> What I was taught to do with ALL measuring instruments was practice achieving consistent measuring pressure,and using several different gages of different types that are known to be right. Like taking a piece of .1875 drill rod,and keep trying it until you can get the mike or calipers to read the same as the gage,then turning it 90 degrees and repeating. This can be done with pin gages,gage blocks,cylinders,bearing races,and even drill bit shanks and drill rod. Has anyone taught you how to properly read and accurately set vernier calipers,mikes,and height gages yet? Reading these correctly and acquiring skills with them will do you a lot better than just buying digital stuff,trust me,I found out first hand. Brown and Sharpe has an excellent book on basic metrology that is just a few bucks. The cost of digital measuring devices is 2-3 times higher than vernier stuff of the same quality,for example a 0-1" Starrett that reads out to .0001 is about 80-90 bucks,their most basic digital mike with the same range is 250. There are also other drawbacks to digital,such as batteries dying when least expected,they are also prone to dying completely on you if dropped or slapped around. My biggest complaint about digital mikes in particular is bulk,when cutting screw threads and using the 3-wire method to check your depth,my Mitotoyo often finds a way to slip out of my grasp,due to my small hands,so I use a much sleeker Starrett vernier mike for this. Tommy D.
