Starrett 799 Calipers

[ForumMFG]

I just purchased a set of the 6" Starrett 799 digital calipers for $50, they were on sale from $140. The company I bought them from said they were able to offer them so cheap because of the large amount of calipers they originally bought.  Anyway, they have not come in yet but I assumed because it's Starrett they are really good calipers.  Anyone have any experience with Starrett calipers?  The 799 model or any other for the matter? After I purchased them I found out they were made in China but I thought everything was American made from Starrett.

The link below is for the website were you can purchase them.  You can also purchase the 8i" for $100 on sale from $198.

http://www.digital-calipers.net/

 

[AlexThePalex]

I just bought a caliper yesterday. Learned to work with them in college. I wouldn't want any other brand than Mitutoyo.

 

[bruegf]

Starrett makes great measuring tools, but truthfully, for woodworking I'd buy a set from Harbor Freight for $15.  I have a Mitutoyo dial caliper and a HF digital caliper and the HF agrees w/ my Mitutoyo within .001" over the entire range.  While I would agree that the Starrett and Mitutoyo are better quality, the HF caliper is more than accurate enough for woodworking and cost far, far less.

Fred

 

[slb]

That's a mighty fine price for the Starrett, and if you want real quality you can't go wrong.  However, I agree with Fred that (perhaps with the exception of setting up machines) you don't need such high precision for woodworking and a cheaper caliper will suffice.  You'll feel a lot less grief if you drop a $15 unit on the floor!  I use calipers mainly because my aging eyes have trouble reading fine gradations on rules, not because I really care about accuracy beyond 1/64 (.015625).

Steve

 

[AlexThePalex]

However, I agree with Fred that (perhaps with the exception of setting up machines) you don't need such high precision for woodworking and a cheaper caliper will suffice. 

I doubt you 'need' a caliper at all for woodworking. Of course it can come in handy sometimes. The highest precision I use on woodworking is 1 mm, sometimes 0.5 mm, but that's it. That's something different from the 0.05 mm precision even the most basic calipers offer. I got my caliper for machining metal parts, not for woodworking. The tape measure or folding ruler is good enough for that.

 

[Wim]

A caliper is overkill for woodworking, but with the precision of most Festools, it is sometimes appropriate.
My professional life was in "metal". That means precision, I was used to tolerances of 0,001 mm (0.00004" rounded). From my first salary I bought a very expensive Mauser caliper. A week later it went overboard from my breast pocket when leaning over a ships railing. Later I bought a Mitutoyo for 25% of the price of the Mauser, and that one is still in use for over 35 years. For easy conversions I bought a digital caliper in the USA.
With woodworking it is tape rulers for me and I try to work as pricise as my eyesight at 65 year allows me.

 

[ForumMFG]

I don?t know why everyone assumed I was buying them for just woodworking purposes.  I bought them to use them for what they were intended for.  But I will say, the place I work has a CNC machine and a beam saw and we constantly use calipers to set the machines up, measure the thickness of the blades and bits after they have been sharpened and also to measure the thickness of all our materials.  When programming a CNC machine the thickness of the material actually matters a lot and exact measurements are needed.

I will say too that when people say you don't need a caliper for woodworking, that?s just your opinion.  Everyone works differently.

 

[bruegf]

I too find calipers useful for woodworking.  I wasn't implying that they weren't useful or needed, only that the HF calipers were of sufficient accuracy (at a much lower cost) than Starrett.  The Starrett are a great product and the price you found was very good if you really want or need the .0005 accuracy the Starrett offers.

I only meant to make members aware that there is a much lower cost option that is of sufficient quality for woodworking purposes.

Fred