iGaging digital calipers

[cteno4]

So I had a very nice old digital caliper that my dad got me for the woodshop like 20 years back that showed fractional inches. Back then they were newer and expensive. Worked great all these years until last fall when I pushed some wood aside on the table saw and the wood pushed the caliper over the edge and slam! onto the cement floor. Bummer dead...

 

I have a few other smaller cheap calipers is use for quick stuff, but wanted to replace the nice old one that had finer tolerance and errors. But after the header off the table saw I didn’t want to invest a lot and I don’t need super fine quality for calipers, so off to looking around. Main thing was to be metal (less bending for finer tolerances), a roller for the head (much easy to dial it in), 0.01mm/0.001” tolerance, and fractional inches.
 

Finally decided on a 4” (I’m using it on 1” or less like 98% of the time) EZ CAL from iGaging and picked it up for $24 on ebay. Came yesterday and very happy with it. Very sturdily built, large display and comes back to zero consistently. Tested it on my feeler gauges and some bits and all came out spot on. Fractional inches is 1/128, so quite fine for the wood shop. It feels like it hopefully will hold up. All my digital calipers have continued to work well over the years, only one was funky fromthe start, not wanting to zero itself. Going to get a second for modeling. Only down side are a few sharp corners which I can smooth over and it’s a bit hefty, but that is what’s needed to get accuracy.

 

Jeff

[maihama eki]

Indispensable.

[katoftw]

Mine looks almost the same. Just different branding.

[cteno4]

@maihama ekiyes they are! I’m thinking of getting a second one for the basement shop to replace my cheap one there as I like the extra bit of accuracy and let’s you do things like actually measure index drill bits. Most things a tenth of a mm is fine, but this one is way more repeatable and dead on than the cheap ones (to be expected). While watching tv last night I rolled and unrolled it like 50 times to various lengths and thru it all it came back to zero, no rezeroing. I had gotten a $25 one off Amazon a few years ago and it would almost never go back to zero and if you held it up to the light you could see a bit of light at one end of the jaws when closed, so returned and just stuck with what I had.
 

@katoftwYeah I expect the same ones, rebranding is king these days, especially in the “affordable” range like these. I looked at the more old stalwarts, but they jump to 5-10x the price. While I’m to the point I’ll pay more (even a lot) for a really good quality tool when I use them a lot, I didn’t seem myself needing that level (I’m not a machinist) and after the drop the nice old one my dad gave me (I’m guessing he spent $200-300 on them 20-25 years back) I decided to just go less expensive this time but not cheap or ultra cheap like my other little ones scattered around.

 

hoping these will last and if dropped not a horrible loss. Just happy to have what looks to be really decent quality for not an arm and a leg.

 

how have yours done? How long have you had them.

 

jeff

[katoftw]

I have had mine for about 10 years

[Kiha66]

I can confirm the iGauging brand is surprisingly quality for a decent price.  I used to use analog calipers but I got tired of having to convert units all the time, the ability to switch units with a button has been super useful.  I'd definitely recommend getting one.

[chadbag]

I've had one a few years -- mostly using it with reloading at the moment -- and it has been quite good for what I paid.  It looks similar -- though I think mine has a smaller size it can measure.   It has been very repeatable.  IIRC it can do fractional inches as I was using it a while back with my guitar work.

 

Good topic.  Thanks!   Always looking for affordable tools for hobbyist use (ie, not worth the cost fr the super precision ones)

 

ETA:  This is the one I have:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AQEZ2W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(no I don't get anything if you click or buy from it).   It has worked really well.  Very repeatable readings.

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by chadbag

[cteno4]

Ha I looked at that one with tab better resolution, but wanted 4” to not be too bulky.

 

jeff