recommend digital calipers?

[Mazderati]

Good stuff. Thanks.

[abraham]

FWIW I work in a lab where instrument calibration is required to maintain ISO certification.

Heh I was in a calibration lab last year that had acceleration due to gravity measured for the floor and countertop. Pretty crazy stuff, I think they mostly do pressure and temp calibration and maintenance.

[GeezerSteve]

Yeah, of course, digital caliper precision is overkill for mounting skis cuz skis aren't made that precise anyway. For projects where a DC is indicated a good vernier caliper works fine for 99% of those applications, and vernier calipers are kinda fun to use too. Avoid cheap dial calenders!

My go-to binding centering measurement tool is a SlideWright centering ruler stuck on a strip of emery cloth. The emery keeps the ruler solidly in place on a slippery top sheet. Or you can stick in on a corked-back stainless steel ruler and get the same effect.

[coldfeet]

My powder skis are so wide I need a laser rangefinder to draw the center line for mounting, can anyone recommend a good one?

[bfree]

I have some $15 6" Neikos for home use, and $150+ 8" Mitituyos for work use. The Mitituyos are obviously better (measure more consistently, zero consistently, recall zero position upon wakeup, slide smoother)...but they're not 10x better. Cheapos work fine for occasional use.

[GeezerSteve]

Waking up an old thread.

My Mitutoyo digital caliper finally crapped out after 14 years and thousands of measurements. I'm shopping for a new one, discovered that the market is flooded with counterfeit Mitutoyo calipers. Amazon sells the classic 6"/150mm Absolute Digimatic at two prices: $126 with "certificate of traceability," $93 without. WTF? AFAICT, there are no reports of counterfeit 4"/100mm version, so maybe that's what I'll get (for $109 on Amazon). Other ideas?

[mattig]

I just zoned out on caliper shopping recently. Mitutoyo has a distributor list on their site. Many of those distributors have retail websites. Some of those seemed to have prices comparable to Amazon. With something like that, I'd probably be less worried about knock-offs by ordering through the distributor. I would tell you where I ended up buying, but I got sidetracked and back-burnered it. Still need to get a pair.

[dunfree]

"certificate of traceability," $93 without. WTF?

you pay more for paperwork certifying measurement calibration traceability to standards. Hence the CAL at the end of the part number.

[GeezerSteve]

you pay more for paperwork certifying measurement calibration traceability to standards. Hence the CAL at the end of the part number.

There's also accounts of counterfeit paperwork.

[dunfree]

There's also accounts of counterfeit paperwork.

Not at all surprising. It's a cheap $33 to make. If you are worried don't buy from Amazon, they've a raft of counterfeit issues.

Don't know about MSC or the like; I ordered directly from Starrett last time I needed something for this reason. The Chinese haven't faked a Massachussetts accent yet. Or I just buy from the used tool shop; in my neck of the woods dead t&d worker tool collections are everywhere.

[Bosco]

Why not got to a place like Grainger's? I think you could trust them.

You can also call me old school, but I like dial calipers better.

[GeezerSteve]

Why not got to a place like Grainger's?

Because I don't want to pay $50 more. If I buy from a big boy it'll be MSC.

You can also call me old school, but I like dial calipers better.

Vernier caliper is old school. Dial calipers is middle school.

[skimaxpower]

Still happy with my $10 harbor freight purchase.

[Muggydude]

I've had good luck with lowes for $25

[kevinskis]

I've been plenty satisfied with my $10 harbor freight digital calipers for bicycle work. But honestly, when I was a ski tech and had to do a freehand mount, I never used calipers anyway.

For freehand mounts at the ski shop, I used:
- masking tape so I could draw on the ski
- measure center line (lots of ways to do this, I found tele jig to be the easiest and most reliable)
- measure with metric ruler and fine pencil
- measure again
- measure thrice
- center punch
- drill baby, drill.

I agree! A short steel rule and masking tape works great!