Counterfeits, Fakes And Copies....? Tools And Gages

My HF mics repeat every time to the thousandths place plus to what division your eye can make out. They are very smooth & thimble feels consistent. Years ago I was talking to my uncle that has been a machinist all his life. I was asking about how to know that a tool reading 1" was truly 1". His response was the most of the time it doesn't matter. Most parts are built from a stranded that is in shop so as long as it is repeatable that is the most important part. Once in a while he would have to work fron another shops standards & had to have calibrated tools that he keep locked up until needed to to build the standard in his shop then his employees would work off that part for production. He still didn't buy tools as cheap as I do. Lol. He considered $100 a cheap at of dial calipers & they were only good for rough work. My calipers seem to always be 1ths lighter then my mics but I can see how much heavy or light of 1ths with the mics where the calipers round it for me. Not that I get that picky most of the time.

Anyhow I think I sidetracked this far enough but the point is still related. He did measure my standards that came with my $30 3 piece set from HF 20 years ago & said they were the same as his as close as my mics could measure.
 
hman said:
I've been looking for a decent set of 123 blocks for some months now. It seems that ALL the imported ones have 5/16" clearance holes and 3/8-16 tapped holes. Probably an easy shortcut when manufacturing - start out drilling all the holes 5/16", which is the tap drill size for 3/8-16.

I' ve even gone so far as to ask a few of the suppliers about this "feature." Those who even bothered to answer basically said to use 1/4" screws. My best hope is to run across a nice "vintage" set somewhere ... unless SOMEBODY knows of a currently available set that bolts together nicely (for less that the cost of a new car).
Click to expand...
It is only in late years that the blocks were made with tapped holes so the blocks can be assembled with each other; when I was young and an apprentice, I made my own set with drilled holes only, and used them for setup work and layout; I made them from 0-1 tool steel that was left over remnants from a shop job, heat treated them and ground them to size with the shop's 16 x 72 Mattison surface grinder. I still use them in my home shop for the same uses, and also using them as setting standards for length in combination with a set of step gages that I made of sizes from 1/8" to 1"; I first saw one of these step gages that was made by an apprentice tool maker from Mare Island Navy Yard during WW-2; they are really handy for things like setting lengths against a lathe carriage stop.
 
EmilioG said:
Has anyone ever bought a fake when they thought they were buying the genuine article?
I've seen some good Mitutoyo caliper copies that can fool a lot of people.
I've never bought a fake anything, but I'm curious to hear if anyone has or knows of
fake Interapids, Starrett, Mitutoyo etc... The Chinese can copy anything.

And how do you spot them? I try to buy from reputable dealers mostly. This is not meant to
embarrass anyone or say your foolish. We've all been duped by something. Sometimes we spotted them in time. :)
Click to expand...



I guess I am an exception! (my Mommy always said so... Does "Your DIFFERENT"mean the same thing?

I have twice bought "Chinese junk" from someone knowing even less than I, and wound up with good stuff!
Bought a Micrometer sight unseen that was "supposedly" good down to 1/10000 for $50 from a another Ham Operator I met on the air!
Turned out to be a Fowler (not THE best, but very good) that actually goes to 5/100000 (yes, 5 one hundred thousandths!) I had it checked the PMEL lab on the nearby Air Force base and it was as accurate as their master calibrator! When I contacted him to tell him he made a mistake (by selling something worth almost $400 for $50, he wouldn't listen, and insisted I bought it, it was my problem! He thought I was *****ing when I just wanted to return it to him rather than cheat him! My gain! Just TRIED to be honest. Some people aren't, so they don't believe you can be either.

The other was another mic from ebay. It was groddy looking in the picture and it was described literally as C-Junk. When I got it and cleaned it up, it was an old Starrett that is so on the money at 1/10000 it is funny. Him, I didn't call!
The rest of the "junk" I have, I knew it going in and just didn't need better! With those as reference, why spend more money?

Paul, Lompoc, CA (PROC)
 
pandreasen said:
I guess I am an exception! (my Mommy always said so... Does "Your DIFFERENT"mean the same thing?

I have twice bought "Chinese junk" from someone knowing even less than I, and wound up with good stuff!
Bought a Micrometer sight unseen that was "supposedly" good down to 1/10000 for $50 from a another Ham Operator I met on the air!
Turned out to be a Fowler (not THE best, but very good) that actually goes to 5/100000 (yes, 5 one hundred thousandths!) I had it checked the PMEL lab on the nearby Air Force base and it was as accurate as their master calibrator! When I contacted him to tell him he made a mistake (by selling something worth almost $400 for $50, he wouldn't listen, and insisted I bought it, it was my problem! He thought I was *****ing when I just wanted to return it to him rather than cheat him! My gain! Just TRIED to be honest. Some people aren't, so they don't believe you can be either.

The other was another mic from ebay. It was groddy looking in the picture and it was described literally as C-Junk. When I got it and cleaned it up, it was an old Starrett that is so on the money at 1/10000 it is funny. Him, I didn't call!
The rest of the "junk" I have, I knew it going in and just didn't need better! With those as reference, why spend more money?

Paul, Lompoc, CA (PROC)
Click to expand...

Would you mind posting a photo of the Fowler and Starrett? Do you know what the model numbers are?
Thanks
 
I've been looking for a decent set of 123 blocks for some months now. It seems that ALL the imported ones have 5/16" clearance holes and 3/8-16 tapped holes. Probably an easy shortcut when manufacturing - start out drilling all the holes 5/16", which is the tap drill size for 3/8-16.

I' ve even gone so far as to ask a few of the suppliers about this "feature." Those who even bothered to answer basically said to use 1/4" screws. My best hope is to run across a nice "vintage" set somewhere ... unless SOMEBODY knows of a currently available set that bolts together nicely (for less that the cost of a new car).

SuburbanTool Inc make them here in the USA. Not cheap but nice. Here is a link to a YouTube video they made.
 
Well, at least THIS Mitutoyo caliper isn't a fake:

mitutoyosnap07.jpg

Got it off eBay and it's accurate to a tenth.

Actually even better than that - a sixteenth. . .
 
I bought a new Mitutoyo 12" dial caliper a few weeks ago and hadn't noticeed until today that it has what looks like a QR Code etched into the beam, about 1/4" square.


mitcaliper_zpsewwof0vu.jpg
 
Have you scanned it??


Stan,
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
He's too frightened to scan it, in case the message comes up, "Made in China"! LOL
 
Yes, Mitutoyo started doing this as a fraud prevention measure. The Chinese will probably try to copy that too.
But maybe the code and serial number are linked to a database where you register your gage then it's harder to
steal the code. Two people can't own the same tool and there can't be two of the same codes. They're unique to each
tool.
 
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