Spot the fake

Plus one for the Aldi workzone doing 80% of my work to. At £8 each I have several, one is butchered to serve as a lathe tailstock readout and works very well. The others are around various parts of the workshop when I can find them! Anything requiring greater accuracy I get the micrometers/bore gauges etc out. I gave my Mitutoyo away, it was an old one with a small display and the old eyes struggled with it.

These things are getting better and better. What's going to happen when they start to exceed the quality of the product they are copying?

Just reading something similar here about Rolex watches.

Martin.

When you send your Rolex in for a service you are warned that if it's fake or stolen you won't get it back. My local Rolex agent always check the serial number with Rolex before buying secondhand ones!

My cheap calliper packed up a while back, it was only about five years old. My very much older Mitutoyo is still working fine. I’m now wondering if I should spend a bit more than £10 for a reliable calliper that doesn’t eat batteries for the Workshop.

on the topic of "what difference does it make ... they all measure the same anyways"

Someone on youtube (AvE) did a teardown comparison of authentic v. knock off and IIRC found that there were very real differences in the battery draw when "powered off", and the subsequent deterioration of measurement accuracy with a deteriorated battery in the fake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnDype-j3hk

Me ... I solve the problem by using a vernier scale caliper and the ol' number 2 eyeball ... surprising how many people can't.

In these days of convincing cheaply made copies of expensive products, it would seem that if owning a Mitutoyo caliper is important to you, it would be wise not to try and get it on the cheap but to deal with a reputable supplier. You will undoubtedly have to pay more than if you took a chance with a "bargain" but that, surely, is the cost of having high grade equipment. (I make no judgement on whether Mitutoyo calipers are better enough than Aldi specials to be worth the extra.)

Jim

*the market responds*

Here are the caliper heads for comparison. The one on the left is a fake while the one on the right was bought direct from a mitutoyo dealer.

One poster was correct about the width of the line printed at the lower end of the scale, it's thicker on the fake.

The battery cover is also a giveaway, on the fake it is just a cover and on the genuine it has absolute printed into the plastic.

The batteries supplied with the fake are LR44 not SR44 even though the card they come in has mitutoyo printed on it.

The display when in imperial has the caring decimal placing.

The slide locking screw is clumsy compared to the original.

The genuine one weighs 6 grammes more than the fake and you can feel the difference in your hand.

The paperwork is very well copied so don't look too deeply there.

It's like playing those spot the difference games in the paper.

My 20 year old caliper for comparison too. Still works good as new.

What makes this very difficult is that mitutoyo have changed the design over the years, clearly the fakers are playing a game of catch up constantly, it wont be long before you start seeing fakes with the new battery cover.

I have a design which looks similar to the fake but doesn't have the "ASOS" thing printed on the end either, probably because it's a few years old now. The inside measuring jaws don't look right on the fake as well.  

But I think I bought it from either Cromwell or MSC at full price.

The battery seems to last forever, so i'm tempted to feel as though it's probably genuine, the grinding and finish on the jaws is neat, sharp points and very smooth. 

I've only ever broken one part and that is the thumb wheel carrier, I kept the thumb wheel and bought some replacement parts.

The only thing you can count on is that buying from an assured dealer is the safest option, just stump up whatever it costs and don't try to skimp off a few pounds by going elsewhere, that's the attitude that keeps the fakers in business.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 16/01/2018 11:57:17

My son bought a supposedly genuine Mitutoyo caliper off the Bay a couple of years ago at a 'sale' price, i.e. not far off full price.

He then realised it was fake & got his money back with no question, I have no reason to believe the trader is not still selling these counterfeit items.

Tony

Someone did a really detailed article in MEW

Found increasing cost largely means increased battery life, better temperature stability and much nicer 'feel'.

The 'absolute' aspect of some types is good too.

Neil

There is clearly a difference between a cheap calliper and a Mitutoyo but you have to use both to see it. Claiming “my cheap calliper works fine” doesn’t really say anything.

My (I'm completely convinced it's a genuine 500-196-20 - bought from Machine DRO) caliper looks absolutely just like the one on the left (i.e the alleged fake) apart from it having 5 full size digits as per the one on the right.

I've had it for around 4 years, still running on the original SR44 battery and I've probably left it on overnight at least 50 times in those years, so the power consumption off or on must be pretty small.

Edited By MM57 on 16/01/2018 15:58:30

A big firm orders 1000 calipers from their local friendly engineers, sending them working drawings etc. The firm goes ahead and fulfils the order, and has 100 extra (made to cover any rejects).

These extras find their way onto x-bay, at half the going rate, avoiding intermediate dealer profit margins.

I have no doubt that this is less than honest, but does it make the extras 'fakes' ?

Cheers, Tim

I can't get over how similar the 20 year old one looks to my Kennedy (from Cromwell Tools) of similar age. The only visible difference is the name printed on the casing. It seems to be a very good copy of the Mitutoyo. I don't think it has needed more than 3 or 4 batteries in all that time, although it has been asking for another for the last few months.

Brian

Yes, because without a genuine Mitutoyo serial number, they are illegitimate knock offs being passed of as genuine Mitutoyo product which they are not. Mitutoyo will not honour any servicing arrangement or guarantees and potential buyers will have been deceived by the seller which is fraud.

Just had to go out and check mine.

Thankfully it's genuine

Its got Workzone moulded into the case an' everything

Edited By Dave Halford on 16/01/2018 17:24:28

It does when there are locos puffing up and down the line with components in them made using my cheap caliper.

Jim

I watched this some time ago. Some of you may find it of interest.

https://youtu.be/1yqZx_FNbSs

Edited By Vic on 16/01/2018 17:44:42