RCBS Micrometer

[Petrol & Powder]

I picked up a new in the box RCBS 1" Vernier Micrometer for $33.00. RCBS part number 87321.

The box is marked "Made in China" and it appears to be almost identical to the unit sold by Hornady for $47.00.

It actually appears to be fairly well made. It has a lock to hold a setting and the ratchet to avoid over tightening. I compared it against some known standards measured by my George Scherr micrometer (marked New York) and it's spot on.

Seems like a decent unit.

Anyone know about these? Who makes them or what other names are they sold under?

[bosterr]

I have one and love it. I got some pin gauges in the ranges I use the most to check accuracy and it's right on. I don't know who made it

[Petrol & Powder]

The packaging looks old on mine but it's clearly brand new. Seems to be a good tool, time will tell.

[Winger Ed.]

I like mine.

There's a few things different companies have that are the same and might be made by a separate manufacturer.
I've found Hornady and RCBS primer tubes seem to be exactly the same, and have been for a long time.
Even when the ends were different, they'd interchange in either companies machines.

[44magLeo]

I think that reloading tool manufacturers find that doing the R&D on tools such as mic, calipers and such is much to costly. They can get them made overseas for a lot less and still be quality tools. I have several calipers. The one has the brand name on a sticker, others have the brand name actually printed in the tool.
I even bought a metric caliper. Not so much for loading but working on old Jap bikes.
I would almost bet they all get their tools from the same factory in China.
Leo

[Green Frog]

I have the same one labeled Lyman. I used it, along with a similarly labeled dial micrometer as my "starter set" for my first couple of classes of Machining in the local Community College. The bookstore there was selling a set that looked identical but labeled "CenCo" or some such. Now I've got a set of Starrett 1-6" micrometers plus a bunch of Mitutoyo stuff, but if I need something to knock around reloading or even doing basic work at the lathe or mill, I wouldn't hesitate to use the "Lyman" stuff for most applications.

How does this relate to the OP? I think there's some little guy beating all of this stuff out on a rock in China, then putting the different names on the same thing. Truth to tell, it's all pretty much the same and I'm not sure it wouldn't be good enough for most any reloading applications.

Froggie

[15meter]

Those are all coming from China, may very well be from the same factory. Back 25+ years I was working for a large industrial supply catalog house selling "MRO supplies (maintenance, repair, operating). We sold everything from mops and buckets up to vertical mills and CMM's. We had Chinese vendors stopping every week to try and sell us any hand tool you could thing of. Dial calipers were $8.80 landed cost. We bought them in lots of 1000-5000. We could have had any name we wanted put on them. The boss put them in inventory under 3 different part numbers and sold them out of the catalog under 3 different part numbers listed as good, better, best. Best was priced at about 2/3 price of a Starrett or Brown & Sharpe. Better was 2/3 of that, good was 2/3 of that. Better was the flat out best seller. I still have one of those calipers and it still checks great against my Jo blocks. It was a customer return that when closed the needle was pointing to about 12:30 instead of straight up. Big deal, the dial turns to zero it out.

Those same vendors called on any large seller of tools and tooling, selling them private labeled calipers/mics/indicators/magic widgets--what ever you wanted for resale.

[Petrol & Powder]

15meter, your old boss was a very smart man.

[EDG]

That is a very common Chinese mike that you will find listed by the hundreds on Ebay under a number of different brand names and with no name at all. One of the more common brand names is Chuan.
There are different versions with different frame insulators and with no insulators with prices variable from about $8 and up.

It appears to be a visual knock off of a Mitutoyo mike - at least the thimble and barrel.

[kywoodwrkr]

When I use a vernier caliper the first thing I do is close it over the button area of my shirt and clean the lower jaws.
This almost always result in it returning to zero.
You'd be surprised how much contamination you can pick up out of the air.
We're only speaking 1-3 thousands, but you are using it to get below 1 thousand inaccuracy.
Alcohol(91%) is used used in some situations to cut the oil based contamination and dry the jaws.
I use the same process on anvils of micrometer.
Thanks.

[smithnframe]

I use Starrett, Brown & Sharpe and Mitutoyo.

[rbuck351]

I bought a set ( 1"- 4") of the China made mics about 30 years ago. They are graduated to .0001 and still read to proper zero on the standards. I also have Starrett and Sherr Tomico but they are no more accurate than the China made set.

China is building nuclear subs and rockets and are not using cheesy mics to do so.

[EDG]

You cannot easily predict what the Chinese do.
I have been in their factories and they have a lot of imported German and Japanese machine tools.
They also are prone to short cuts if they are not carefully managed.
One example
They were building frames for semiconductor process chambers to sit on. These frames were carbon steel and had to be powder coated to prevent particulate contamination (rust particles) of the semiconductor factory. The Chinese do not have reliable electrical power and they hate to pay for air conditioning so they did not keep the doors closed at their paint shop. The lack of environmental control permitted high humidity air to start oxidation of the surfaces to be painted. Six weeks later the frames were in the factory being assembled in the USA when the paint started falling off in sheets because rust was growing under the paint.

They also build parts for both Boeing and Airbus. None of the parts I saw were stressed parts.
All the aluminum they used for semiconductor transfer chambers had to come from Alcoa in the USA. Chinese aluminum has too many impurities to trust in the semiconductor fabrication environment.


I bought a set ( 1"- 4") of the China made mics about 30 years ago. They are graduated to .0001 and still read to proper zero on the standards. I also have Starrett and Sherr Tomico but they are no more accurate than the China made set.

China is building nuclear subs and rockets and are not using cheesy mics to do so.

[Petrol & Powder]

I think the same could be said for manufacturing anywhere in the world.
While some countries have a reputation for high quality manufacturing (Germany and Japan for example) that isn't an absolute rule. The inverse is equally true, some countries have a reputation of poor quality manufacturing but that doesn't mean everything made there is automatically junk.

I'm a bit of a watch snob and only own mechanical watches. When it comes to mechanical watches, Seiko's are sort of the Jeep or Ford F-150 of watches. (Or S&W Model 10 if you wish). They're tough, rugged, reliable working man watches. They are also made in Japan OR Malaysia. Some people will swear the Malaysia made Seiko's are a lessor quality than the Japanese made Seiko's. I don't think that's remotely true. What is true is you will pay more for one specifically from Japan.

Where the factory is located isn't nearly as important as HOW the factory is run. I agree that the Chinese need a lot of careful management but I would submit to you that American factories are no different.