Made in China, 6", stainless steel, dead accurate against my brass setup bars, rack and pinion adjustment has no backlash, fit and finish is much better than expected, very easy to read dial, marked in 1/64ths and .01, but easy to interpolate to 128ths, and about the only con thus far is that it's too heavily made for a top apron pocket
In short, a very nice, solidly made, 'woodworking precision' tool for $35 plus $9.25 shipping, ordered from the Grizzly website, arrived in four days including a weekend.
I probably have the same one but I got it from another on line company. I think I have been using it for 10 months and the dust has not affected its smoothness.
Couldn't agree more. Got mine at Woodcraft, they had it on sale for about $35 or so after christmas. Stainless, chinese, accurate, best $35 I ever spent. Regular price was $49. Grizz likely has the same item.
Mutt
Sw> Made in China, 6", stainless steel, dead accurate against my brass setup
I checked out the Woodcraft locally and on the one they had in stock the dial was very different, but the body looks identical. I preferred the Grizzly dial.
Sears and HF offers were not the same from hands-on inspections, and from on-line appearances, neither is the Lee Valley.
However the one at ehardwicks.com appears _identical_ to the Grizzly/ShopFox, is $5 cheaper, comes in two sizes, and was highly rated in a recent article I saw.
My barber tells me that his lighting is the best----> it shown no grey.
I'm old school. I always had a vernier caliper in my tool box. Good quality Japanese stainless construction, now 25 years old and flawless. I use it all the time for everything... setting depth, small settings on the table saw..etc. Between that and my 12" stainless RULE, I'm all set.
None of this fancy-pants dial stuff for me, that stuff breaks.
I bought a low cost digital caliper a few years back. The replacement odd-ball battery cost more than the whole unit itself.... me no happy.
Got mine, some years ago, from Highland Hardware for $29.95 - no shipping. The larger, outer portion of the of the dial is marked in fractions, the smaller, inner dial in decimal. At the time, all the others I looked at were marked in decimal on the outer ring. As of this Tuesday, it remains priced at $29.95.
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has held up well, although it too was made in China. Stainless steel, fairly smooth, precise rack/gear mechanism, came in a plastic case with a sheet of rust retardant. It is probably the most used measuring tool in my shop, but as you point out, a little too heavy to stay in a vest height pocket.
They probably _all_ come from the same sweat shop in China...
I have an old Made in USA Hempe nylon dial caliper for that I use for things that don't require as much precision. (The nylon has warped and deformed slightly at the tip, but hey, I picked it up for $5 over
5 years ago.) I used it far more than expected, and was the motivation for acquiring a newer, metal replacement.
I use it primarily for adjusting mortise depths (sliding rod extends from the rear), planer settings, and small, precision offsets on trim and dados. I also use it for precise measurements when cutting segments for segmented woodturnings that have to line up "just right".
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am surprised however, that you of all people, waited this long to acquire one! ;-)
I've got to say, after hearing all this talk about people using dial/digital calipers in the shop, I really wonder why. I have several around but they never get out of the tool box.
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