Suggest a micrometer

[ghh3rd]

One of the things that I need to add to my reloading arsenal is a mircometer. Only problem is that I don't have much $ left to get one (that time of year).

I see that there's an enormous price range from very cheap to very expensive. Any suggestions on a conservately priced .0001 micrometer that would actually work?

Thanks,

Randy

[helg]

I use this one from a local Harbor Freight store, and am quite happy with it. Its zero and measurements are consistent.

1 micron/0.05 thousands resolution and 4 microns/0.15 thousands accuracy are declared in the manual.

[softpoint]

I have a Mitutoyo caliper and micrometer. Both are digital, not necessary,but nice to have. This brand has a reputation about as good as Brown&Sharpe or Starrett, but a little less money. They are still a little expensive, though. If you want to look at some that may be a little less money, go to Enco's website and see what they have. I have some older mikes made by Central Tool, I don't know if they are still around, but they were/are still good mikes.

[Rocky Raab]

I have a digital one that claims to read down to 0.00005" that I never use any more. It's Chinese and I got it from Midway.

Send me a check plus $5 for shipping and it's yours. Any reasonable offer accepted.

[Shiloh]

Got a Lyman from Midway. Chinese mfg. Same accuracy and identical measurement as a $125 Mitutoyo. Harbor Freight is good also.

You get what you pay for, and I am no way suggesting a Chinese Micrometer is as well mad or god as a Mitutoyo or Starrett. For my needs, a $24.95 Mic is fine.

Shiloh

[mooman76]

I picked up a lyman at a gunshow for about $25. Seems to work good.

[AbitNutz]

I picked up a digital at harbor freight for $9.00.

[JIMinPHX]

You can get a cheap China mic at some place like Harbor Freight for short money, but they are a bit hit or miss on the quality. Some are OK right out of the box. Some need a little fixing up, kind of like Lee-menting a mold. If you have the skills to tune up a mic, then you can probably do OK with one of those cheap ones. I keep one in my traveling tool kit & it's been doing OK for me now for a few years (after I tuned it up). I have my better mic's back at the shop. Even when they cheap ones are tuned up, they still don't have quite as good of a "feel" to them as the good ones do, but you can get good numbers off of them if you know how.

If you buy something like a Starrett, B&S, Mitutoyo, Fowler, or other name brand, then you are pretty much guaranteed to get a good one right out of the box, buy you will be paying RCBS prices for it.

That's about the best way that I can describe it to a boolit caster.

B&S is my favorite. Starrett is a very close second, but not their econo line. Fowler is right after that & tied with a few of the Swiss brands. Mitutoyo is not far behind. The stuff from China is not even in the same ballpark. The stuff from Poland is sort of in the middle.

[helg]

I never heard of fixing up a micrometer. I thought that, unlike a mold, micrometer is a piece of precise mechanics, and any filing/polishing on the micrometer may not make it working better.

[softpoint]

I use my calipers in my reloading room a lot more than the mic. I could probably get by nicely with just the calipers, but I kinda like using the mic slugging barrels, measuring boolit diameter.

[GP100man]

I got a decent 1" Mic from sears ,I`ve had it for a while so price has probably gone up!!

[Lead Fred]

My Rockford Arsenal $30 buck one has been takin a beating, and keeps on tickin

[ghh3rd]

I've read in some reviews of different micrometers that they were'nt calibrated from the factory and the purchaser had to find a gage to zero them with... involved some disassembly in one case.

Is this the norm?

[GP100man]

If the anvil is sprung theres ways of recalibrating it your self , but i think I would either send it for repairs or replace it .

The better gages will come with a check bar.

[machinisttx]

A 0-1" mic is self calibrating(for this purpose). If it doesn't read 0-0 when it's closed, just adjust the barrel slightly to align the 0-0 lines. With larger mics, you need micrometer standards or, preferably, gage blocks to set them. I have never seen an outside micrometer that required disassembly to properly zero. Depth micrometers may or may not require disassembly depending on the manufacturer. Starret depth mics as an example require each individual rod to be zeroed, which is a pain. If I remember correctly, Brown and Sharpe depth mic rods cannot be adjusted, and the micrometer itself is set just like an outside micrometer.

If you know what you're looking for and how to inspect a mic, pawn shops are good places to find mics in my experience. If you want to buy new, Mitutoyo is the least expensive and works just fine. Depending on what you intend to measure, you may also want a blade anvil mic and a ball anvil mic.

[machinisttx]

If the anvil is sprung theres ways of recalibrating it your self , but i think I would either send it for repairs or replace it .

The better gages will come with a check bar.

As far as I know, unless you buy a full 0-6" set of micrometers, the standards are not included.

[evan price]

Mic's are nice to have, but for reloading, all you really need is a set of calipers. I've got a couple nice Starret and Mitutoyo calipers, but the ones in my reloading drawer are a set of stainless-steel Harbor Freight made in China calipers that seem to hold the same as my Starrets, and they were less than $10.

Would I use them for checking surface finish on aircraft parts? Probably not. But for measuring if my .357 bullets drop at .358 or .359, they are perfect.

[rbuck351]

I bought a set of four mics from enco about 20 years ago. They are the chineese ones. They came in a wood case with three standards. They are very well made. I was an auto engine rebuilder at the time and assembled about 100 engines a year. I had to adjust one of them to zero when I first got the set. I used them daily for about 6 years without a hitch. They even have the plastic inserts to keep your hand from heating them and causing reading changes. I have used Tumico,Brown & Sharpe, and Starrett and these are as smooth and accurate as those. The set of four (0-4") were just under $100. You can usually find the 0-1" from enco or HF for less than $30. They read to .0001 and you can extrapolate another .00005 if you have good eyes. Although why you would need to dealing with boolits and loading, I don't know. These are the ones with solid stainless parts and carbide anvils not the ones with holes in the crane. For the loading bench, the dail calipers are probably more practicle. Even the cheap ones from HF work pretty good. Just be carefull with them as they are somewhat delicate.

[JIMinPHX]

I never heard of fixing up a micrometer. I thought that, unlike a mold, micrometer is a piece of precise mechanics, and any filing/polishing on the micrometer may not make it working better.

It's a matter of getting it to move freely without introducing too much error into the screw.

First you do a bunch of gently & careful Lee-menting type work, sometimes to the screw, sometimes to the cylinder body, & then you check the mic against standards of known size at several different places in the screw's travel. You also measure cylinders at several different angles to see if the faces are flat & parallel. If you don't have actual standards, then Jo-blocks are a close second. If you don't have a set of (even "B" grade) Jo-blocks laying around, then dowel pins will get you within a few tenths. If you have nothing else, then buy a set of good quality drill bits & measure them when they are brand new. If all the readings come out good, then you should be all set. If you see variations of 3 or 4 tenths from what you expected, then you can probably only trust the mic to .0005" or so. A professsional Mic calibration will cost you more than a cheap mic. If you want something that will meet cal. spec., then buy a good one.

[Willbird]

It's a matter of getting it to move freely without introducing too much error into the screw.

First you do a bunch of gently & careful Lee-menting type work, sometimes to the screw, sometimes to the cylinder body, & then you check the mic against standards of known size at several different places in the screw's travel. You also measure cylinders at several different angles to see if the faces are flat & parallel. If you don't have actual standards, then Jo-blocks are a close second. If you don't have a set of (even "B" grade) Jo-blocks laying around, then dowel pins will get you within a few tenths. If you have nothing else, then buy a set of good quality drill bits & measure them when they are brand new. If all the readings come out good, then you should be all set. If you see variations of 3 or 4 tenths from what you expected, then you can probably only trust the mic to .0005" or so. A professsional Mic calibration will cost you more than a cheap mic. If you want something that will meet cal. spec., then buy a good one.

They also use what is called an "optical flat" to ensure that the measuring faces are flat and parallel. I have been tuning up micrometers since I was a kid in the 1970's and I do agree there is some tuning you can and should do on mikes.

Bill