With all the talk about tool purchases lately, WWW closings its doors, sales at HD and Loews I just had to do something to relieve the stress of it all.....
We have a new HF store in the area and I dropped by to see what everyone was talking about. Had a good look around, touchy-feely and listened to a couple of the sales people talk to customers. One lady customer asked "Where are the DeWalt drills, like the one in the display case?". (reply) "We don't sell DeWalt, we have a much better brand....".
Nooooo... I didn't let her get reeled in - did my good deed for the day... and I didn't get to ask why they have some name brand tools in the case that they don't sell. I did note that the brand name items they did stock (tape, glue, sandpaper,etc.) that you could find at other stores were priced higher than the borgs. Obviously these were placed right next to their brands at about 25% lower cost.
But I did make a purchase which you may want to check out as a stocking stuffer. They have a 6" Digital Caliper for $20, item 47257 with a CEN-TEC name on the box and the caliper is made in China, (hey ya weren't expecting Starret for $20 were ya).
Neat toy, and a lot easier to read than my other calipers. It even comes with a spare 1.5v button battery and it looks very similar to others I've seen on the net going for $40+. Not saying its good, bad or indifferent - you make that call, but for the price, I don't think you can complain. The body is stainless steel - not plastic. The case housing the LCD is plastic but appears rugged enough to handle normal shop abuse. I tested it against my 1/2" x 4" reference (blank piece of drill rod) and get the same readings on all calipers so its no worse than what I've been using and the spec sheet say's it has .001 accuracy. Also can be changed to read in metric or inch.
Bob S.