Spent $90 on a cheap digital caliper from Amazon and it drifted by .005" after 3 days

Thought I was being smart saving money over a Mitutoyo. Checked it against a gage block on day one and it was fine. By day three I was chasing an interference fit that should have been fine. Has anyone else had a bad experience with cheap measuring tools eating up their time?

2 comments

2 Comments

fox.derek9d ago

OH MAN that sucks. I had the EXACT same thing happen with a cheap 6" caliper from a no-name brand on Amazon. It was dead nuts on day one, but after a weekend sitting in my toolbox it started reading .003" off on everything. I ended up just buying a used Mitutoyo off eBay for like $60 and it's been perfect for two years now. My advice is to stop fighting with that Amazon caliper and either look for a deal on a name brand one or at least check it against a known good gage every single morning before you start work.

derekjenkins9d ago

Dead nuts on day one" - yep, that's exactly how mine was. Then it decided to go on vacation without telling me. I wound up chasing a .004" error for half a day before I figured out it was the caliper, not my setup. Never again with the cheap Amazon stuff.