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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Looking After Tools

There was nothing on the television over Easter that interested me so I reverted to YouTube. Several times I saw "craftsmen" using the jaws of calipers to scratch parallel lines on pieces of steel they were using to make jigs and fixtures. I have a set of Mitutoyo calipers which were expensive and no way would I use them for scribing lines. In fact I replace them in their box immediately after use to prevent them being damaged.

I suppose to put the thing into perspective though, one of the craftsmen spent several hours fabricating and ended up with a bottle opener!

Jan T
J Targosz

Jan,

I've got Mitutoyo and Starrett calipers and treat them with respect as you do. I also watch some videos on youtube and one I watch does that but notes that they're cheap calipers and I have one and at £10 I use them in that manner occasionally but then I rarely use them for measurement although they seem accurate they're not nice to use compared to the quality ones I have.
David Billington

David,

I do have a chepo digital set from Aldi and use them to convert from metric to imperial rather than dig out my calculator.

Jan
J Targosz

I keep a calculator in the study where I'm posting this and another in the workshop for such tasks. Both HP-11Cs and the oldest, made in the USA, will be 42 this year. The newer one was bought in 1988, made in Brazil, as I lost the first one but it got returned. I thanked the guys that returned it but they said it looked like a really nice calculator and they would have kept it if they could have figured out how to use it, they couldn't as it's RPN.
David Billington

I also have Mitutoyo vernier calipers and I treat them with care, but I have also seen YouTubers use them as scribes.
Makes me cringe.
But as one of them said, responding to a comment "hey, they were ten bucks in Walmart".
Fair enough.
I was given a digital caliper not long ago that came from Aldi or somewhere and compared it to my own non-digital instrument. At no point did they agree. One sample measurement gave 16 thou' difference, measuring the diameter of a random socket.
I threw it in the recycle skip. Worthless junk.
Greybeard

David,
You’ve really struck a chord! I still daily use my HP11C, of similar age to yours. It replaced an HP25, then around 10 years old.
I was first introduced to the, then mind-bogglingly capable (and expensive) HP35, in 1972 and used what was the engineering company’s sole portable computing tool for some time afterwards.
Believing that I’d lost the HP11C, in around 2005 the only replacement I could find in a brief search was the HP15C. It’s differential and other functions were totally beyond me so, when the “11” turned up again, my choice was to bequeath the new one to a deserving junior engineer in my old company.
Long live Hewlett-Packard!
Craig
D C McLean

Mitutoyo here as well---no need for a calculator, they have imperial on the top row and metric along the bottom-
I hate digital calipers nearly as much as i hate dial calipers, it only takes the smallest piece of crap to get in the gear rack and they jump a tooth---can be really frustrating if you don't realise and plod on making stuff perfectly out of spec.untill you realise something's up the creek.
Bought 3 sets of el'cheapo plastic calipers which I stand guilty of using as scribers and measuring spinning stuff in the lathe, expected to go through them fairly fast but I'm still on the first set---nice hard plastic that.

willy
William Revit

Greybeard,

The cheap digital caliper I have actually checks out very well when using them to measure slip gauges, it's within its quoted tolerance. It may be the one you were given was dirty as that can cause them to read incorrectly, I've had my Mitutoyo fault due to sweaty hands but that's easy to deal with and they do indicate an error.

Craig,

I started with an HP45 from my dad when he upgraded to an HP41C. LED display so 3 battery packs, one in the calculator, one on charge and another charged. As you'd know the HP11C is a totally different beast with regards batteries, I think I replace mine about every 10 years, 3 x 357 (SR44).

Willy,

My Starrett dial calipers suffered from that occasionally, a Mitutoyo dial caliper owner mentioned they had a cover to reduce the likelihood of dirt in the rack and provided a tool to reposition the pinion if it happened, something Starrett didn't. I've got a plastic set and its jaws are screwed to the depth stop on my small metal guillotine to indicate the position. My Mitutoyo digital calipers are used most days and I don't recall ever having an issue with them reading wrong but they do stay in their cases when not in use.
David Billington

I use my Mitutoyo dial calipers all the time - probably 40 years old - always back in case. I normally close them up to check before use and store 2-3mm open.

I have a Lidl digital set as well - not to bad, but always take the battery out - so don't get used that much and the display is not as good as the Mitutoyo one my Brother in law has.
richard b

Snap Mitutoyo. Must be around 40 years ago when I bought this.

Not sure when I bought the colourtune could be from the late 70's or mid 80s. Have you seen the price of them new now? Vintage ones are selling for over a hundred quid. 🤣. Glad I only paid £11.95.

Both still in good order though, with plenty of use over the years.


anamnesis

I'd forgotten about Colourtune. I might still have one in the loft. My Dad bought it which was a bit of a mystery as he was badly colourblind!

David, the digital caliper I had briefly was a proper cheapo I think. Although I'm sure you're right that age and dirt didn't help, it relied on a carbon film potentiometer embedded in the back of the beam.
I can't see how it can ever have been accurate enough to be useful.
Greybeard

I've still not my Colortune from the seventies.

Trev
T Mason

Not a Colourtune but a still owned Sparktune. Lent it to a work colleague for her partner to use - it came back with Sellotape holding it together. There's a moral there.
Jeremy MkIII

I've still got my Colortune and even used it a few years ago trying to diagnose a fault with a neighbour Ford Xflow Morgan.

Greybeard,

I've not heard of that technology before for digital calipers and can see where that might not be very accurate. I'm used to the capacitive ones where even the cheap ones seem to have decent accuracy.
David Billington

I use a pair of Colortunes, one in cyl No.1 and one in cyl No.4 that way I can tune both carbs without moving it.

Bought them both at auto jumbles a few years ago for a couple of quid each.
R.A Davis

Yep, a colourtune but also a gunson's Gastester. Only rarely used, but do still work.

I also have an AEG 2 speed, reversible hammer drill bought in 1972. Mains corded of course as it pre dates battery ones. It has outlived a rubbish succession of first Black & Decker and then Bosch drills. At 52 years old it is still my favourite go to when drilling into masonry and hard whinstone. Though I generally do like the convenience of good cordless drills for everyday work (Makita professional with the metal, not the plastic chucks!)

And occasionally, just for old times sake, I dig out my 2 foot long 'Yankee' spiral pump screwdriver! Now that really is as obsolete as a dead dodo!
GuyW

Guy, any screwdriver can never be called obsolete. They are all better than cordless drivers in my opinion.

Trev
T Mason

And the 'baby' yankee Guy; the 135A. Used by many a sparky. Truly great for 2nd fix. And if I was still to do 2nd fix, and doing enough of it, I'd still use it. So well geared by that spiral, that just a couple of pumps is all the face plate screws need.

I well remember the big yankees too, used by many chippys. Never bought one myself, but I did borrow one sometimes for backbox screws on long runs of first fix. But even my yanke junior was useful for that too.

I confess it hasn't been used in quite a while, but I agree, great tools.






anamnesis

I expect Elwood would agree at 2:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkvXeMvzb4o , although levering the panel off not the best way to treat them.
David Billington

😆😆. How did you find that David? Brilliant.
anamnesis

I'd seen it recently as a classic film from my youth and the Stanley stuck in my head, painful! ;), and naturally someone had seen fit to put the elevator scene on youtube.
David Billington

Stanley Bailey planes. From the top, No.7, No.5 and No.4.
No.4 and No.5 are each over 100 years old. No.7 I'm not so sure about but it's certainly prewar.
All still in production, from various makers, but the design has never been bettered. In fact good quality modern equivalents are usually heavier and certainly don't work any better than my old relics. Cheap versions are available but best avoided.
These are used daily and there is no reason they shouldn't be still in use when we and our grandchildren are all dust. I can set and sharpen one in two minutes or less, by eye and feel, and they can cut shavings so fine you can see through them. Try that with your screeching horror of a power planer.
Quality counts.



Greybeard

GB,

You might find this short read I came across a few years ago interesting http://www.hansbrunnertools.com/Stanley%20by%20numbers/Stanley%20History.htm . You may have to copy and paste the link.
David Billington

Just been watching another Youtube where a guy in India was repairing a broken shaft. He was doing the job in the street, barefoot, welding without goggles and grinding without a mask. However his Starrett calipers were carefull put away after use.

Jan T
J Targosz

Thank you David; that was an interesting rabbit hole :)
Greybeard

This thread was discussed between 01/04/2024 and 11/04/2024

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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