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Doug White

wrote in
:

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:41:03 -0600, amdx
wrote:

On 11/19/2011 9:01 PM, P E Schoen wrote:
I have two Harbor Freight digital calipers, item #47257, and I've
had problems with one of them especially, where the display will go
blank. It seemed to work sometimes if I squeezed the enclosure, and
I thought it was a bad battery or bad connection. But a fresh
battery didn't work.

That's why I like the Dial calipers vs Digital Calipers, no concern
about batteries or electronics.
(Dial Calipers, Item # 66541, Out of Stock)

Although a couple years ago HF had the 6" Digital calipers on sale for
$9.99, I bought two. They are still in the boxes and I use my Dial
calipers. I think I might give one away as a Christmas present.
Mikek

I bought one of those and really like it. It seems comparable to
calipers costing many time more. The only problem is I have to remove
the battery when I am done using it or it is dead the next time I get
it out. I have a feeling that is why they were selling them for
$9.99. Fortuneately, it is easy to remove and reinsert the battery.

The battery life in even high end calipers is highly variable. I have a
couple Mitutoyo calipers that are pretty good, but some of their
micrometers are terrible. I have an SPI micrometer that looks
suspiciously like a Chinese cheapo I have. They both need to have the
battery removed if you aren't actively using them. The SPI is a 24" job,
so it rarely gets used. There is no way the battery would last if I left
it in palce.

I discovered the hard way that the little cube electronic levels also eat
batteries, and they require a diet of the larger more expensive coin
cells (2032?). Most of my electronic measuring widgets use 357 style
button cells, and I buy them in quantity off eBay. Radio Shack is a real
ripoff for those things.

Doug White