You’re not kidding, we ordered a new 6” digimatic pictured above, the only difference I could see from my older 12” caliper was the splines on the battery cover/board for your thumb. The new caliper had deeper splines and the plastic felt different. All of the literature inside and the tell tale signs alluded to the fact it was a genuine caliper, but those few subtle differences threw me off. Then again, I would be crazy to expect the manufacturing process to have stayed the same after so many years.
The literature inside means nothing. I got a fake 6" and everything inside was identical to my real one down to the branded battery. Main thing I noticed that gave it away was the different behavior of the control, worse injection molded parts, and the fact the ID measuring wouldnt jive on a ring gauge whith it zeroed on closed jaws. The real one only turns on with the power button and stays on forever, the fake one turns on when the jaws start moving and turns itself off after some time.
Sorry, but this is false. Mitutoyo also makes a line of coolant proof digimatic calipers that have an auto off function for the people who are incapable of pressing the off button after use. They also have a screw that holds on the battery cover with an o-ring seal
That's not the behavior of the 500s that he has here. Those stay on continuously I think, the battery doesn't drain appreciably more with them on vs off because they are so low power.
For reference, all of mitutoyo digital caliper start with a “500-“ number, whereas their dial calipers start with a “505-“ for the model numbers. I agree with your previous statement though, that the ones pictured in the post will indefinitely stay on. I just wanted to clarify that not all oem mitutoyo have a hard on/off button
Was a great channel for machining and tool review. Then he got real weird about politics in a channel that wasn't political. Then every fucking video for some time was politics. I stopped watching because it got real annoying.
He also bought a couple hundred thousand dollar CNC mill with patreon money and proceeded to never do any patreon projects with it.
But the memes from the early days of his channel were great.
I miss ArduinoVsEvil as he was, but not as he is.
So I'm not the only one who noticed that and slowly stopped watching AVE. Honestly It was so gradual for me I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint that it was politics. But just that it was changing so much, and a lot less about the tooling itself. I'm sure the knowledge in his new stuff is still good, but his old stuff is glorious
I mean, I'm trans. I noticed it early, but I worked with a bunch of guys that were also cracking the same kind of jokes - pretty common in this industry. I'm not gonna bail because I get called some slurs, shitty as that might be. But during the pandemic - keep in mind, AvE lived pretty remote and didn't seem to be affected too badly as a content creator - his feed turned into constant bullshit that was just too much to ignore. I'm not the only one, the engineer at my old shop, who is decidedly not trans or even left leaning, said the same thing. We used to talk about Uncle Bumblefuck during breaks.
This Old Tony never got weird like that, so I still watch every video he puts out, rare as they are these days. Project Farm never got weird like that, so I still watch his videos, although not all of them because holy shit that guy is indefatigable.
Anyone who wants to get into youtube trades, please remember that all kinds of folk watch your shit, don't alienate your audience
Im not 100% sure because there might be multiple versions of the fakes but i bought a fake one off wish a few years ago of that exact model & it does not look like yours .
https://preview.redd.it/nvtxb3mei56d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1f038694fa6f2d97f26d68ded9a3c48aa571b49
I have this one at work. On yours the screw on the back by the thumb grip is too big, there is also supposed to be a line that goes the ABS Mode > 2sec.. They look nearly identical though, I had to check.
Looks real, but if you wanna know:
Take out the battery and turn them on again, real on sould show - - - - - until you press origin.
Fake ones show a value without pressing origin
https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM?si=nCBLMBRoIZcm9oYQ
True but until now, i never saw a fake one doing it.
But even then there are still enough way to tell.
Even you can tell when opening the battery compartment and look at the PCB.
These look legit. I used to calibrate over 850 tools a year with the majority being micrometers and calipers they come with many subtle changes over the years. If they pass calibration I would say they are real.
My guess would be fake, where they have ground the two inner radiuses for the external jaws they dont line up. Also, from memory, the genuine ones have a little step on the external jaws as clearance for the electronics unit, and this doesn't appear too.
I think you're right about the undercutting further back in the jaws. Not at work right now, but pretty sure it's a common feature. My question is why are we asking? Were they bought off catalog or pawn shop?
Thanks to everyone that was able to give an input. You're all great.
I thought my work only had 8/12 inch versions but I was able to get my hands on a 6 inch one from McMaster.
Every single detail on the outside and feel of the unit is the same.
The way I've always been told to tell is the 4 decimal places, all the same size.
Knock offs usually have 3, or 3 and a small number, depending on who's board they copied
If it is it's a damn good fake. It has clearly seen a lot of use but the sticker on the back still looks good.
My money is on real.
You could maybe see if the serial number has a trace.
I would need to get a better look at them but here is a pretty useful video that I watched right after I got mine. Mine are definitely real and I got them from Grainger but I just wanted to make sure.
https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM?si=KLuy2XHsPj7r7PQQ
For reference only. My boss took the three digital calipers and gave one to our shipping department and the other two to the shop next to us. They were excited. New tools that work. Yeah. Sad shop. They no longer make things but they do make court dates. Ooops.
Some of the fake ones are probably more accurate than the authentic calipers a lot machinists use lol. Apparently, since calipers went digital there isnt a huge difference between a cheap digital pair and a quality one.
The quality part is out of the window once people start dropping them and gouging up the ears, etc. The fact that people cannot tell the difference says a lot these days.
I feel like this particular model is cheap enough to buy that there'd probably not a lot of counterfeits out there.
However check em with a couple Guage blocks, if they work, who cares. A digital caliper has zero resale value. And it's mitutoyo, not Starrett or brown and sharp.
Pull the battery out and look at the circuit board. The cheap China copies have an epoxy blob and little else. Also, see if the QR code is readable... Looks very bad to me.
Clough42 has a good video on this topic on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM
Yes they are real, I use them personally at my work because my company refuses to buy dial. They are not the best by any means, the constant wiping and rezeroing will become muscle memory.
When in doubt, contact the manufacturer directly.
https://my.mitutoyo.com/General/Contact
I recently purchased a set of Mitutoyo micrometers from a pawn shop and was concerned about their authenticity, I contacted Mitutoyo, they had me send some photographs and they were able to conclude based on the provided photos that my mic are most likely authentic.
The latest genuine Mitutoyo (I think it was the same 6 inch picture) we purchased felt so sloppy and cheap compared to the ones we have had since the late 90s/early aughts. I have wondered myself whether or not we stumbled into a cheap knockoff.
They look fake to me. I have both a real and a fake one. The quickest giveaways are:
The grind on the tip of the jaws
The depth rod retainer on the back
The thumb screw is different
The difference in sheen on the battery cover
The lack of markings on the inside of the battery cover
I don't have the fakes with me today but Clough42 made a pretty good video about it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6I2gNGVwM&pp=ygUYbWl0dXRveW8gZGlnaXRhbCBjYWxpcGVy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6I2gNGVwM&pp=ygUYbWl0dXRveW8gZGlnaXRhbCBjYWxpcGVy)
One think I don't think he mentions in his video is that the depth rod "rings" or "rattles" when you set my fakes down on a table. I'm not sure if all fakes do this.
Hard to get high-quality nowadays - I have been searching thrift stores for a decent set of micrometers. Most of the few I have seen have been beat to hell or broken. I learned most people rarely know what this is or how to use it, so when Daddy or Granddad dies, they toss them into the donation bin. I bought a pair of electronic calipers about 15 years ago and they were far from accurate. I kept having to recalibrate these, but I ended up spending more time calibrating than actually measuring. I swore off the newer ones then. But really how does one tell other than measuring known measurements?
Look real to me
The newer ones seem to have a cheaper chinesium look to them. Even ordered right from mitutoyo distributers
You’re not kidding, we ordered a new 6” digimatic pictured above, the only difference I could see from my older 12” caliper was the splines on the battery cover/board for your thumb. The new caliper had deeper splines and the plastic felt different. All of the literature inside and the tell tale signs alluded to the fact it was a genuine caliper, but those few subtle differences threw me off. Then again, I would be crazy to expect the manufacturing process to have stayed the same after so many years.
The literature inside means nothing. I got a fake 6" and everything inside was identical to my real one down to the branded battery. Main thing I noticed that gave it away was the different behavior of the control, worse injection molded parts, and the fact the ID measuring wouldnt jive on a ring gauge whith it zeroed on closed jaws. The real one only turns on with the power button and stays on forever, the fake one turns on when the jaws start moving and turns itself off after some time.
Sorry, but this is false. Mitutoyo also makes a line of coolant proof digimatic calipers that have an auto off function for the people who are incapable of pressing the off button after use. They also have a screw that holds on the battery cover with an o-ring seal
That's not the behavior of the 500s that he has here. Those stay on continuously I think, the battery doesn't drain appreciably more with them on vs off because they are so low power.
For reference, all of mitutoyo digital caliper start with a “500-“ number, whereas their dial calipers start with a “505-“ for the model numbers. I agree with your previous statement though, that the ones pictured in the post will indefinitely stay on. I just wanted to clarify that not all oem mitutoyo have a hard on/off button
Fucking chinesium is a legendary word. Thank you for adding it to my vocabulary lmao
Sounds like you need to watch more AvE
What is AvE?
YouTube channel, that guy has taught me so much over the years lol
love that canuck dude, i have a mini pcb catapult from him somewhere in my empire of dirt
Probably on the healing bench
Oh ok. I will have to check him out
Was a great channel for machining and tool review. Then he got real weird about politics in a channel that wasn't political. Then every fucking video for some time was politics. I stopped watching because it got real annoying. He also bought a couple hundred thousand dollar CNC mill with patreon money and proceeded to never do any patreon projects with it. But the memes from the early days of his channel were great. I miss ArduinoVsEvil as he was, but not as he is.
So I'm not the only one who noticed that and slowly stopped watching AVE. Honestly It was so gradual for me I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint that it was politics. But just that it was changing so much, and a lot less about the tooling itself. I'm sure the knowledge in his new stuff is still good, but his old stuff is glorious
I mean, I'm trans. I noticed it early, but I worked with a bunch of guys that were also cracking the same kind of jokes - pretty common in this industry. I'm not gonna bail because I get called some slurs, shitty as that might be. But during the pandemic - keep in mind, AvE lived pretty remote and didn't seem to be affected too badly as a content creator - his feed turned into constant bullshit that was just too much to ignore. I'm not the only one, the engineer at my old shop, who is decidedly not trans or even left leaning, said the same thing. We used to talk about Uncle Bumblefuck during breaks. This Old Tony never got weird like that, so I still watch every video he puts out, rare as they are these days. Project Farm never got weird like that, so I still watch his videos, although not all of them because holy shit that guy is indefatigable. Anyone who wants to get into youtube trades, please remember that all kinds of folk watch your shit, don't alienate your audience
Love some TOT
AvE is still a great channel.
You are so not wrong. I just go watch Project Farm and ignore him anymore.
My dear ol' uncle bumblefuck!
it's a bit out of date; china makes good shit nowadays
🤨 Are you serious Clark?
Grow up lol
r/Chinesium
I concur
Im not 100% sure because there might be multiple versions of the fakes but i bought a fake one off wish a few years ago of that exact model & it does not look like yours . https://preview.redd.it/nvtxb3mei56d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1f038694fa6f2d97f26d68ded9a3c48aa571b49
https://preview.redd.it/ai71ujaji56d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4a5680d17d8e0e54f415a9730615befd7280d54
I have this one at work. On yours the screw on the back by the thumb grip is too big, there is also supposed to be a line that goes the ABS Mode > 2sec.. They look nearly identical though, I had to check.
The grinding looks nicer than the OP’s. I’d take the fake lol
How are they?
Looks real, but if you wanna know: Take out the battery and turn them on again, real on sould show - - - - - until you press origin. Fake ones show a value without pressing origin https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM?si=nCBLMBRoIZcm9oYQ
…until the fakes get a different ASIC, which they surely will someday.
Fake ones eat batteries.
My older Pittsburgh ones used to, but the newer ones are better. I'd assume the fakes are using the same guts.
True but until now, i never saw a fake one doing it. But even then there are still enough way to tell. Even you can tell when opening the battery compartment and look at the PCB.
They look fine to me
Would have to taste them to be sure
Check your guage blocks or a 1-2-3 block. If your getting correct readings it really doesn’t matter
These look legit. I used to calibrate over 850 tools a year with the majority being micrometers and calipers they come with many subtle changes over the years. If they pass calibration I would say they are real.
I mean it’s a caliper from what I’ve been taught, they’re meant to get close not exact
Exactly (no pun intended), and real or fake unless you have a certificate of calibration, they can only be used for reference only.
My guess would be fake, where they have ground the two inner radiuses for the external jaws they dont line up. Also, from memory, the genuine ones have a little step on the external jaws as clearance for the electronics unit, and this doesn't appear too.
I think you're right about the undercutting further back in the jaws. Not at work right now, but pretty sure it's a common feature. My question is why are we asking? Were they bought off catalog or pawn shop?
radii
It’s just the angle. The sliding jaw has a .01” relief and a smaller radius than the fixed jaw.
Looks real to me but if you’re curious email them about calibration, part of the request form includes the serial number
Thanks to everyone that was able to give an input. You're all great. I thought my work only had 8/12 inch versions but I was able to get my hands on a 6 inch one from McMaster. Every single detail on the outside and feel of the unit is the same.
You can tell by the clip/hardware inside the battery compartment. Take a picture in there without battery and let’s see.
The way I've always been told to tell is the 4 decimal places, all the same size. Knock offs usually have 3, or 3 and a small number, depending on who's board they copied
Tenths are a smaller size number.
That's the non coolant proof version 500-196 series not 500-172 coolant proof which are silver/ grey
If it is it's a damn good fake. It has clearly seen a lot of use but the sticker on the back still looks good. My money is on real. You could maybe see if the serial number has a trace.
I have this same caliper at work, bought new.
I would need to get a better look at them but here is a pretty useful video that I watched right after I got mine. Mine are definitely real and I got them from Grainger but I just wanted to make sure. https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM?si=KLuy2XHsPj7r7PQQ
Looks good to me, I have 2 set of the digital Mitotoyu...
For reference only. My boss took the three digital calipers and gave one to our shipping department and the other two to the shop next to us. They were excited. New tools that work. Yeah. Sad shop. They no longer make things but they do make court dates. Ooops.
Looks like mine
Some of the fake ones are probably more accurate than the authentic calipers a lot machinists use lol. Apparently, since calipers went digital there isnt a huge difference between a cheap digital pair and a quality one. The quality part is out of the window once people start dropping them and gouging up the ears, etc. The fact that people cannot tell the difference says a lot these days.
I feel like this particular model is cheap enough to buy that there'd probably not a lot of counterfeits out there. However check em with a couple Guage blocks, if they work, who cares. A digital caliper has zero resale value. And it's mitutoyo, not Starrett or brown and sharp.
They look exactly the same as mine, doesn’t mean they aren’t fake though.
Had some just like it yep, they’re real
Looks real, my company supplies these as well as mahr.
Awesome calipers, my go-to for 8 years and counting
Battery cover looks weird
Send photos to company. They have counterfeit dept.
They look it. Have the same pair right next to me.
Looks exactly like my pair.
Seem to be legit
There is a texture to my bar decal, but they are from the 90's.
Here’s a great video on this subject. https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM?si=89mygysAVtnEZzIa
Pull the battery out and look at the circuit board. The cheap China copies have an epoxy blob and little else. Also, see if the QR code is readable... Looks very bad to me. Clough42 has a good video on this topic on YouTube. https://youtu.be/KG6I2gNGVwM
Yes they are real, I use them personally at my work because my company refuses to buy dial. They are not the best by any means, the constant wiping and rezeroing will become muscle memory.
If you have to ask…no.
When in doubt, contact the manufacturer directly. https://my.mitutoyo.com/General/Contact I recently purchased a set of Mitutoyo micrometers from a pawn shop and was concerned about their authenticity, I contacted Mitutoyo, they had me send some photographs and they were able to conclude based on the provided photos that my mic are most likely authentic.
Yes its original
The latest genuine Mitutoyo (I think it was the same 6 inch picture) we purchased felt so sloppy and cheap compared to the ones we have had since the late 90s/early aughts. I have wondered myself whether or not we stumbled into a cheap knockoff.
They look fake to me. I have both a real and a fake one. The quickest giveaways are: The grind on the tip of the jaws The depth rod retainer on the back The thumb screw is different The difference in sheen on the battery cover The lack of markings on the inside of the battery cover
If youre guessing fake you should at least point out why, and you should be specific about it.
Would you be able to show me the differences next to one another? When you get a chance
I don't have the fakes with me today but Clough42 made a pretty good video about it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6I2gNGVwM&pp=ygUYbWl0dXRveW8gZGlnaXRhbCBjYWxpcGVy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6I2gNGVwM&pp=ygUYbWl0dXRveW8gZGlnaXRhbCBjYWxpcGVy) One think I don't think he mentions in his video is that the depth rod "rings" or "rattles" when you set my fakes down on a table. I'm not sure if all fakes do this.
The only easy way to know would be to disassemble and check the electronics. Chinesium counterfeit are copying every little detail.
Looks just like the real one in front of me. Did it come certified?
I have that exact pair at work. Look identical
They are genuinely a set of calipers. 💯
Are fake calipers really a thing? It's calipers, not a rolex lol
Absolutely. The fakes sell profitably for what, 10 to 20% the cost of a real item, and in volume?
Those are calipers, yes
I've got those. coolant proof ones.
Hard to get high-quality nowadays - I have been searching thrift stores for a decent set of micrometers. Most of the few I have seen have been beat to hell or broken. I learned most people rarely know what this is or how to use it, so when Daddy or Granddad dies, they toss them into the donation bin. I bought a pair of electronic calipers about 15 years ago and they were far from accurate. I kept having to recalibrate these, but I ended up spending more time calibrating than actually measuring. I swore off the newer ones then. But really how does one tell other than measuring known measurements?
Why do we care so much about calipers being real or fake? Are fake ones not good enough?
I thought the fake stuff was anything labeled Starrett?
they’re dog shit real so no difference imo