Looking for caliper recommendations. Just getting in to rod building but I want to take it seriously. I like quality tools and don't like buying things twice. What do you have for me?

An electronic digital caliper is a good choice. Many options at various price points available.

I agree with Phil, electronic digital caliper is the way to go. An additional benefit with the digital readout is you can switch back and forth from fractions to metric without having to use conversion charts, very handy.

Have fun

[www.amazon.com]

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

If you want to buy quality my two top names would be Mitutoyo and Starrett. Fowler is decent...or used to be. The Anytime Tools caliper John linked to is more than adequate and much better than the price would lead you to believe.

FWIW I recently but a cheap iGaging digital caliper for work and have no complaints. Can't say I have verified accuracy. But hey, do you really need 0.001" accuracy?

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

I used to be a tool and die maker, but it would be a waste of money to buy a professional grade caliper just for rod building. (Rod building is closer to carpentry than it is to precision machining where things are often measured to .0001 of an inch.) A digital caliper that gets good reviews on Amazon, etc and comes with a case. for less than $50 should be fine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2020 06:25PM by Dan Ertz.

Mudhole has 2, $15 and $25 I would opt for the $25. Steer clear of the laser guide alignment tool.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2020 07:24PM by Lynn Behler.

While I have several of both, I find myself using the dial type when I do all of my turning, and the digital style when just using for a fixed measurement

Ron Weber

With the problem I have seen with the younger generation having a problem reading a dial clock, maybe the digital would be the way to go.

These are all you need, This isn't Nasa and were not building Rockets, LOL [www.harborfreight.com]

I have a couple of these and they have been used for years, with 0 issues.
You can go with digital if you like, but I simply prefer the 0 maintenance of the mechanical dial caliper.

[www.harborfreight.com]

I have a Starrett dial and a $10 on sale Harbor Freight digital and they both are equally accurate.

OK you old timers be prepared to laugh, in addition to my dial and digital calipers, I still have my original VERNIER caliper (no dial no digital read out) I bought in 1959 along with my K&E slide rule (pre digital calculator days).

My wife thinks I threw them out 30 years ago. yuk yuk I have hid them well.

I'll admit to having a slide rule. Chucked the vernier caliper a long time ago but do have a Starrett micrometer somewhere.

I am not going to fault the OP if he likes to by quality tools. My dad never made much money as a mechanic but he always bought Snap-On tools. I'm much the same and they have saved me from many a skinned knuckle. Just don't buy their ratchets, trust me on this.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

And I thought I was anal. Lol

I bought a digital one and it works as advertised,I think it was around 20 bucks or so.

I'm young enough that I never had the pleasure of properly learning to use a slide rule.

I use one of the digital ones from Harbor Freight. I have a number of the same design from a different brand in the lab at work that we pull out for the students to use several times a year. They've likely been there for the better part of 20 years and have stood up just fine to the use and abuse of students, oh, and they are still running on their original button batteries. They are certainly good enough to measure things to 0.01" for rod building. We also have a bunch of crusty $2 vernier traditional vernier calipers that I pull out when I teach them about measurement statistics, but even then the variance in measurements has more to do with the operator than the instrument.

We used circular slide rules in school.

Laughing.... when I was in school, some version of a slide rule was the only thing that existed. Calculators came later.

for Rod work I prefer the digital calipers.. it's convenient to switch a given measurement between MM and inches. occasionally fractions..