Digital Calipers for $8.00?

korndog

korndog

New Member
#1
#1
I bought these calipers and they were delivered to my door today. I'm an Amazon prime member so I paid a grand total of $8.26 without leaving my house. I tested these on a set of pin gauges and they were dead-on to .0005. I'm posting this because when I was a kid, micrometers were things only professionals and rich people could afford. This is just impossible to have something like this for 8 bucks. They are heavy duty stainless, and feel good in hand. I am afraid this is yet another example of how the Chinese will eventually drive all American companies out of business.

Amazon.com: 6 Inch LCD Digital Caliper with Extra Battery and Case: Home Improvement: Reviews, Prices & more
 
Neck

Neck

Growing up is optional
#2
#2
And the guy you bought them from made money on them too! Back when they were way expensive, they were precision machined instruments. The digital age seems to have changed all that. But your right, how can the U.S compete? In 84 they slapped a big Tariff on Jap bikes over 700 cc to save Harley Davidson, I'm sure you remember! It was the birth of 700 cc motorcycles. I think to bring jobs back to the U.S. their going to have to do that to companies importing goods to the U.S. and even American companies that moved manufacturing to other countries and import their product back here. But then NAFTA might put a halt to that!
 
M

metal man

New Member
#3
#3
its sad that we can import every thing cheaper then we can make it here. the big change in cost of tools like this is machines have changed and electronics have gotten better. at one time the calipers were made by hand one at a time . so skill was needed and time consuming work . now its ah hell boy i can make ya 50 of them thair parts got 5 mins ? ill just punch up some file and hit go . but i have seen that even with the faster tools and better machines the price is still set if they had to do it the old way . like it takes 2 hours to do .
like when i needed to have a sprocket drilled out , took it to the shop and its a buck a mim and a 20 min charge . what $20 to drill a 3/4 hole in .25 plate !i could understand if i had stated it had to be dead on , but my tolerance on this part is sloppy it just have to be under 15 tho run out . i did it on a drill press and payed for the tooling in one shot .:1orglaugh:
 
vette66_00

vette66_00

Active Member
#5
#5
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Randy

Randy

#8
#8
Yea, China is great. We should all move.:smile: The food is great also.

I'm just being a ass. They look nice. I think I paid about that for my Starrett at auction. But I probably had $50 in gas getting there:laugh:
 
Oldsalt

Oldsalt

Well-Known Member
#11
#11
Two Mitutoyo 6 inch dial calipers arrived from ENCO this week. I needed a new one, the other a gift to a friend for a favor he did me. Guess what, they are no longer made in Japan. They are stamped "Made in Brazil"! Looks like maybe some Japanese companies are having trouble competing if they don't have some of their product line manufactured in third world countries.
 
J72

J72

Banned
#12
#12
When a manufacturing process is properly developed (iso, qs, tps, etc.) for a product, it allows for that product (or any product) to be cost compared for manufacture/production cost. In other words it makes it easier for the business end of manufacturing to decide where to have a product made (even if its already being made for a profit). Cost relating to labor, energy and shipping are usually the most important because they usually have the most impact on the total product cost. The 3rd world instability of the 50's 60's and 70's is no longer a hurdle. In some markets the hurdle can even be jumped by funneling a couple payments to the right person(kings, war lords, gangsters, presidents, etc.). Just ask anyone who does a considerable amount of business with mexico.

Those calipers were probley produced with old mitutoyo tooling or new tooling (for the plastic) produced with a scan gun and cam. The process for making them have been around as long as that style has been around (17-19 years im guessing) and as far as technology goes........ its not a secret.
 
Yellowhand

Yellowhand

#13
#13
I paid HUGE money for a Mitutoyo 6" dial caliper back in 1979...

Prior to the CNC era, owning a precision dial caliper was like buying a fine swiss watch...
 
Oldschool

Oldschool

New Member
#14
#14
Yup.

I have that caliper too.
But I paid a lot more it back when it was made in japan.
Same for my Chinese mics....

Found an old Canadian tire flyer form the 70s at work tools then were more expensive than today in straight non inflasion adjust dollars....

One thing continues to bother me though. forget about where the things are made the real cost of manufacturing is dropping like a rock. Our wages in most cases don't keep up with inflasion so at least this helps somewhat.

Realy the only limiting factor to how far prices can fall is commodities ( and oil iron coal ect are rising faster than inflasion ). Now the things that bother me the most is the promiss of these massive productivity gains ( what ever the source ) has traditional been higher wages, shorter work weeks and pensions.
That is no longer the case however because these productivity gains vanish into some ballance sheet I never get to see. Then I get outsourced laid off and told its all my fault....

At the risk of turning this into a politial debate ( no tea for me please ) I would like to share some video from the late Rev Tommy D. The most popular politician in Canadian history ( most loved Canadian as voted by the public in a CBC TV show a few years back the greatest Canadian

Most of these were from speaches he made in the 40s and 50s, You don't have to agree with my view but isn't it odd that exactly the same problems come back over and over and over and we never actualy find a way to fix the machine to ensure everyone get that glass of milk....
No matter if your on the right or left the basic problem is obvious to both sides where we differ is in the way we should solve the problem. After decaes of debate nothing has changed except now there are millions more unemployed and as we look back and reflect onthe happy times we realize they were not all that happy we just excepted falling behind and made up for it with debt.....

YouTube - Tommy Douglas "The cream separator"
YouTube - Mouseland - Electing Cats. Why not elect some Mice for a change ?
 
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korndog

korndog

New Member
#15
#15
Oldschool said:
Yup.

I have that caliper too.
But I paid a lot more it back when it was made in japan.
Same for my Chinese mics....

Found an old Canadian tire flyer form the 70s at work tools then were more expensive than today in straight non inflasion adjust dollars....

One thing continues to bother me though. forget about where the things are made the real cost of manufacturing is dropping like a rock. Our wages in most cases don't keep up with inflasion so at least this helps somewhat.

Realy the only limiting factor to how far prices can fall is commodities ( and oil iron coal ect are rising faster than inflasion ). Now the things that bother me the most is the promiss of these massive productivity gains ( what ever the source ) has traditional been higher wages, shorter work weeks and pensions.
That is no longer the case however because these productivity gains vanish into some ballance sheet I never get to see. Then I get outsourced laid off and told its all my fault....

At the risk of turning this into a politial debate ( no tea for me please ) I would like to share some video from the late Rev Tommy D. The most popular politician in Canadian history ( most loved Canadian as voted by the public in a CBC TV show a few years back the greatest Canadian

Most of these were from speaches he made in the 40s and 50s
Click to expand...
You can turn it into whatever discussion you like. I wasn't posting so much about the tool, but the price and its implications. You make some good points and the videos are amusing. Of course, here in the U.S.A. socialism is a dirty word (except in Vermont which is practically in Canada), so you will likely get some feedback along those lines.
 
Oldschool

Oldschool

New Member
#16
#16
Doesn't realy matter as I said what political stripe you wear though Korny.

The issue is we do nopt get any bennifit from the productivity gains anymore, infact we fall behind. Prices can only drop so much before the clost of the raw material force a floor between what we get paid and what we need to buy the goods.

Even the most conservative right wing thinkers here would agree with most of what old Tommy says especialy the part about the big fat cats and those square mouse holes but we do not have anyone posing any solutions to our problem. We can't put up trade barriers, we can't pay people to sit on their asses at home, we can't blame the Chinese and unions and goverment for our problems because they didn;t creat this mess alone.

We made this mess by at its root being so productive we automated away our jobs, we outsourced what we could not automate and we elected a goverment that did not adress these problems. We taxed ourselves into poverty but did not tax the profits of those productivity gains and it all flew away to banks that lent it back to us in sub prime morgages so we could keep spending. Then it the circle jerk of debt blew up the world lol.

Things are significantly better here in Canada, but that does not mean they are good. We are forced to compete in the race to the bottom with you thanks to quantative easy. I like that that means we are going to make a dollar worth less and less so our wages and debt shrink untill we can afford to be poor....

Now if a very conservative politician came to town and said I WILL cut spending and make taxes fair so everyone pays their own way I would vote for that guy. If a socialist said I WILL if elected level the playing field so our taxes and revenue are in line and small buisness has an equal footing ( same as the first guy but different wording ) I would vote for him. But all we get is cut taxes ( mostly for the rich ) more spending ( for wich the rich are bnot on the hook with taxes ) and lots of fuzzy pork filled laws that get people elected in 5 years instead of adresing the problems.
 
J72

J72

Banned
#17
#17
Politics aside, there is definitly implications of technology advancement. If I would of told you 20 years ago there would be hobby machinist with cnc equipment in their garage you might of asked "whats does cnc mean", now its a reality. I say in ten years most contact type measuring equipent will become obsolete. A chest full of measuring devices will be replaced with a scan gun and laptop. The technology is already here, the price just needs to come down and it has started to already. Imagine taking 20-30 measurments of an item( including taper, runout, surface finish etc.) in 5 seconds. In ten years you wont have to imagine it.
 
Oldschool

Oldschool

New Member
#18
#18
Yes J72 you seem understand exactly what I am talking about. From previous discussion I believe you are on the opposit side of the political fence as I am but in some things we are in agreement. Thats part of my point too, we all are slowly beginning to graspe the true size and scale of our probelm and why the traditional fixes don't work.

I work in the nickel buisness and for the previous 90 years or so the true value of the commodity we produced declined ( like most things, oil, wheat, cotton copper ect ). That has now reversed as the numbers of people in the world consuming these things grows faster than our ability to produce them. The only thing left to squeeze and make them cheaper is our wages and out standard of living follows. Automation and technological displacement mean the labour pool can be shrunk faster to produce goods and services than we can find ways to employ people in new jobs.

In the grander schem of things 30 years you paid for that skill ( using expensive measuring devices in a factory or machine shop ) and in very short order its something that will have little monnitary value. A huge productivity gain in one sence but for the geater whole of the ecconomy this does not add value to our lives. What good is something that is more cheaply made if there is no market for it.

We have finaly come to the point where we can produce more things more cheaply than we are able to consume. This leads job losses and depressing wages that in turn force companies to cut staff and be more productive to suport proffits or outsource to even cheaper labour markets. The race to the bottom as I call it.....

I have no idea how to fix this I just call it as I see it.
 
korndog

korndog

New Member
#19
#19
You guys haven't seen anything yet. In a few years when Artificial Intelligence has been perfected, we have no chance at being any kind of factor. There is enough data being accumulated by Google and others to give machines the upper hand in the near future. this is not Science Fiction or Fantasy. If we don't get our DNA to advance at a similar rate, we will literally be taken over by computers.
 
J72

J72

Banned
#20
#20
Oldschool said:
Yes J72 you seem understand exactly what I am talking about. From previous discussion I believe you are on the opposit side of the political fence as I am but in some things we are in agreement.
Click to expand...
I consider myself to be a moderate, there are some principals on both sides I embrace.
 
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