Calipers for Scribing Lines..Good or Bad?

I use my Mitutoyo 6" whenever I need to mark something. I don't use the tips to measure with so even if they did get dull it wouldn't matter. They are at least 15 years old and still sharp so should last long enough.
 
I was taught calipers for close mics for precision. :dunno: My cheap calipers get me just as close as Mit. do. And every machinist I know uses there calipers to scribe lines in dykem.
 
I was taught calipers for close mics for precision. :dunno: My cheap calipers get me just as close as Mit. do. And every machinist I know uses there calipers to scribe lines in dykem.

I like the feel of quality tools. It's not that a less expensive tool couldn't do the job, but for me the journey is as important as the destination. Using a quality made tool is part of the job satisfaction.

My first caliper was a plastic one with a dial. It worked great for measuring the odd item, better than the tape measures I had. That was replaced by the Mit and sees use on the welding table as often as the machine tools. That and a pocket scale are my go to measuring tools for most work.
 
i used to use my cheap dial calipers to scribe lines all the time, until i finally got a hermaphrodite scribe.
i don't use good dial calipers to do any scribing
For ordinary work, I have a couple hermaphrodite scribe/calipers, both old Starrett, but they are in the tool box and my HF calipers are in my hand or on the bench. The Starrett scribe/calipers each cost someone more new than my HF calipers cost me new. Let me think on that for a nanosecond... If I was doing higher tolerance layout work on the surface plate, then no doubt my decision might well be different. Like I said above, I do not use my good calipers to scribe, or for anything else...
 
It is not a matter of "good or bad" if it works for you then do it, calipers are one of the least expensive tools that you will ever buy. I do realize that in this forum the actual use of a tool is a secondary condition to who made it.

Never use a Starrett tool to measure anything as it may wear, save them in unused condition.
 
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Like many I use my cheap imported calipers for scribing, but am not very concerned about wear affecting the accuracy of their measurements. The wear is only at the tips of the caliper jaws, nowhere near the contact region used for real measurements. Sure, wear would eventually affect the accuracy of the scribed lines but no one interested in accuracy would depend on a scribed line anyway. Or for that matter a .001" accuracy caliper.

I don't scribe lines with my micrometers, not even the cheap ones :grin:
 
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