Digital Readouts

I would guess that a major part of the increased cost is because a hand held digital caliper is sold in the millions of units a year...

Whereas a digital gauge for a specific model of milling machine is possibly only selling a few tens a year...

Different machines, milling, lathes etc... would require different fittings and mounting of the scale etc... So you end up paying almost for a custom solution? Well at least a very low volume product as opposed to the high volume product in everyone's toolbox...

John.

Okay John I can agree with your thought but only to a certain point. See I have a small lathe most would call a hobby lathe, that I took a digital readout from a mill I bought at auction for parts and used a pair of scissors to cut the readout tape to the length I needed for the lathe and now have a good readout on the lathe! I have a hard time believing that this tape used for the readout cost all that much.

Chuck

Quality costs money. A $20 gauge isn't going to wear very well compared to you Bridgeport mill setup. (Think repeatable accuracy) A gauge for a mill is designed to withstand vibrations, bumps, chips, etc and being used constantly everyday for its entire life. A cheap set of hand calipers typical use scenario is nowhere near this expectation. Bottom-line - they just don't last as you get what you pay for.

Again Stillgester I agree, however it is to a point as I have an $18.00 6" that I think I've had for 5 or 6 years and the makers name is mostly gone and it still works fine, so yes even the cheapies if you take care of them will last even in a job shop environment. I treat all my measuring tools as if they were a part on a women's body,,,,,very easy,,,,,and another thing, the readout I took off the parts mill I put on the lathe with only hand tools and scraps laying around and it has been there for about maybe 4 years now with all those vibrations and chips you talked about. I also forgot to ad before, after I had put this readout on the lathe, a couple of days later the operator added a 6" Brown and Sharp that had been dropped & read .020 off to the tool post area with SUPER GLUE and used it for detailed depth cuts and champers. Now it only lasted about a year as a brake rotor came out of the chuck and took all with it. Hmmmm, I guess I'll just have to go along with all you because we all know industry would never rip us a big one now would they? Even if it was just for pennies don't fool yourself as those bean counters count brown coins also. I guess I may look at the dollar a little closer than you guys because it is coming out of my pocket not the "corporation" I work for. Nuff said, I guess I just don't have the vocabulary to express my penny pinching thoughts I have these days! I fully intend to beat China at their own game with their own low quality stuff.

I think the company which sells you is smarter as you also do not ask them why they are asking so much money for something that is not worth. Very often such prices are very local and may be compared with your driving cost to go to a market which is away. They will add up that much as they also pay to get that for you. It is more like a Service Charges.

And, conversely, you don't get what you don't pay for.

-e

Chuck,

Why would you assume that the gear from China will be, "Low Quality?"

Seems that the problem is that they are matching our quality AND killing us on price.

Is that not the reality.?

Steve

The Chinese can put 3-4 times the man hours into an item for the same $$ as us, or the same man hours and undercut us.

It all hinges on wage rate differentials. If the Chinese were paid the same wages as we were, noone would buy Chinese stuff. The freight would make it cost extra.

The Chinese government runs the place as an efficient process. People get good wages for their area.

What if people came from the stars and were paid $100,000/day we could export our stuff to them with no problems and they would moan about the earthmen taking their jobs etc etc.

Balance of trade should make the chinese currency increase in value, but China keeps it down. This is bad.

However our own unions did bad for us. every strike exports jobs in manufacturing. Now unions are after service industries, teaching, hospitals, government, where we are trapped and cannot export the jobs. UAW exported and killed their jobs by hug wage demands.

24" digital scales at around £125 here,

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/

must be available at other places.

Price is set by manufacturer and there is little guiding rule for it other than profit margin one thinks to be added. Then also there is value Added marketing which may multiply the cost.

Unless the item is universal, in great demand, it can have lots of price differences.

For my products, I set the price, and I don't even look at what others may place on their products. My products are not unique and yet they are not so much common in the market. My clients will find me near and easy to look after the after sale. They pay what I want. Now reasonable comes only to what I and my clients think is OK to pay and take relationship.

If you bargain then you may 50% discount only to be shocked that you were paying double. Sometime your trader will say to pick 10 numbers or even more and you will say no. You need only one and you pay more.

Check on ebay I purchased a unit with all the math functions for $375.00

WOW, maybe I have been asleep at the wheel then, because all I've looked at are sale magazines that come everyday to use as fuel in our shop wood stove/heater. 375.00 is not bad at all, I will broaden my search for sure. Thanks,,,,,Chuck

The readout is cheap, the sensor that measure travel is expensive. You ever had water, oil or coolant on your caliper? Caliper use inductive/capacitive sensing. Lathe/mill use optical. Lastest one maybe different. You'll set caliper to 0 when you use it. A readout need to maintain 0 with no error for thousands of movement. When a caliper skip, it won't cost you anything. When you lathe readout skip a few thou, you're in deep trouble.

I agree with all you say, but I still have the bad feeling about a grand as a price for a good mill/lathe readout. Heck I've already said what all kind of ways we cheat the system here at our shop and I know there are a lot more ways that someone out there knows. Sorry for not being able to explain a gut feeling any better than I have done so far. ,,,,,Chuck

Supply lower price digital readout with high quality. We are a chinese exporter.henryzhang1@hotmail.com