Looking to buy a good one. Don't want to spend too much either. Is 8" or 6" ideal for rc use? I will use it on anything from a 1/8 elctric Mt to a truggy to a 1/10 short course. thanks


I've been looking at these ones:

http://www.bocabearings.com/bearing-...ldigital-tools

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-...per-47257.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-...per-47260.html

What about this one? Do I need SAE and what does it do? I would think i will probably only use mm and inches.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-...ngs-98851.html

My experience with HF electronics - they won't last long and can't take much in the way of hard useage. I wouldn't buy one of theirs. I use a Craftsman 6" English, but its only a dial caliper (bought it a long time ago). I have more useage for English than one thats metric. Calculator is all that's needed to go metric for mine.

Here's a quality one -

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00948261000P


Note that it will do both English and metric. Compare accuracy with the Boca (if you can find specs) so you understand what the extra cost goes for.

i have the harbor freight ones and they work awsome.......and ive had them for years now i would buy again and mine do both english and metric with a push of a button i paid $6 with a coupon lol

Don't ever drop it.....I had to replace the one I dropped.

I got a cheap-o digital one for free with an order from VXB bearings (sign up for their newsletter, they give them out all the time). It works fine for the level of accuracy I need (not a whole lot) and the amount I use it (also not a whole lot). If I did a lot of custom fabrication or had a job where I needed to use the caliper on a daily basis I'd spring for a decent one, but if your use habits are anything like mine I think the cheap ones are fine.

The cheap ones are rated to have the same accuracy and resolution as the pricier Sear's one Duster_360 posted (not saying they actually do as good, but they claim to), and I'm not convinced the Sear's one would survive a drop any better than the cheap ones.

I've got one from HF and it works fine, and for the price of the Sears one I can buy 3 from HF, sorry Duster. Weather it's $20 or $70 I wouldn't want to drop a digital caliper anyway, wouldn't trust it after that...

I use a Mitutoya digital...dropped a few times, stepped on (not by me) and she just keeps on ticking. Had it for about 3 years now. The bad is cost....129.00 bucks!!

If anyone needs them, Iv'e got some 6" Starret calipers that I can't use for work. The scale is missing off them.


I also have some Phase II 12" calipers that skip on occasion . Again, I can't use them for work.


I did buy some of those 6" digital calipers from MSC ( 2 for $50 special ) and for home and hobby use, they're fine. I do not trust them for work though. Iv'e also seen these for as little as $10 on sale.

Personally, I use my Brown Sharpe 8" for work and they've never let me down.




Send a pm if interested.

I think i have narrowed it down to these two. I honestly don't mind spending $30 vs. cheaper ones


http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

http://www.lowes.com/pd_293883-16878...1#BVRRWidgetID

btw does digital calipers need to sent for calibration to maintain accuracy..

just wondering cause Airtronics/Sanwa digital multimeters requires that to be done 2 years basis...

it's probably be better to just buy a new set, but I guess that would depend on the calipers.

I use a non digital set of calipers that I bought for $1. It's as accurate as I need to be for RC and keeps me from being lazy because I actually have to read the vernier. I don't know why. But way back when I had a machinist teach me how to read a vernier caliper, he always preached to use non digital ones for several reason. It's just stuck with me.

i m using a non digital caliper with a clock which measures 0.02mm..so far so good.

i got fren using digital ones.. but when he got the measurements. the decimal points just jump up & down.. it can be very confusing..

I have the one from Lowes and it's great. It's durable and the best part about it is the on/off button. It actually clicks on and off and has a big display. I have gone through so many of those cheap ones found at Harbor.

I am also using a digital Mitutoya and love it. Mine is probably around 10 years old and used well over a thousand times when I was reloading bullets every week. I have also used it on every heli I have built and now cars too. Goes all of the way down to .0005" for rediculous accuracy. It may be pricey, but it works awesome and still works perfectly after all of these years and TONS of use. I have some mock-up bullets used to check accuracy and this caliper is still dead on after all of this time/use.

....although you could probably buy 10-20 of the cheap ones for the same price and have plenty of spares. The slop in most parts defeats the purpose of such an accurate caliper

I can vouch for the harborfreights, have mine banging around the rest of my RC tools without a hiccup. replace batteries once a year. sometimes you can find them on sale for under $15.

got a couple of the mititoyos in the shop and they are of course more accurate with a smoother action and run forever on their batteries. but is overkill for RC car requirements.