Who needs digital

In many ways, I am totally with you on this! :)

You highlight the difference between "taking the measurement" using some fundamental tool to transfer a spatial dimension, and the actual instrument with a scale, and a way of displaying it. Here too, we can either have everything sans digital, or a kind of half-way house of "mechanical digital", or the pervasive electronic "digital". The last one can have various ways of getting to the scale, from little rollers, all the way to moving interference optical aliasing between gratings. Given I need a headband magnifier assist to help me read a Mitutoyo vernier scale on a 0.001mm resolution micrometer, I do appreciate the big digital displays, but that's about the only thing I like about them.

I have a excellent condition Mitutoyo I got very cheap on eBay auction. It appears able to read to 0.001" easily enough, when checked against a full electronic digital micrometer good to 0.001mm ( about 40 millionths inch). I just love the thing. The space between the divisions allows an estimate to 5 tenths (inches). It tried against gauge blocks. It is simply repeatable, fast, no batteries, and a joy to use!

Mitutoyo Dial Caliper.jpg

I am also attracted to the "mechanical digital" micrometer style, where the numbers show in digits on a display similar to a classic car mileage counter. Again - no batteries with that gadget! I have to store my electronic micrometers with the batteries taken out because they will inevitably run them down, even when supposedly "off". I am considering a DIY modification to add a hard on/off switch, when I can find a type small enough (yes - I do open these things up)!

I do have my little collection of tools like yours, though I am still looking out for a decent hermaphrodite divider with quick-release adjust screw, and very hard point. Plated against corrosion would be a plus! :)
 
Need to have Digital = No
Like to have Digital = Yes

Actually have have
mechanical-Digital​
Electronic Digital​
Mechanical non-Digital​
and I use them all at various times.
 
Other than the DROs on the mills , I go with the old stuff . Dial verniers and beam type verniers for larger stuff . I use a trav-a-dial on the lathe which I love . The older divider / calipers still get some usage for layout work on occasion , but mostly go unused in a sealed bucket .

Words for the wise ...................................................never put these older dividers in Evaporust , WD 40 rust remover etc . :)
 
mmcmdl said:
Other than the DROs on the mills , I go with the old stuff . Dial verniers and beam type verniers for larger stuff . I use a trav-a-dial on the lathe which I love . The older divider / calipers still get some usage for layout work on occasion , but mostly go unused in a sealed bucket .

Words for the wise ...................................................never put these older dividers in Evaporust , WD 40 rust remover etc . :)
Click to expand...
Seen at every flea-market, these tools are notoriously prone to rusting.
I had one cleaned up small dividers laying about in a little way oil at the bottom the bottom of a plastic container. I had dropped there, and I figured It would come to no harm - but yuk! These things are all prime candidates for my little de-rusting and plating experiments. Even a few minutes to lay on a micron or so of nickel seems to work. The finish may not be shiny chrome beauty, but looks real nice, and definitely seems to stop the rust.

Even if working with a DRO, having the scribed lines Dychem blue or red, showing the boundaries of what you are trying to make, is real nice. Watching a CNC router munch it's way around to reveal a shape has it's charm, but when you see it come up to your scribed lines, its even better! One day, I want to have something I own do that!

[Edit: I will have to look up "trav-a dial". I don't know those :) ]
 
I've found out over the years , certain tools and Evaporust don't get along for some reason . These dividers and feeler gauges to name a few . The spring steel is the issue on the dividers , not sure why . :dunno:
 
mmcmdl said:
Other than the DROs on the mills , I go with the old stuff . Dial verniers and beam type verniers for larger stuff . I use a trav-a-dial on the lathe which I love . The older divider / calipers still get some usage for layout work on occasion , but mostly go unused in a sealed bucket .

Words for the wise ...................................................never put these older dividers in Evaporust , WD 40 rust remover etc . :)
Click to expand...
why? a divider is nothing more than metal? what could it do?

I have used internal dividers when I had a long internal bore to work on. I could not get my snap gauges down that far, and at the time I didn't have a bore mic. I also used it a few times for a quick check while running on the external. I find that I can check much easier than a caliper. I do this for wood working, so it just came over. It gives me a feel for how I am closing on a diameter. I do not have a dro on my lathe. I had an I gauging dro but found a dial much easier to read, then I replaced all that with direct a reading large dial on my crossfeed.
 
woodchucker said:
why? a divider is nothing more than metal? what could it do?
Click to expand...
See above post . :) The spring steel doesn't like it for some reason . I don't know why .
 
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