[Farmall] tools

[John Hall]

With apologies as to the length of this reply, here is my $.02

I have used about every size and brand of caliper out there. Here are my 
recommendations.

For 6" dial, get Brown&Sharpe
For 12" dial get Mitutoyo.
For 6 or 8" digital go with Mitutoyo.

Only buy single revolution dial calipers. I don't care how good you are, 
you'll eventually make a mistake due to the double revolution. Stay away 
from Starrett dials--that open gear rack makes them fit to only use in an 
inspection lab. In 20 years I have never seen a machinist use them as his 
primary measuring instrument.

Fowler makes a decent digital but the battery saver feature required 
resetting zero every time you pick them up if it has been sitting a few 
minutes.

Brown and Sharpe and Starrett digitals are OK but just don't hold up like 
Mitutoyo. I'm on my second pair and unless they get damaged, they have 
plenty of life left in them. I got my first pair about 17 years ago. They 
are still useable but just not for what we do at work. Oh, I NEVER cut mine 
off. I probably get 2 years of battery life. Some other brands don't do that 
well. I know the new water resistant ones have a sleeper mode that wakes up 
once you move them about a 1/4".

A note on digitals--There are now a couple levels of water resistant and 
water proof calipers. These are pretty much designed for guys running wet 
grinders and CNC machines. For anyone else they are just a waste of money. 
Also stay away from SPC output--runs the price up about $30.

If these are too expensive then get a good brand of Chinese made. Some of 
them are pretty decent but just don't hold up in an industrial environment. 
I have seen quite a few guys start to use these for general work with good 
success. You just know ahead of time they aren't going to last a long time.

As was stated in another post, for measuring cranks and bores at home, a set 
of Chinese mikes works fine. I can't justify having a set of top of the line 
mikes at home, although I do have a good set of calipers. One thing I would 
stay away from is the cheap Chinese telescoping gages. Those tools are hard 
enough to use accurately and when they are poorly made, it becomes a waste 
of time. One other Chinese tool that is worthless is their bore gages. Those 
pieces of junk aren't fit for anything closer than .002"--they just won't 
repeat.

MSC and Enco seem to always have these types of tools on sale, but 
unfortunately only machine shops get the sale flyers. If you have a friend 
that works in a shop maybe they could get you a sale flyer.

John Hall

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Currie" <tracturs at att.net>
To: "Farmall List" <Farmall at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 1:33 AM
Subject: [Farmall] tools


>I would like to upgrade some of my hand tools and was wondering about a 
>good, hand held, caliper micrometer for measuring OD, ID, and depth. I've 
>seen various brands, various prices, and stainless steel ones, plastic 
>ones, titanium ones, dial readouts or LCD readouts. I would appreciate your 
>input/comments. Thanks.
>
> bobcurrie,
> Greenwood, CA
>