Slip gauges from Banggood

Thanks for replies. It seems that things are a bit murky regarding VAT on imports, at least in how the rules are implemented if not in the rules themselves.

So far as the gauges go, reading your comments and looking around further, I'm not going to buy. Too risky! They can't possibly be grade 0 by any international standard - looking at pics on the website more closely, it is possible to see the 'individual test report' for the 4mm block and the deviation is outside grade 0 for any standard I can find. They don't actually quote any standard, so perhaps the manufacturer has made up their own. They also look pretty roughly ground for precision pieces.

If I decide I really need slip gauges Cutwel do a 32 piece grade 2 (more than accurate enough for me) set for £150ish or I could splash out on a set for ~£180 from engineering-gauge.co.uk with a UKAS certificate - which they claim gives the actual size of each block within an astonishing hundredth of a micron. That's nuts - far UV wavelength, 80 iron atoms, if I've done the arithmetic right. How could they possibly do that? I must have got something wrong...

My reason for delving into this is that I have some second-hand micrometers from good stables (MW, Tesa, Mitutoyo) without setting bars and I want to check the setting. I rarely need to measure better than 0.01mm, so slip gauges are probably overkill. But - well, it would be nice to have a set.

Thanks for rescuing me from a moment of madness.

Robin.

Edited By Robin Graham on 03/03/2021 00:38:53

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**LINK**

https://www.npl.co.uk/instruments/gauge-block-interferometer

MichaelG.