Tool Spotting fake Mitutoyo calipers

[Dabbler]

A while ago we had a long thread about fake Mitutoyo calipers... There is a new resurgence of fake Mit calipers on ebay and amazon, and Clough42 has a great video to help spot fakes... again (updated)

Not that the fakes won't work, and aren't accurate, but they make fake ones to get you to pay, say 70$ for an almost identical unbranded one available from aliexpress for 17$, so it is about spending money wisely.

Much of this also goes for buying off of kijiji, where a guy is selling what he *thinks* is real Mitutoyo, or even if he does know its a fake, caveat emptor...

 

[Crankit]

I watched that this evening, it had me looking at my Mitutoyo calipers. Thankfully legit.
The power consumption in the knock-offs was incredible

 

[6.5 Fan]

Watched that early this morning, good info. My old Mitutoyo calipers are not fake, bought back in the 90's, love them.

 

[Susquatch]

A while ago we had a long thread about fake Mitutoyo calipers... There is a new resurgence of fake Mit calipers on ebay and amazon, and Clough42 has a great video to help spot fakes... again (updated)

Not that the fakes won't work, and aren't accurate, but they make fake ones to get you to pay, say 70$ for an almost identical unbranded one available from aliexpress for 17$, so it is about spending money wisely.

Much of this also goes for buying off of kijiji, where a guy is selling what he *thinks* is real Mitutoyo, or even if he does know its a fake, caveat emptor...

I sorta like Clough42. Very knowledgeable fellow. But like so many others, his videos are way longer than they need to be. I watched it anyway. Perhaps because @Dabbler posted it and I put a lot of weight on what Dabbler posts. Way more that what Clough says for whatever that is worth.....

I think it's odd that people think so much of youtube creators but don't have the same regard for the proven wisdom of many of our own members.

But I digress.....

My two recent Mitutoyo Absolutes seem to be the genuine article going by what Clough suggests.

Oddly however, my two very old Mitutoyo Absolutes appear to be fakes. They have poor fonts, sharp corners, short swoop, big contacts, high power consumption, non-proud button, etc etc. I've had them both at least 20 years. Frankly, I think it's highly unlikely that they really are fakes. It's much more likely that they are genuine. In fact, I suspect that they predate ebay. I don't remember where I got them - likely a phone call to an electronics instrumentation outfit from a printed catalog.

My take - the fakes that Clough42 has are actually very good copies of the old original Mitutoyos not the new ones. I may post that on Clough42's video on YouTube. I'd be interested in his comments.

 

[Dabbler]

@Susquatch I have a version 1 genuine Mit caliper (not 'absolute') and it's power consumption is similar to the newer fakes.

Thing is, many of the fakes are almost as accurate as the genuine one.

When I bought my 6" absolute not too many years ago, I would have gone for the solar version (for which there are no current fakes), except it was 110$ more than the very high price for the battery one. I just didn't get rich enough before retiring!

 

[Susquatch]

@Susquatch I have a version 1 genuine Mit caliper (not 'absolute') and it's power consumption is similar to the newer fakes.

Thing is, many of the fakes are almost as accurate as the genuine one.

When I bought my 6" absolute not too many years ago, I would have gone for the solar version (for which there are no current fakes), except it was 110$ more than the very high price for the battery one. I just didn't get rich enough before retiring!

I think Clough kind of alluded to that when he said that the fakes might be worth the money. But he is also right when he said that they should sell them under their own brand if they are.

My old ones are dedicated to reloading jobs along with a Mitutoyo mechanical vernier that I trust implicitly and often use for calibration and confirmation measurements.

My new ones were both purchased from KBC tools a while back when they had a great sale. They are kept in my metrology drawer in the barn shop along with a couple of dial calipers, a Vinca 128ths fractional (w decimal and mm too) and a good trusted vernier.

My retirement savings account for toys is almost exhausted too. And my royalty income all dried up as the patents expired. I'm thinking of doing a few side jobs to replenish my toy fund a bit.

 

[6.5 Fan]

My old Mitutoyo has great battery life, way before the Absolute line came out. Grey plastic box not black. I have a cheap PA one that works fine but eats batteries for breakfast.

 

[Dusty]

Purchased a Mitutoyo Absolute Digimatic 6"caliper couple of year ago from KBC, deadly accurate, fantastic battery life, well worth the money.

 

[Meleon]

I got a fake from Aliexpress, they don't have an auto power off like my Mastercraft ones, and I can never remember to turn them off They've essentially been on since I bought nearly 2 years ago, and still on the same battery. They read more consistently than my Mastercraft calipers and operate much smoother.

 

[Tom Kitta]

A lot of fake ones are premium China. I.e. they are not the same as $17 copy from aliexpress but much better.

You can spend say 60 on one that is a total fake or say 45 (not 17) on one that does not pretend to be real thing.

 

[garageguy]

Good grief!! I bought my Mit absolute digital calipers probably 30 yrs ago,not realizing there were fakes around. Spent decades using these things thinking they were the real deal. seemed to work OK, great battery life, only thing I could complain about is they read .0005 when closed ,all the time. So I watched the video and thought I would have a close look at my Mitutoyo calipers, and Holy Moly, fake as all get-out. I feel cheated. Not sure where I got them or how much I paid but I am not a happy camper. The good part is, they have worked OK for a long time. Oh well....

 

[DPittman]

I got a fake from Aliexpress, they don't have an auto power off like my Mastercraft ones, and I can never remember to turn them off They've essentially been on since I bought nearly 2 years ago, and still on the same battery. They read more consistently than my Mastercraft calipers and operate much smoother.

Yup I've got one off Amazon and while it seems to be very well made, it too does not have auto off. It ends up staying in the drawer most of the time because I ALWAYS forget to turn it off. My caliper actually does not claim to be a "Mitutoyo " but has some other name on it. It does look just like all the other copies tho.

 

[Susquatch]

Good grief!! I bought my Mit absolute digital calipers probably 30 yrs ago,not realizing there were fakes around. Spent decades using these things thinking they were the real deal. seemed to work OK, great battery life, only thing I could complain about is they read .0005 when closed ,all the time. So I watched the video and thought I would have a close look at my Mitutoyo calipers, and Holy Moly, fake as all get-out. I feel cheated. Not sure where I got them or how much I paid but I am not a happy camper. The good part is, they have worked OK for a long time. Oh well....

Relax. Yours are old and the old ones look like the fakes. See my comments above.

My guess is simple. The new fakes are not poor copies of the new genuines. They are very good copies of the old genuines! Simple as that. Yours are the real deal just like 2 of mine. No way in heck they copied them even half that well way back then.

No offense to Clough42, but his sample was too small. No way you can draw such reaching conclusions from a small sample like that.

I plan to send him a note.

 

[Tom Kitta]

Good grief!! I bought my Mit absolute digital calipers probably 30 yrs ago,not realizing there were fakes around. Spent decades using these things thinking they were the real deal. seemed to work OK, great battery life, only thing I could complain about is they read .0005 when closed ,all the time. So I watched the video and thought I would have a close look at my Mitutoyo calipers, and Holy Moly, fake as all get-out. I feel cheated. Not sure where I got them or how much I paid but I am not a happy camper. The good part is, they have worked OK for a long time. Oh well....

Better question is who would make fakes 30+ years ago. And digital ones!

Fun fact, China invented calipers... around 2000 years ago.

French invented Vernier calipers around 400 years ago.

Americans were first to mass produce them 170 years ago.

Digital calipers came around 1977 - so 45 years ago.

 

[Susquatch]

Yup I've got one off Amazon and while it seems to be very well made, it too does not have auto off. It ends up staying in the drawer most of the time because I ALWAYS forget to turn it off. My caliper actually does not claim to be a "Mitutoyo " but has some other name on it. It does look just like all the other copies tho.

All four of my genuine Mitutoyo's (two old and two new) do not have auto off. I believe it was @Dabbler who said a while back that auto-off is basically a window dressing feature since the only difference between on and off is whether or not the LCD display is on. You can prove this by moving the Caliper while it's off. When turned back on, the Caliper will know exactly where it is including any tare adjustments. However, if you remove the battery, it will be lost until zeroed. Given the ultralow power consumption of LCDs, auto off actually means virtually nothing to battery life on a well designed digital caliper. I accept Dabbler's comments without reservation.

 

[Tom Kitta]

All four of my genuine Mitutoyo's (two old and two new) do not have auto off. I believe it was @Dabbler who said a while back that auto-off is basically a window dressing feature since the only difference between on and off is whether or not the LCD display is on. You can prove this by moving the Caliper while it's off. When turned back on, the Caliper will know exactly where it is including any tare adjustments. Given the ultralow power consumption of LCDs, auto off actually means virtually nothing to battery life on a well designed digital caliper. I accept Dabbler's comments without reservation.

Well, all LCD based watches are display on all the time - they last this way keeping time & displaying stuff for at least a year on single battery. Also we have the issue of display changing what it displays - no changes ==> less use of energy.

I searched a bit for "how much energy is actually used" but this is hard to find (!) mostly b/c we are dealing with the issue of LCD screen and actual circuit / watch taking some energy.

 

[garageguy]

@Susquatch ,I looked my old ones over more carefully and I think you are right. I checked the machined groove on the back and it is very nicely done. Mitutoyo's improvements over the years mean mine are a little different than new versions especially in the software and some of the graphics but that is to be expected. As I think back on it I may have gotten them from KBC or Enco.

 

[VicHobbyGuy]

I recall that one of the differences with the 'fakes' and cheap calipers generally is that they come with cheaper/different batteries.
So that's part of the problem for battery life, aside from the current draw of different calipers when they are 'off' (display off, or actually off, like my older Mitutoyo 8" calipers).


I thought this (older) article was interesting:
http://www.davehylands.com/Machinist/Caliper-Batteries/

 

[Dabbler]

According to the battery article above the Mitutoyo calipers use 1/2 the power when off. So I checked mine, and my old mitutoyo uses 3.8 ua when on and 3.6 ua when off. My new one uses 4.0 ua when on and 1.9 ua when off. So what I said applies to the old ones more than the new ones, but at under 4ua the new ones aren't power hogs. I'll check my igauging calipers on the weekend when I get the time.

 

[VicHobbyGuy]

So I checked mine

I'm interested. How did you do that measurement? I'm thinking a couple of pieces of brass shim separated by tape, between the battery and the case contact?