Repairing dial caliper and why iGaging is on my sh*t list

[LCHIEN]

Quite a few years back I got a 6" fractional dial caliper from Rockler they still sell as an iGaging product.
https://www.rockler.com/igaging-6-fr...n-dial-caliper

Mine broke - not even abused, just fell apart. You can see the thumbwheel bracket is plastic and the one they currently sell is metal.
Looks and feels nice, but hey your product is only as good as its weakest part and this bracket was severely underdesigned.


Forget customer service at Rockler and iGaging, Rockler said forget it and iGaging never responded to multiple inquiries to their customer service. Horrible Never buy another product from them!!!

Anyway, I decided to make a replacement part,,, took some measurements

and considered 3 D printing, using aluminum, but hey I have lots of scrap wood stuff.

A hour later


Scrap of wood the about the right thickness. Drill press, 12" bandsaw, 1/2" chisel, sandpaper and needle files and of course, a set of HF digital calipers.

Success! Works well. Smallest and most precision thing I have made from wood!

I should probably smooth off the edges and paint it, but hey, it was fun.

Yeah, and remind me not to buy anything from iGaging again. What crappy customer service they have. Not to mention the product sucks for durability.

You suck, iGaging.

I wonder how many other calipers were tossed because of poor material choices.

And yes, the dial calipers are analog, don't need batteries and are quite useful when measuring fractional sizing. Fractions can be very confusing on a digital caliper even with fraction readout.

[cwsmith]

Great post Loring!

You took something that was once junk because of a broken part and with some ingenuity and skill you brought it back to useful, nice job!

What I especially like is that it was something that we could make out of wood, which I think is delightful considering that this is a woodworking forum and yet we have a tendency to look for replacement parts made on a 3D printer, or fashioned in some other material. A few weeks ago, there was a discussion about the miter slot table, how much some people were asking for it. We've had this discussion about various parts on our beloved BT3 and other tools and I wonder how many of those parts, can be made from wood, with the skills and tools we already have.

This post makes me think.

Thanks,

CWS

[Jim Frye]

Nice work! Just think If you had tossed your scraps?

[LCHIEN]

Nice work! Just think If you had tossed your scraps?

Yes, I would have had to waste a whole 2x4 x 96 to make that thing.

And then toss the scrap cutoffs.

[Jim Frye]

CWS: I have two boxes of BT3K jigs and fixtures made from wood that I have made over the years. There are many others for other tools in my shop that are wooden that could have been made from other materials. I am way more comfortable working in wood than metal or plastic. Last year I needed to mount a voltmeter on my Ryobi electric rider and fabricated one from wood, while my neighbor made his by 3d printing one in plastic.

[capncarl]

It’s not only igaging..... I have an old set of Starrett dial calipers, probably 40 years old that has a plastic dial lock. It’s been broken for years. That’s just the way plastic is.

[LCHIEN]

I can't believe they make the whole thing of stainless steel and then cheap out on one plastic bit, and naturally, that's what breaks.

Its like building a $60,000 luxury car and putting a $2 plastic molded steering wheel on it that breaks after a year and they won't sell you a replacement

Or perhaps a $300 precision woodcutting system with a 50 cent plastic elevation crank.

[twistsol]

... Last year I needed to mount a voltmeter on my Ryobi electric rider and fabricated one from wood, while my neighbor made his by 3d printing one in plastic.

I'd bet yours lasts longer.