Cheap Test Indicators Unusable?

[benmychree]

You get what you pay for; I bought Starrett Last Word (New) indicator back in the 1960's, it has given no problems in all those years; buy crap. use crap, throw away crap.

 

[BGHansen]

I have a plethora of dti's including Shars, a no-name import, many Fowler's, 4 or 5 Mitutoyos, 4 Interapids, 3 or 4 Starretts and a few General. I've had no issues with any of them though none get heavy use. You may get a decent import that will serve you well, but I sure like my Interapids. They go for around $100 on eBay.

Bruce

 

[Tozguy]

Chips, your own experience is very eloquent. Both of my budget DTI s are used regularly and do the job (barely) but if I were to do it over again I would follow www.longislandindicator.com recommendations.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

have a plethora of dti's including Shars, a no-name import, many Fowler's, 4 or 5 Mitutoyos, 4 Interapids, 3 or 4 Starretts and a few General. I've had no issues with any of them though none get heavy use.

Same here (well, with fewer of the good ones). The cheaper ones bounce around a bit when dialing in, so they are less useful for taking a measurement (e.g. "the bar is 0.002 thicker at one end"), but for relative measure of deviation they work just fine. No movement is no movement, after all.

I use the Shars indicators and DTIs for setups and such, and save the good ones for surface plate work.

 

[AndySomogyi]

It is infuriating when people say ‘import’ and imply that literally everything made on the planet is junk except for things made is US.

China is a massive country who’s population is significantly larger than the US. They are not a homogenous country.

Some Chinese indicators are junk, and some are extremely good, world class even. Even indicators from the same brand vary, and are priced accordingly.

I use Harbor Freight indicators on the press, or dialing in rough stuff, fine for that. I have a high end HHIP indicator that I prefer over my Starrett Last Word, the HHIP has a smoother action and Is easier to read. I also have one if the medium priced HHIP indicators, and it’s just barely OK.

Look at the company catalogs and read what is it’s intended purpose.

I’m a big fan of Fowler, they’re medium priced, and they do a very good job of quality control.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[MrWhoopee]

You get what you pay for; I bought Starrett Last Word (New) indicator back in the 1960's, it has given no problems in all those years;

I too bought a new Last Word (in the '80s, I was a late bloomer). It has been very solid and reliable. I did have to send it to Long Island Indicator for repair once, though I don't recall why. They returned it with a nice protective cover for the tip but missing the body clamp. It's interesting to note that they have a so-so opinion and no longer repair them.

They give a pretty thorough evaluation of the various brands available.

Test Indicator Brand Comparison

Test Indicator Brand Comparison: Mitutoyo, Starrett, Bestest, Interapid and others.

www.longislandindicator.com

If you really want to get down in the weeds, they've published a booklet

Companion Reference Guide for Test Indicators

Reference guide for test indicators (2020 Edition) by René Urs Meyer

www.longislandindicator.com

For future reference, I recently had my 1 in. Starrett mic repaired by Precision Instrument Correction. They were SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than L.I.I.

Precision Instrument Correction, Inc. | Calibration Services | Brea, CA

Precision Instrument Correction Inc. is an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Accredited Calibration Lab. PIC has been providing quality calibration services in Southern California since 1982. We offer one-week turnaround, expedite, and onsite service. Call our sales department at 714-671-6018 for more detail.

www.picinc.net

 

[Chips O'Toole]

There are some pretty good prices on Ebay, so I think I'll invest in a real test indicator. The Tesatest works great, but I want one that reads tenths instead of fractions of a millimeter.

I love the metric system, but machining has me stuck in Imperial, so I'm running with it.

 

[westerner]

I know Joe Pie likes to use one of those old General No 387 mag holders

That is correct. I cannot find the old General holder, and so I bought a chinese knockoff of it. It is NOT a quality holder, but it is far more solid and repeatable than the cheap dial indicator that I mounted to it. Live and learn.

As I said, I truly do appreciate the lessons the Chinese have taught me. I was able to get into the machining hobby because of them. I was then able to sharpen my pre-existing appreciation of Quality tooling as a result of their marketing philosophy.

If you detect a note of sarcasm or irony, then we both can thank my English Comp professors in school

 

[682bear]

For travel indicators, I have 3 Teclocks and a chinese knockoff of the Teclock... the chinese indicator works well, bit is not as smooth as the Teclock.

As far as test indicators go, I'm pretty much stuck on my Interapid indicators.

I've had 3 of the Starrett last word indicators... one was acquired used and the other 2 new, and have not had one yet that would repeat... at all. I'm not a big fan... and doubt I'll ever own another one.

-Bear

 

[mmcmdl]

I agree . The last words are not the most accurate by any means . I have more than a few for general purpose use but always use the best tests when accuracy matters .