Type high or no type high

pilgrimpress
on 1 Jan 12 (14:28)

That is the question……
I have a lot of old worn illustration blocks, so out of curiosity I whipped out my digital caliper, reset it and measured one, figuring it to be less than .918, however it was .925 and this was the median range of all of them, some being somewhat higher
Confused, I got out my boxcar base and a plate I hade made and they measured .925

I know it’s not much…. 007 but I figured the new stuff woul be right on, the old worn out to be less, not the case….???

modernman
on 1 Jan 12 (14:59)

Must be a problem with your calipers, I’ve checked 2 different Boxcar bases with adhesives and plates that read out a perfect .918.

dredaker
on 1 Jan 12 (22:37)

pilgrimpress,

As a young machinist I started out using vernier calipers and we called them verynears, I then moved on to dial caliper and the name stuck as it does with the digital caliper.
The reason the name sticks is that if you want to
get an accurate measurement you need to use a good micrometer made by a good company. Very accurate measurement with any of the calipers is difficult, after thirty years of machining I use a micrometer.
Don

pilgrimpress
on 1 Jan 12 (23:23)

Thanks guys! Who makes a good one?

helimited
on 2 Jan 12 (00:24)

Starret makes a (relatively) affordable, quality micrometer at 135.00, bought from Mcmaster Carr.

There are also econo-micrometers there but are less accurate.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#outside-micrometers/=fmiot3

enriquevw
on 2 Jan 12 (00:38)

wow.. i guess my 15 dollar digital caliper vernier is useless.

Peter Luckhurst
on 2 Jan 12 (06:33)

Some work and are well made with good steels some are chinese !!
Not wanting to have a dig at our industrial adversaries but if we sell them crap to work with they gonna give something crap back !!
We use Moore & Wright measuring tools here if we want accurate at affordable cost .they are old and can be calibrated and re calibrated ,made of decent material as well as common , I would bet that many of you have seen them i expect a lot of ex ww2 services engineers that were based here through to the fifties would have grabbed one if it appeared loosely within a surruptitious snatches reach…

thardjono
on 2 Jan 12 (10:18)

Apologies for the newbie question, but are there Micrometers that show measurements in Points and Picas?

Thanks.

[TH]

Peter Luckhurst
on 2 Jan 12 (10:26)

not that i ever saw one or heard of it in fact !Somebody surprise me !

parallel_imp
on 2 Jan 12 (10:33)

ATF had points-and-picas micrometers, but otherwise, no. Get a good .0001” thimble micrometer (I’ve found many Starretts at the flea market for $25) and convert readings.
Points are usually .01338” (correct me if my recall is wrong), except on the Linotype where they are rounded up to .014”.
There are also many styles of plate gauges and type gauges that read plus-or-minus from .918”.

dredaker
on 2 Jan 12 (10:37)

Mitutoyo, Starrett, Brown & Sharpe- high quality
Lufkin, - high quality but no longer made
Moore & Wright -good quality
Fowler, Enco- mid range quality
Harbor freight, Shars - poor quality
And there are other micrometers out there in all the quality ranges, these are the tools I am familiar with.
If you are not familiar with the tool and can judge the condition you should probably buy new not used.
Don

BarbHauser
on 2 Jan 12 (12:37)

I often compare readings from a Mitutoyo digital micrometer that someone gave me and the $20 made-in-China micrometer I had previously bought at Sears. They’re within a couple of thousandths of each other. Maybe I just got lucky with the Sears one.

Barbara

Peter Luckhurst
on 2 Jan 12 (12:48)

what happened to the good old type high gauge !