At 08:15 AM 4/29/2011 -0500, you wrote:

It's too bad Micro Mark doesn't sell anything of their own that they didn't
steal the idea from someone else.

Sometimes ideas just aren't worth what people want to charge for them. For instance a piece of warped fiberboard with a flimsy aluminum arm that holds a razor blade at a non-square angle.

Andy

I have a Mitutoyo (which thank you for this thread as I found that I had left it on for weeks when I looked for it to get the spelling) and a Harbor Freight Inchman.
While the Inchman currently has a dead battery, I don't recall it being subject to battery drain whilst turned "off".... unless I forgot to turn it off, it has given me as
about as good service as the much more expensive Mitutoyo. I haven't tried to benchmark the accuracy of either but they both seem to meet my needs.

I was just thinking about the subject this Monday while I was poking around in the Notions section of a Quilt Store.... sometimes there are tools there that can be used for modeling.
I was surprised to see a handheld digital calculator custom designed for quilters.... with buttons and functions to calculate yardage yields for standard width fabrics and other calcualtions that I did not note. Now, Quilting is probably a couple of orders of magnitude larger than Model Railroading, but it seems to me that it wouldn't take anything beyond changing the software a digital caliper to get 1/48, 1/64, 1/87.1, 1/160, or 1/220 readouts.... possibly the English/Metric button could be used to double up so that at least O/S and HO/N versions could be made economically. With Harbor Freight selling them for under $10 at retail it would probably be realistic to be able to buy one for less than $40..... depending on the markup the importer would need. I have no idea if any of the OEM factories in China would consider doing such units but it certainly would be a handy tool.... perhaps not for precision pattern making, but good enough for general modeling and use on the layout....

Charlie Vlk

It's too bad Micro Mark doesn't sell anything of their own that they didn't
steal the idea from someone else.



Pat Wilkinson

The cheap calipers pull more power from the battery, even when turned off, than the expensive ones do. Pulling the battery out is the only way to truly turn off most all digital calipers. I do like how the zero function allows me to measure the center to center distance between two same size holes. But mostly I still use my old vernier calipers.

Steve Shaffer

All this bad talk about battery operated Calipers.
Take a look at Micro Mark no.82556 6" long Digital
Caliper that measures .0005 or .01mm for $19.95.

Mirco Mark No. 83762 6" long D.C. that measures
.0005 or .01mm and factional inches in 1/64th also
has a 2 step funtion.

Both of these have ON/OFF switchs that allows
longer battery life. Micro Mark advises that
replacement battiers are same as hearing air
battiers. Theae are available at all Drug Stores.

Micro Mark did offer a 14" Digital Caliper with
all the above funtions, but have SOLD OUT. Like
a dummy I put off buying one. They SOLD for
$59.95.

Ed Ursem