Be careful when buying Mitutoyo digital calipers
These calipers are premium and come at a premium price. Because of this they are often counterfeited. How do I know? I've bought and returned them 3 times from Amazon because in all cases they were fake. The second one was impressive because the warranty and calibration card was in Japanese and looked official but it turned out to be a facsimile. When I tried to register it and failed, support confirmed it was not legit. The other two had lettering that looked off. I ended up buying it from a known reputable dealer in Japan.
RE: Be careful when buying Mitutoyo digital calipers
This has been an issue for a long time. I now buy tools only from tool vendors like McMaster-Carr, Travers Tool, MSC and a couple others that are official Mitutoyo distributors. And yes, those are the only digital calipers I buy, and the only ones we buy at work, though I still use some mechanicals like the Starrett 120. Mitutoyo has the best battery life but be sure to only use silver oxide cells in them. Alkaline will work in a pinch but doesn't last and can leak.
RE:
This has been an issue for a long time. I now buy tools only from tool vendors like McMaster-Carr, Travers Tool, MSC and a couple others that are official Mitutoyo distributors. And yes, those are the only digital calipers I buy, and the only ones we buy at work, though I still use some mechanicals like the Starrett 120. Mitutoyo has the best battery life but be sure to only use silver oxide cells in them. Alkaline will work in a pinch but doesn't last and can leak.
Not surprised by this at all. The usual giveaway is the fake ones are often 1/2 the price of the legit ones.
I have cheap Hardell ones that are nice because they are rechargeable but quality/accuracy is annoying. At least with the Amazon purchases, the only annoyance was having to return them. Which was very painless.
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It's safe to assume that all $40 calipers on AliExpress, Amazon and Ebay which claim to be Mitutoyo are fakes. The real ones cost north of $100, more for the longer variants.
Clough42 (a Youtuber who produces very good content on machining and 3D printing, by the way) has a video which discusses the telltale signs of counterfeit Mitutoyo calipers:
The quality of those fakes is quite decent actually, but the counterfeiting is a no-go for me. I recently bought a set of calipers from Hogetex, a Dutch importer and distributor who sell measurement equipment under their own brand. I wanted calipers with absolute readout, without the need to close and zero them every time after powering on. The "Hogetex" hardware I got looks very much like the fake Mitutoyos; machining is good and the slider works smoothly.
The only real drawback vs. original Mitutoyos is the higher power consumption in my view; I measured the 15 µA in the "off" state which Clough42 also saw in his tests. But that should still give more than a year of battery life. And the good thing is that I don't have to be nervous about forgetting to turn them off, since operating current is just 10% higher than standby...
RE: Be careful when buying Mitutoyo digital calipers
Love James' content, bit of a Bambu shill nowadays but they send him 10s of thousands dollars worth of printers every year so you can't really blame him. He's honest about it though, and agrees that no-one should be basing their purchases on the views/reviws of content creators.
On the Calipers: For years I used a set of eBay specials...they were under £10, they were crap, but for what I paid and the accuracy I needed they worked out great value. I didn't even know the Mitutoyo fakes were a thing until I saw his very good video. I needed a new pair, my eBay specials were falling apart, so I did some searching.I found a pair of fakes on eBay, they cost me £21 with free shipping, and I absolutely love the things.
The build quality is absolutely top notch, like yours the machining is bordering perfect. They even come with 2 spare batteries, so I don't mind that the battery won't last very long.In an ideal world of course I'd prefer real ones, but I can't justify the price of those for what I use them for.My only regret is at that price I wish I'd bought a second pair, the seller only had a few pairs left when I bought them and when I checked a few weeks later they all sold out.
RE: Be careful when buying Mitutoyo digital calipers
Of course it is an advertisement, but I couldn't resist when I read this topic.
The company I work for is an official Mitutoyo dealer in the Netherlands.
Here is a link to the Mitutoyo product page: https://www.schut.com/NL/en/mitutoyo.html
Last year I started with 3D printing as a hobby, because I was infected by colleagues with the same hobby. I also bought a caliper from my own company (of course with discount) to improve the accuracy of my prints.