Moore and Wright 2000 micrometer?

Is a M&W 2000 digital micrometer a better bet than a new far eastern digital mic?

Anyone use one who could comment

Ian

I suppose it depends on what you mean by Far Eastern, My Mitutoyo comes from the Far East but is as good if not better than a M&W but if you mean a bargain basement digital mic then yes the M&W would likely be better.

Having said that 99% of the time I reach for the traditional one as I prefer the feel to that of the digital

J

Ian, Yes I agree with Jason except that as far as traditional mics go I don't think there is much to choose between them and probably the M & W are also made in the far east now ??

As far as the type of micrometre, personally I don't like the digital ones [don't posses one] I think they are bulky and to me as least aesthetically ugly, give me a conventional one any time.

The other point is no batteries to go flat or corrode and always guaranteed to work. My first mic, a M & W bought 1960 at £5 [2 weeks apprentice wages] is still going strong and still accurate.

Just my 5 bits John

A few years ago I decided that I just had to have a digital micrometer, I just could not continue to live without one. I spent what was then quite a lot of money on buying a good quality one.

I used it about three times and hated every minute of it, I sold it at a considerable loss not long after.

It hurts to even think about it now.

Phil

PS.

I later bough a very rare mechanical digital micrometer at an antique fair for £20 and sold it on ebay for £2495.47, so the story did have a happy ending.

I did not realise at the time I bought it there was only one other example known about in the world.

Edited By Phil P on 18/05/2013 22:37:24

Edited By Phil P on 18/05/2013 22:48:17

Edited By Phil P on 18/05/2013 22:49:20

Edited By Phil P on 18/05/2013 22:50:06

Edited By Phil P on 18/05/2013 22:53:29

If its in good order there is absolutely no doubt the M&W is a far better device. Designed from first principles as a digital micrometer using a linear glass scale with moire fringe sensing its basically a hand held version of the high quality Hiedenhain probes used for precision scientific work, CMM and similar accurate measurment devices. Non rotating, spring driven, measuring rod with speed damping for constant contact pressure it really does tick all the boxes.

Specification is ± 0.002 mm, better ± 0.1 thou, accuracy and they mean it. It really does deliver that accuracy on the bench given the basic care in handling essential when working to such fine limits. Generally instruments with such capabilities are either lab only or have a heavily hedged specification applying in certain circumstances if you do it right and probably mutter the corect incatation. Demoable in the lab but a different matter out in the real world where parts made in my shop need to match parts made in yours. For example the common mechanical micrometer with tenths reading vernier makes a pretty fair fist of indicating a few tenths variation as the acceptable error over any given thou is sufficiently small that the vernier is adequately accurate. But which tenths you are talking about is acompletely different matter because you have no idea where in the overall permitted error band the particular thou you are trying to split into tenths lies so any idea of true measurement is a fantasy. Unless you calibrate the specific thou(s) of interest with gauge blocks first.

All completely academic to the average model engineer but it would still be alovely thing to own. This thread on another forum may be of interest:-

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=91570

Clive

Edited By Clive Foster on 18/05/2013 23:15:59

I recently bought a Mitutoyo digital mic and have been slowly getting used to it. There are pros and cons compared to my old M&W 0-1" mic, the digital is more bulky (noticeable when pushing it into awkward spaces on lathe-mounted workpieces), it is also expensive and worryingly fragile. For its intended use though it offers many 'pros' - a larger 0-30mm range, the ability to switch between metric and imperial measurements, and the ability to remember a setting so you can more easily work out the cut required to reach a target diameter (for .e.g,). The battery requirement is a none-issue really because they literally last years and the device will normally give you a warning when it is getting low. The Mitutoyo (QuickMic is the version I got) has a rapid moving spindle, just 10 turns for the whole 30mm range, yet it still offers good 'feel'. No more running the spindle down your arm to quickly open the anvil on a standard mic I really need to get used to the extra digits though, I've already mis-read it once and took a 15thou cut because I thought 30thou needed to come off instead of 3thou in actuality.

Interested in John's comment - how do we know how accurate any measuring instrument is unless we have access to a standards room at the correct temperature. I guess most of us make sure that when the jaws are closed, the instrument reads zero. If the jaws can't be closed, then a standard piece (perhaps slip gauge etc) will be used, but how many of us test the accuracy along the measuring length ?

Personally, I like vernier calipers marked in both imperial and metric, although my 'fractional' vernier reading to 1/128ths" is a brain teaser. My cheapo digital caliper eats batteries, one every 6 months. My caliper with a geared dial is very readable, but only imperial.

It just depends upon the job in hand. Turning a metric piece on imperial equipment. It helps to have a dual scale or readout at the same time - a vernier (like a slide rule) lets you see what is comming up.

My Dad used to say when working out the stress in a bolt. If you use a slide rule, you could see the stress for a range of sizes by looking at the graduations. By comparison, using a calculator, you had to work it out for each bolt diameter.

Bob

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That's a fascinating thread, Clive ... Thanks for posting the link .

Vintage Radio is not the obvious place to find such information.

MichaelG.

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Great story, Phil ... Well done !

I would love to know more about that Mechanical digital mic.

... I see the magic word PATENT on the disc, but not a number.

... Do you have any information ?

MichaelG.

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Edit:   I just found this link

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 19/05/2013 08:49:39

Michael

You can see some more photo's of the micrometer here. The first picture is of the "other" existing one.

The same man now owns both in his collection in the USA.

**LINK**

I keep looking out for another one, but so far no luck.

Phil

Edited By Phil P on 19/05/2013 10:24:32

my digital mic came from CTC Hong Kong a couple of years ago and cost £26.00 inc. reg. air freight works fine, why pay more?

Phil,

Thanks for that additional link.

MichaelG.

hi. Phil.

I think every one will be looking out for one from now on!

Thanks for teh advice guys

been watching the M&W on ebay for a while

but just bought a mitutoyo conventional style digital for a good price

Theres always lots of micro 2000's on so i still may take the plunge

Ian

Looking at that mechanical/ digital mike, I wonder if any manufacturer has thought of adding this functionality to an electronic digital mike / caliper. Ie: readout in MM,inch, fraction,swg,etc etc. I guess the electronic wizzards on this forum could interface a std digital caliper to a 'buzz box' that could do just that.

There is the gauntlet, Anyone going to take up the challenge ??

Bob

Hi Bob,

In priciple it should be very easy. The micrometers use essentially the same protocol as the scales, I understand and the scales are easy to inteface with. Once you have the raw data, conversion to other units is easy (even to fractions) SWG would probably require a look-up table of sizes, but even so not hard to code.

Neil;

Hi Neil,
The output port on my digital micrometer (Unknown make.) outputs data in the 2 x 24 bit format. It works with one of the first display units I built using a PIC micro and an LCD display. The only difference to the calipers is that the decimal point is one position out. It would be easy to change the code to move the decimal place.

Les.

Hi Les,

I had my suspicions that might be the case.

I wonder if there is a market for a box that gives micrometer readouts in point sizes?

Neil

What would be the point?

Ian P

Some digital calipers meet nearly all you requirements, I have a Arc Euro one that does everything except wire gauge.

Personally I don't see the point of displaying fractions, maybe OK for an american woodworker but from an engineering aspect is sucks! A caliper capable of displaying 0.001" increments is constrained to dividing an inch into 64ths, its silly. I'm silly to for buying one!

Ian P

PS, Other than the fractions the Arc Euro caliper is really nice.

has fractions