Spurtar Vernier Caliper Measuring Tool 6", 0-6Inch/0-150mm Manual Non Digital Calipers, 0.001"/0.02mm High Precision Durable Micrometer

I needed a pair of calipers to measure the accuracy of my 3d-prints and this has done the job really well. The included ruler for quick and dirty measurements or as a solid line tool has also been handy. Pretty good item for the cost.

Seems to be made of good material, easy to read, and with a little mineral oil for lubrication and it should slide smoothly. The carrying case it came in was also nice.

Pros: (1) Mine lines up on 0 pretty well when fully closed.(2) The plastic case seems fairly protective. (3) The slide feels snug, not sloppy.((4) It came with a decent, separate, 6 inch / 150 mm metal ruler.)|||Cons: (1) The ad says "smooth slide with no grittiness" but the slider movement on the caliper I received definitely feels somewhat gritty. Lubrication helped a little bit.(2) The Inch scale does NOT look like the scale in the ad pictures. The whole-inch numbers on the caliper I received in June 2024 are unnecessarily small & hard to find. I improved the situation a lot by putting a red dot (with an Extra Fine Point Sharpie) above each whole inch number. (See my picture.)(3) If the printed markings are etched, they are not very deep, so the ink may wear off prematurely.(4) The "user manual" is a single 7x10 inch piece of paper with some helpful info, but their example for reading the metric vernier was poor (not helpful). Their online metric vernier example is much better than their printed one.|||Notes about certain other reviewer complaints that I feel might be unjustified -(1) Some reviewers complained that this caliper can't be stainless steel because it is attracted to magnets "and stainless steel is not magnetic". However, there are over 50 "standard" formulas for stainless steel and some types (hardened martensitic stainless steel for example) are indeed attracted to magnets. (Unfortunately, the ad doesn't specify the type of stainless these are, it only says "hardened stainless steel".) These calipers may or may not resist rust well, but that ability cannot be judged strictly by how well they stick to magnets.(2) Some reviewers complained that the marks on the inch rule are at 0.025ths (40ths) of an inch instead of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. If you want fractions and you don't need to be more precise than 16ths, you should get a different caliper. However, many metal workers work to decimal inch specs, so this scale is right for them. Plus, getting a precise value from fractional inch vernier calipers involves nuisance frational math because you have to add x/y (from the bar) to z/128 (from the vernier) where y can be 2, 4, 8, or 16. Then you'll probably want to try to reduce the resulting fraction to have a smaller denominator (if you can).(For example, you might read 5/16 + 6/128. (That's 5/16 from the bar + 6/128 from the vernier.) Some math: 128/16=8, so multiply 5/16 by 8/8 to get 40/128. 40/128 + 6/128 = 46/128 = 23/64.)Decimals are MUCH easier to work with than fractions with different denominators are. (E.g. you might read 3 x 0.025 + 0.008 = 0.075 + 0.008 = 0.083.) If you must convert from a decimal inches caliper to fractions, using a chart is pretty easy (you just have the nuisance of keeping the chart close by).

Very impressed when I first open up the box. Great for the garage and fabrication of parts for cars. Works very well and for the price it is a great value.

This is exactly what I needed. Working on bicycles, I need to order stainless steel bolts to replacement some of the more non-standard ones I find. As received, I verified the tool met their stated level of accuracy. Quality, solidly built tool, and I can verify the case received was in perfect working condition. Best of all, the battery never dies and the digital accuracy never changes and needs to be recalibrated. Yes, a millimeter is a small thing, and the numbers are small and may be hard to read if you have poor eyesight. If my eyesight deteriorated, I would still by this tool - and just take a pic of the scale with my phone and zoom in to read it.

Quality seems excellent. My HF digital caliper also claims 001" precision and also shows the next half-thousandth (.0005"). It matched this vernier caliper, nearly always to the half-thousandth. And two other inexpensive calipers matched this vernier caliper. The one I received seems to be built correctly in contrast to some other reviews.However - I thought I could read Vernier, I learned on pre-electronics land survey instruments long ago. But the graduations on the Inch scale are so close that I mis-interpreted the reading, about one-third of the time.And note you will need a magnifier - I use a jeweler's headband stereo magnifier - to see the reading.I would write down what I thought was the measurement. Then the digital caliper, about a third of the time, would show at least .010" larger. Back to this vernier caliper, I found a matching tic at that larger measurement that also was as perfect a match as what I had relied on.One workaround for this mis-reading is to look at the measurement on the coarse scale and estimate between the tics, for example 60% of the way to the next tic. Then go look for a perfect match on the fine scale. In the example of 60% that will be about +.014". (60% x .025" graduations).This thing is definitely Old School. No battery needed, which is why I bought it. But the need to use a magnifier to read it makes it less convenient than the modern digital one.I watched a YT video explaining a Starret (famous quality brand) vernier caliper and I see the Starret is easier to interpret. Its coarse graduations are .050" while this one has .025". And its fine scale is twice as long with larger graduations, so its easier to see where tics match. With good eyesight a magnifier wouldn't be needed.The ultra-small graduations are not only hard to read. Coarse graduations of .025" plus adding a number 0~25 from the fine scale to arrive at total measurement is more confusing than I expected and prone to error. The Starret, for inches, and the mm scale on this, are easier math to work in your head. If you don't understand this paragraph then a vernier caliper isn't for you!Overall - a quality tool but for purists. For general use go to HF and get their .001" digital caliper, and some spare batteries. Several reviews here rate that tool better than other inexpensive digital calipers.I gave up and returned this. Expand the photo at the head of this listing. (And you will need an excellent magnifier to see anything like that). Is that showing 0.670" +0.001? +021? +.022? I can't measure with thousandths precision because I can't distinguish which tick is best. I made too many errors compared to using the digital caliper which was unambiguous.