Digital Calipers from Lidl, Reliable?

I just seen some metal digital calipers advertised at Lidl for £8.99. At such a cheap price are they accurate and suitable for model locomotive engineering?

I have several cheap digital calipers from Aldi which are presumably similar and never been convinced of their accuracy. I'd recommend buying a decent one from someone like Allendale. Buy cheap, buy twice.

You can get lucky. I purchased a similar one from Woolworths a good few years ago. They are as accurate as a pricey Japanese caliper that I have. Battery life is remarkable too.

I have seen other cheap ones that were rubbish. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the quality or accuracy.

Andrew.

I bought a Lidl Caliper for £4.99 a few years ago and it was OK. It carried on with a broken window after being dropped on a concrete floor and stood on. I eventually disembowelled it for use in an electronics experiment. It still works.

The accuracy is typical of the breed, about +/- 0.02mm with fair repeatability. Not as smooth as its more expensive brethren but, considered as a replaceable item, well worth having. Use it as a scriber; drop it; use it for general rough work with no cosseting. When it breaks throw it away.

I keep a more expensive caliper safe for 'quality' work. In practice I don't use it much: when accuracy matters I reach for a micrometer.

The big problem with expensive calipers is the counselling needed after you accidentally smash one. You're very unlikely to shed tears over a broken Lidl caliper.

Dave

Possibly but you reallly need to take a look at them to see how well they are made , i have seen some cheap sets that amazed me that they could make them so well for the price and some that weren't fit to be used for tent pegs .

My test us to close the jaws and hold the set up to a light to see if there us a gap between the jaws - there should of course be no gap and i have seen some sets with splayed , twisted , bent and concave / convex ground jaws which will affect the accuracy of the calipers .

The electronics side is usually ok but some sets chew batteries as they don't really shut off they only turn the display off and these get relegated to the marking out gauge department and i take the batteries out between usage .

If the jaws are a little loose you can adjust them easily enough but also be aware the body of the caliper may not be ground parralel so you can get tight spots  - if the calipers appear reasonably well made with a smooth ground appearance this usually isn't a problem .   

Edited By XD 351 on 08/02/2018 19:00:05

I have two. They would have come from ALDI or LIDL. One is as good/accurate as a Mitutoyo and the other would be just as good were it not for the insulation tape holding the battery cover on. No complaints from me.

Rik

I've got a variety of bargain basement digital calipers and thought I'd check them against some gauge blocks. Have to say I was pretty impressed with all 3 of them. I didn't do anything fancy like change the ambient temperature, change the batteries for old ones etc but if I'm really bothered I'll use Mitutoyos or a 0.001mm micrometer etc.

If you haven't got anything to check them against, perhaps you won't know or care if your measurements aren't spot on. And most of our stuff is effectively hand fitted so that they assemble to each other in which case it becomes possibly a little academic?

Murray

I have several Aldi/Lidl calipers, I gave away my Mitutoyo because the old style display was small. I have found the cheap ones every bit as good as the expensive type, I have even butchered one to make a readout for the lathe tailstock. Good battery life on all. Having a few around the workshop means I can always find one !

I have half a dozen of the newer Aldi/Lidl ones with a single Lithium battery and they check out very well using my Mitutoyo gauge blocks, the batteries last for ages and I haven't had one fail yet.

My Aldi digital calipers always reset to zero properly when closed. My Mitutoyo calipers don't and have to be reset by pressing the zero button.

Doesn't seem right to me.