretty good.

After stripping, cleaning and oiling I put it back together zeroed it and checked it against my Cheng Shin - spot on. So, surprisingly, it's as good as my Cheng Shin, wasn't expecting that... It'll do as a roughy anyway, save my Cheng Shin for when absolute accuracy is required.

I checked out prices on ebay, the same one can be had for $90 odd from the UK, pretty good pick up for $10.

Originally Posted by th62

It's a Mitutoyo, I would have have preferred a Cheng Shin or some other quality brand,

just kidding, right?

I think he is fairdinkum,you would not want to insult him.

Originally Posted by th62

I cleaned it up with a scotch brite and shelite, fortunately the rust on the barrel was only surface so that came up like new. The anvils are in excellent condition but the plunger is a little pitted and the coating on the lock lever is little thin, otherwise it looks pretty good.

After stripping, cleaning and oiling I put it back together zeroed it and checked it against my Cheng Shin - spot on. So, surprisingly, it's as good as my Cheng Shin, wasn't expecting that... It'll do as a roughy anyway, save my Cheng Shin for when absolute accuracy is required.

I checked out prices on ebay, the same one can be had for $90 odd from the UK, pretty good pick up for $10.

G'Day there TH62, you want to keep an eye out for an older wooden School Rule, if you are really chasing accuracy, even more reliable than your Cheng Shin, and if you still have any hard to remove rust pits, an angle grinder with a flapper disc is hard to beat for cleaning up. Needle guns are a bit hard on sensitive items like a micrometer, except perhaps as a last resort for really stubborn rust stains when other methods haven't delivered. As you say, not a bad price for a roughy for the tool box at $10.

I already have two or three wooden rules - good quality ones. Much better than those S/S ones, they're so rough on the hands.

But in regard to the micrometers, I have a shed full of quality metrology: Shahe, ZJTM, Xinglaiglj, Aiyun, Jis and of course the wooden rules.


My favourite is Cheng Shin though, they’re a nice crisp blue, so much better quality. There is a trade off though, they are quite a bit more expensive: $12 for a 0 -25mm micrometer, the others are more affordable around $8 - $10, but they’re mostly brown, so not as good quality. You can get them on aliexpress.


There are also Mitutoyo available on aliexpress, but all the ones I’ve seen are a boring grey colour, who wants a grey coloured micrometer. Manufacturing costs must be higher in Japan, presumably that’s why they are so expensive: $90, and that’s just for one. Unfortunately in trying to get the prices down, something has to give, obviously grey pigments are cheaper.


Still, if you‘re not worried about the grey colour, they would do the job I suppose. For me though, the inside of my shed is grey, and you don‘t want to overdo it do you, nothing like a splash of colour. I don’t know why you’d bother though, particularly when you can get a shed full of quality, crisp, blue Cheng Shin micrometers (five or six) for the same $90.

Hmmm.... but why did you clean it, if you like colored micrometers?

micrometer.jpg

Well most of the dirt is a greyy blacky colour, I prefer my colours crisp and clean. Grey is not a very 'bright' colour, it's great for a background, but you need crisp bright colours on the tools to liven it up, and of course, as I said before, blue denotes quality, brown to a lesser degree. I like my tools and shed clean, 99.9999% of the time I spend in my shed is spent dusting, sweeping, mopping, polishing, cobwebbing, etc.

Enough of this nonsense, I'm off to read a sleeping pill.