Moore and Wright Value Series

"So its a case of deciding how much you will use an item and what degree of accuracy you can and need to use it at that should also be considered not just how many places behind the dot there are on the screen."-JasonB

I'll probably get a wholloping for this but i think for the record, 0.01 resolution is just fine, i can't work to greater tolerances than that.

Michael W

To add to the praise for Mitutoyu dig-calipers, mine are (is?) also over 30 years old and it gets used and abused daily. I occasionally check it against a standard and cognisant of ambient workshop temperature, it's always been accurate.

I can preset it to to the 3rd decimal place (inch) thanks to the aforementioned excellent thumb wheel and it's then even been abused by light scribing of lines etc with no detrimental effect on the jaws' sharp points over the years .

My eyesight is no longer good enough to read a vernier scale without finding a magnifier so the 0-1" M&W micrometer gets little use. The other great benefit of a digi caliper is surely its ability to zero at any point. Put a piece of rod in the chuck you need to turn down to say 0.250" D, set the Mitutoyo to that dimension - zero it and then measure the diameter of the chucked rod. Divide new reading by 2 and wind tool in to that.

Cheap Chinese DROs, calipers just eat batteries, because - I'm told - they draw considerable current even when switched off. The Mitutoyo requires a new battery about once per year. I've never once begrudged the cost of buying it.

My £4.99 Lidl digital flattened it's original battery in less than 3 months. Intrigued by the stories of excessive current being drawn even when they are switched off I set too measured it. Not everything on the internet is trustworthy. Mine takes 25 microamperes, which isn't a lot.

Short battery life might not be the caliper's fault. I've noticed that the quality of batteries I buy varies wildly. There seem to be a lot of fakes, low capacity versions, and elderly cells out there. Some types, including the CR2032, have rather short shelf lives.

My cheapo calipers have been going strong for over a year on the same battery. As a special treat I bought it a new expensive named brand cell. It might be a coincidence that it's lasted better than the 5 for a quid bargain I fell for at a car boot sale!

I'm guessing that cheap calipers come with a cheap battery and the likes of Mitutoyo come with a good one and a proper 'on/off' switch. For hobby use, buying an expensive caliper to save on batteries is surely bad economics. You can get an awful lot of good batteries for the price of a quality caliper. I'm not knocking quality calipers - there are plenty of other good reasons for investing in one.

Cheers,

Dave

Funny thing is, the Aldi calipers i keep in my desk (I'm in a wheelchair most of the time and need things handy) have auto power off and eat batteries, whilst the Kennedy ones on the bench stay on for days sometimes if I forget them, but have only needed one battery in the last 5 years.

Having watched my son get a measurement an inch wrong because he had never used a Vernier scale before, I'll probably stick to digital

Brian

There's no on off on Mitutoyo. The usual 6" is a bit cheaper now because they have introduced the super sola.

On measurement accuracy they state what it actually is. Some might find the numbers interesting. Some other makes have done the same thing in the past. Not so precise.

**LINK**

People might find them listed on ebay with out rapid delivery at a price that is higher than direct. That's ebay these days. Some one might buy a number of them and sell them cheap though.

John

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There is on mine and as I said earlier off means totally off that is why the battery lasts about 5 years and will even go for more than 12months with the "B" showing for low battery.

The one in your link also shows an on/off battery but suspect that refers to display.

Yeah on mine too, actually i forget alot of the time to do this and i'm not going through button batteries like theyre out of fashion. Since i'm not sliding the scale about all night i presume it's just using enough power to keep a display up, my rudimentary knowledge of them tells me that it knows it's relative position from a magnet of sorts.

Michael W

I thought that they were all like mine. No on off just ins/mm and origin.

This is the model but notice only 2 buttons on the first image.

**LINK**

I'm pretty sure that there were more without an on off button on the site when I bought it. It just times out and fires up when opened up. It gets a fair amount of use one way or the other and I'd say that the battery life may be well over 3 years. I usually buy the single sealed watch batteries for stuff that uses them. I did try the cheap ones but life on the other calliper was much shorter - months rather than years. That does have an on off button.

I used it around 8min ago and it still hasn't timed out. As it's never been a problem I have no idea how long it takes. Too long to sit and watch.

NO I didn't pay anything like that amount for it but it was well over £100, Around £120 I think. I like to try and buy once on measuring gear but changed to this for the 8" which I do use at times. Otherwise I would have to use my 2ft vernier.

I did buy a couple of cheap 4" ones for a scale on something - they were NVG in several respects.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 22/07/2016 19:09:15

Edited By Ajohnw on 22/07/2016 19:10:01

Does M&W manufacture in UK these days? I thought their clocks and electronics had been oriental for years, but don't know for sure.

I recently got a new, genuine Starrett 8" digital calliper, unseen. Brand loyalty, you see. The price seemed almost too good to be true. It was. Nasty oriental quality. It's accurate (so far...), but can't really be used sensitively because of the poor, gritty feel of the slide. So much for brand loyalty.

Re battery life. Note that SR44 (=357) cells are silver oxide, with about twice the energy density of LR44 lithium cells, and need not cost significantly more. Some sellers don't know the difference and think you're being awkward if you refuse a lithium cell. The button cells supplied with new devices from the darker corners of the orient are often junk.

Could be that some company has bought up a well known name and uses it not making things to the standard that people would expect from the brand but much cheaper.

I suspect this has happened in M&W's case. Whoops - maybe not bottom quality though.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 23/07/2016 13:38:09

If you can think of a well-respected brand that was made in England in the 1960, the odds are that the company went bust, and the name (and reputation) was bought by an Indian, or a Chinese (etc) firm.

Names like MG, Britool, Moore & Wright, Dunlop, Lucas, I could go on.

Some of them realise that the name will be downgraded if the products are not up to the mark. Some don't, or don't care. Our problem is working out which ...

Regards, Tim

M&W are now part of the Bowers group which originally started in Bradford in 1915 but then again being Bradford it could be Indian owned

According to google maps the Bowers Group resided in a car park next to what looks like skips.

This might give some clues on ownership over the years

**LINK**

John

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I don't remember Lucas being particularly "well-respected"!

A good friend of my dad's emigrated to the USA in 1960 and ended-up in California managing an auto-spares outlet specialising in parts for foreign cars. I remember him on a visit circa 1980 explaining how embarrassing it was telling american customers in to replace a failed British part that the Lucas replacement was gob-smackingly expensive because they were "superior quality". Sadly his business records showed that the claim wasn't true: in practice he had fewer returns of Far Eastern alternatives that were less than half the price. Despite the evidence his Lucas rep refused point blank to believe that cheaper alternatives could possibly be better than anything "Made in England".

My experience of British cars in the seventies was mixed: I certainly spent lots of time fixing electrics and changing bulbs. Such was the reliability of components back then that Mr Lucas was jokingly called "the Prince of Darkness" and he was alleged to have invented "magic smoke".

Ever since then I've been wary of putting too much trust in brand-names and high prices. Quite a few very successful companies eventually came unstuck because of poor labour relations, mismanagement, failure to invest, resistance to change, fraud, low productivity, excessive wage bills, inefficiency, theft, politics, spanish practices, adverse market forces, ignoring the customer, more effective competitors, asset stripping, mistakes, bad investments, material changes, low profits, tax, tariffs, bubbles, recessions and excessive costs etc. It's not just a British phenomenon, you can see the same in all industrial economies.

Dave

Lucas is still about Tim

**LINK**

In other forms as well. The sold of 1/2 of all of the companies they owned generally 51% retaining 49%. I think they kept Aerospace. Good for them as that meant the workforce couldn't be in the pension fund any more so they were transferred to other schemes. Not very generously which allowed them to take a few hundred million quid out of the old scheme. They then merged with a company called Varity a USA company. I suspect they bought a controlling interest in it. Not sure. That got gobbles up by another USA Compnay called TRW. It's still about in B'ham. 3 sites. 2 TRW Automotive Electronics and 1 TRW which used to be the old Lucas research site.. However I didn't know but TRW went defunct in 2015. Their parent company was ZF Friedrichshafen.

John

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Well chaps, I received my digitronic M&W calipers today and I was amused to see that it came with 7 (yes, seven) batteries. One in the unit (fairly dead), one 'Daily Max' brand and 5 GP brand. (They are CR2032 type ones - Lithium)

So, this doesn't bode well for battery life!! (leaflet claims battery life is 1 year, so I should be fine for the next 6 years!!)

The box is similar to the Mitutoyo ones.

The feel is much better than standard chinese ones and seems to zero perfectly when opened and closed (about 30 times) We shall see how it goes over the coming months but my initial impression is favourable considering it was around £24

Matt

I have just retired from running a machine shop, Mitutoyo or Kennedy brand have been my preferred choice for years. Good battery life and dependability, professional tools really. I would steer clear of M&W economy range, I think the are just re badged cheapies.

As an aside, I have a wealth of tool room equipment, measuring, setting equipment, tooling etc., for sale to good home at fair prices, not sure of the best way to list, so guidance would be appreciated !

Roy M.

Roy, I would add that this M&W unit is in a better class than the other far east ones I have.

Feel free to send a list of stuff out together with approx prices by PM.

Regards, Matt

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Roy,

Adverts on this site are free ... Why not just list it all ?

See the column to your right >>>>

MichaelG.

Thanks for sales advice! I will list stuff , by category I think, when It starts getting dark and rainy! So watch this space!