My alternative to Mitutoyo calipers

I got both the Igaging and the Shars Aventor calipers in now.

I can also confirm the Igaging caliper is absolute, so is the Shars.

Here is a pic of my caliper collection. From the bottom up is a china 6" Mitutoyo, my 20 plus year old 8" Mitutoyo, the Igaging 6", and the Shars 8". Not shown is my 12" china Mitutoyo and my 24" Mitutoyo vernier caliper.

My impressions is the 6" China Mitutoyo is a cheap knock off. Most of the time now after about 6 months owning it when you go to measure something the display turns off and when you turn it back on it's in metric mode and I don't trust it. The 12" is different, I half way trust it. The Igaging is a decent caliper for home use. Seems to repeat well and is accurate to my ability to measure them. I'll have to build trust in these.

The Shars is really nice quality and when I picked them up my impression was that I trusted them immediately to give me accurate measurements. The china Mitutoyo doesn't get me that feeling. I know saying they feel good or bad is different way to describe the difference, it's just my first impression of them. The Shars also comes with an inspection certificate.

The Igaging has a fractions setting. It turned .380 into 49/128ths. Not very useful to a machinist used to decimals.

My choice out of all of them is the Shars. Has a good feel in my hand, I trust it and and I like the design. Yes it's more than the Igaging is, but much less that a new genuine Mitutoyo is.


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I don't see the point of ABSOLUTE ORIGIN, the ez-view always retains its zero setting. It also comes with an inspection certificate.
 
I have 2 pairs of Japan made Mitutoyo calipers. The older of the 2 being 16 years old. Great calipers. For work I recommended the Shars. We have 8 sets. They are fantastic for the money. I would buy the Shars. I don't think there is a better caliper out there for the money.
 
Getting some tooling together for my new lathe and mill, which should be here late summer. The 6" Mitutoyo is around $125 currently for a real AOS one. Should I pull the trigger there, or go with iGaging AO? You have had yours for a few years now? Thoughts on saving money or buying and crying once?
 
I bought one of the igauging calipers and it's pretty good. Only problem I have with it is the battery cover falls off all the time.
 
I have been using the Igaging Absolute 6" caliper for 6+ years and have checked it periodical with a precision standard with no change. It has held up with no issues and has been very durable. My recollection and also how my Absolute works is that if you are working and zero it say to look at +/- deviation from that zero point, when it is shut off and then turned back on the it goes back to "0" from the origin (calipers fully closed). A nice feature if you accidentally press the zero button and forget to re-zero on power up. I also have an authentic 8" Mitutoyo Absolute digital caliper, and they both compare accuracy and repeatability. I also like the the Igaging Absolute is a bit more durable and hefty then some of the cheaper ones I have had. I probably replace the battery every 2-3 years. I had cheaper calipers before these, they failed to maintain zero during use, batter doors broke and ate batteries. I hated using them and didn't trust the readings, cost me more in reading errors and wasted parts then they were worth.

I also have the Igaging Absolute Micrometers in 2, 3 and 4" as they were much more affordable then my 1' Mitutoyo Absolute mic., but the feel and usability on the Mitutoyo is better. Both give the same results on standards.
 
I have both the iGauging and Mitutoyo calipers and there are things I like about both and things I dislike.

I wish the Mitutoyo's turned themselves off after a period of time like the iGauging ones do. But my biggest gripe with the iGauging is that they slide way too easily. I've adjusted the grub screw and it's either too tight to move or if you back off a teeny tiny bit, it's too loose; there's no Goldilocks setting.

This makes it super difficult to get a reading when you have to have the calipers in an odd orientation because I just know it's going to move as I take them away from the workpiece. So if I'm working on something that puts me in that situation, I grab the Mitutoyo calipers because they're perfect.
 
tonydi said:
I wish the Mitutoyo's turned themselves off after a period of time like the iGauging ones do.
Click to expand...

My Mitutoyo 500-752-20 calipers have auto shut-off. I think they are near perfect to use and very accurate, too.
 
I've had a pair of the igaging EZ-Cal for many years - no issues. I don't see any reason to pay extra for the AO version
 
I have 2 6" igauging ex-cal, and a very old non-absolute 8" Mitotoyo. I love them all, and recently I purchased an absolute Mitotoyo 6". I see little practical difference in use or finish.

The Igauging ones are great when I want fractions, as my brain is not 100% any more, and i get less error this way. Particularly when measuring the stub of an end mill to get the right R8 collet. I now have end mills in almost every imperial size, so that's handy.

Then why spend the 200$ (to me, here in Kanuckistan) for the Mit? Using it is a dream. even though the igauging ones are perfectly adequate, and I paid 16$ for one, and 29$ for the other, the Mit just has the few little refinements that make it a joy in the hand.

- you know, the Marie Condo thing - does it bring joy?
 
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