Decent Dial Test Indicator?

[transatlantic]

How much do I need to spend to get something that will be accurate and repeatable?

I'm looking for something Metric.

 

[mbartlett99]

Whatever you do don't get one of those cheap ones from ebay - different names but all the same with a blue label on the stand. Absolute rubbish.

I ended buying a moore and wright set which I think cost about £100.

 

[Sideways]

Shopping carefully I got a Noga mag base and arm for about £55 unused and a brand new Mitutoyo digital indicator for £70 so that gives you a top end to aim for / beat unless you need precision machinists accuracy. It took me a while to find these deals though.
There are solutions out there at a fraction of the price but - for me - I think good measuring tools are worth having.

 

[Ttrees]

Whatever you do don't get one of those cheap ones from ebay - different names but all the same with a blue label on the stand. Absolute rubbish.

I ended buying a moore and wright set which I think cost about £100.

Can we get some info or an example on how bad, or "out" those cheap dial indicators are
Mbartlett99 ?
Are they at least, consistently out ?

Thanks
Tom

 

[mbartlett99]

Tom, I couldn't even get the stand to adjust properly and keep station so whether the gauge was out I could not ascertain. The damn thing was so frustrating that after an hour of trying to get some sort of reading I launched it across the garage and stomped off in a strop.

BTW I use dti at work all the time so it wasn't a case of incompetence - not this time anyway.

 

[Ttrees]

Thanks mbartlett99
I thought they would have at least got the stand right
thinking one could buy these for the stand alone, and buy a good indicator to mount it on.
That's out the window then.

So my question still stands about the actual dial indicator accuracy...although,
I would be in the small minority of frugal folks who might actually consider rigging up their own holder, or other folks who wish to mount them to a machine possibly.

I guess its chips and beer time waiting for some folks with good experiences with these,
and praying these dials are made in a separate factory to the stands.

Tom

 

[transatlantic]

Well there doesn't seem to be anything of interest on Ebay or Amazon lots of cheapies with poor reviews.

thinking of going with something like this :

https://www.hroberts-di.com/indicators- ... -0mm-p6012

Surprisingly, the stands are more expensive than the indicator? ...although they don't seem to do a Moore and Wright stand

 

[Robbo3]

Interesting question, especially for occasional use.
Does that mean that my two usual suppliers, Arc Euro Trade & Chronos are selling equally poor items?
https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogu ... ial-Gauges
https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/Eng ... s_228.html

 

[AES]

Well I can only say that for me, Chronos or Arc Euro would probably be the first port of call if I was looking for a DTI.

Can I point out that there are 2 distinctly different types of DTI - the plunger type and the pivoting lever type. The plunger type is perhaps the most common and typically a full range plunge will move the pointer round the clock several complete rotations. This is good for "general purpose" usage.

The lever type has a much smaller physical range of movement and is typically used, for example, to check an internal bore while the job is, say, still chucked in the lathe - i.e. it will get the tip into places where the plunger type can't easily fit.

I have one of each, one I forget where it came from, the other from Arc. Both came with magnetic stands with On/Off switch, neither were particularly expensive (I can't remember how much, sorry) and both work well enough for me.

While I can understand someone working principally in Metric would want to stay that way, in reality Imp/Metric doesn't matter that much as the real purpose of a DTI is mostly not to measure but to be a comparator - i.e. you're mainly checking to see if something is flat or concentric, and you're really only looking to see how many divisions the pointer moves on the dial (no movement = flat/concentric, X divisions = not flat/concentric) rather than an exact measurement of "how much out of flat/concentric".

For most purposes one division (or less) pointer movement, whether Imperial or Metric, will be OK, for example, if you're setting up a depth of cut. It's only for "serious engineering" that you need to be concerned about "how big" 1 pointer division or less really is as a measurement, when of course Imp or Metric will make a difference (a difference of magnitude 2.54 to be precise)!

HTH (sorry if I'm teaching grannie to suck eggs)

 

[transatlantic]

Thanks guys, those still seem rather cheap? and look like the same things on Ebay/Amazon with the poor reviews?

What are your thoughts on this one? https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/inf ... %5f%2ehtml

 

[AES]

That's the "long travel/many revolutions at the face" plunger type. It looks fine to me, and I THINK (from the pic) very similar to one I have. More than that I cannot say.

 

[DTR]

Both of my cheapo dial gauges came from Machine DRO. The big'un came on the typical magnetic base with the fine adjust on the upper arm. I found that the fine adjust mechanism had a tendency to flex so I replaced it with a solid arm. My little dial gauge is on a home-made arm and lives with my milling machine.

I think there's enough slop in my lathe and mill that upgrading to a M&W would be pointless. I can't begin to imagine how you guys are using them for woodworking!

 

[Sideways]

I think there's enough slop in my lathe and mill that upgrading to a M&W would be pointless. I can't begin to imagine how you guys are using them for woodworking!

... with the mill / drill I'm using to make metal stuff to work wood with

 

[DTR]

I think there's enough slop in my lathe and mill that upgrading to a M&W would be pointless. I can't begin to imagine how you guys are using them for woodworking!

... with the mill / drill I'm using to make metal stuff to work wood with

Makes sense :lol: