Aldi Vernier gauge

[Alycidon]

Some months ago I bought one of the above Verniers, about 4 or 5 quid. Yesterday I checked its readings on some new Redding neck bushes to find it was reading 2.5 thou to low on a .225 bush and 4 thou low on a .265 bush.

 

If you also bought one please check its readings against another measure of known accuracy.

 

A

[nuttyspaniel]

It could perhaps just need the battery changed! Well I hope so Ive got 1 aswell!!

[John MH]

You get what you pay for. A quality measuring instrument is not going to find it's way to you for 4 or 5 quid.

[Alycidon]

You get what you pay for. A quality measuring instrument is not going to find it's way to you for 4 or 5 quid.

 

 

You are right there, it was cheap and I had heard good reports so I thought why not. Comparing it to my work £150 Mitatoyo does not show a lot of difference. I took my box of Redding bushes to the machine shop next door, they have two verniers, one read spot on, the other like both of mine a couple of thou light.

 

It would be interesting if members would just use their verniers on the inside of a redding/wilson bush to check them, I did not expect my Mitatoyo to be out.

 

A

[nemasis243]

Bought two of the dam things thinking it was the bargin of the year got them home and when we measured a bullet head with the old one and the two new onces we had three different readings after having them checked the old dial gauge was spot on and the two from Aldi were 3 and 4.5 thou out .

Cheap and nasty

[Guest varmartin]

Bin um.

[Redfox]

Martin has it right and as for your work ones , are they not calibrated regularly? they should be.

Nothing is forever and measuring kit of all types needs regular checks to prove it is not out of spec.

I have an excellent Britool torque wrench which goes up to I think from memory about 550ftlbs its about 4' 6" long and would cost about £4-500 new. It still works fine but is high at the low end of its range and way high at the top, reason the spring has reached the end of its useful life and needs replacing.

But like many things Britool was bought by a French tool comapny and moved after a short time from Brownhills, Staffs to, youve guessed it France! and the cost of replacement has gone from £55.00 to well over £150.00 plus carriage on a heavy item. Not off me, I have other torque measuring kit and can manage fine without filling their pockets.

You can get a half decent digi caliper around £30 - 40 which will do all you want , but not forever without checking.

Redfox

[ejg223]

Generally if you want to measure quality you need quality tools.

I mostly use Helios digital vernier which are diamond coated to

reduce wear when measuring hard stuff. But even these

very expensive things go wonky and die every now and again.

As Red says they also need to be checked.

 

Swiss Tesa also make nice verniers and not too expensive.

Mitutuyo (spelling?) wasn't to bad either.

 

but not one make was bullet proof up to now.

 

Be happy you didn't break an expensive one.

 

edi

[Redfox]

As Edi says they can all go, I have various vernier calipers, mechanical and digital. Quite recently a 12" Mitutoyo went feet up and is not economic to repair, but they are generally good. They like most of the better manufacturers make three grades, Workshop, Inspection and Laboratory grades, for what we are doing the workshop grade is fine and is cheaper than the others to buy.

I have a true vernier caliper which was my dads ( he was an inspector at RR Crewe during and before the war) it is a Swiss made Roche and after all these years is still spot on ( I ran the rule over it before the metrology lab was finally closed), however it cost him the equivalent then of three weeks wages, not a cheapie!

For what I do now I would not buy the expensive ones again, you just wouldnt gain any benefit and the money would be better spent on other things.

Redfox

[Vermincinerator]

Redfox,

you should have bought Norbar mate, my company used to sub-contract for them, so of course they are the best you can get

 

Ian

[Redfox]

Redfox,

you should have bought Norbar mate, my company used to sub-contract for them, so of course they are the best you can get

 

Ian

Well for the firm we bought a lot of Norbar & MHH Eng ltd ( Torque leader) stuff and it was always good, but the Britool were good too particularly in the big stuff, the norbar used to suffer a bit when taken out on site. Pretty well all our analysers for the shops were norbar or torque leader, both excellent and stood up to daily use. Still a few british companies left thank goodness.

Redfox

[craigyboy]

I have a small norbar for the DH bikes, lasted 3 years of everyday use and a few drops before it needed recalibrated, still works great now though I dont do as much wrenching to busy with this shooting lark.

[Vermincinerator]

Redfox,

I used to make the torque transducer shafts from the 1/4 drive right up to the 1 3/4 drive units.

 

Ian.

[Redfox]

Nice one Ian. well I have a tale for you. We took on an ex RAF fitter who quickly aquired the name of "strike it lucky" ( no idea now how long he actually served but he managed invalided out with a few bob) he aquired the nickname from the other fitters, 300 or so, because of his lack of knowledge and ability.

But in relation to you, we bought about a dozen norbar wrenches half in sq drive and up to 230Nm as I remember. He was required to torque some fastenings up to about 160Nm and was absolutely disgusted with this crappy wrench. He was brought to me by his line manager and told me just what a pile of crap it was (as I had authorised the purchase from a technical point of view) when I asked why, he replied that it had caused his short 1/2" extension to snap off! I asked how this made the wrench bad? he replied that the torque was too high for a half inch drive and we should have bought 3/4" drive!!!. I explained in one syllable words that the half inch drive on the wrench had not failed and it was garanteed to work up to 230Nm, so it must be his bought on the local market extension that was not up to spec!! he had great difficulty understanding this!

So I took him along to the labs where we had a large analyser with tell tale. I took the wrench up to 260Nm several times, no problem, put his other cheapo extension on and it failed at about 132 Nm.

I pointed out it looked ok but in fact was cheapo steel not properly heat treated, thats why the good stuff costs more.

It acheived a few things, everybody fully understood his nick name I immediately put in place a programme to get all cheapo home bought tools off the shop floor ( extreme danger to themselves and work mates, he had nearly taken a blokes hand off that was working with him) and the comany dug in and paid for good quality tools to replace them ( still belonging to the company) , they all got to keep them when it closed too.

So the moral of this tale is, Ian made decent drive shanks for the tools in question, or at least he and his company did.

Redfox