6 Piece Technical Measuring Set

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

a must for the workshops and toolrooms & DIY hobbiests

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

Calipers and depth gauge are essential for a basic woodturning kit. While these tools aren't machinist quality, they're fine for turning and a super value. Vernier isn't very good, but the rest of the set really performs well. Easy to clean with alcohol. We bought several sets for turning classes.

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

I bought these about 5 years ago and I'am still happy with them . I was in construction for 35 years and when you need to know the size of something under 12" of muddy water send these down there . After you pull them out of the mud use your Stanly tape to read the distance, After all we don't measure 6" water pipes in the thousandths do we .
I also own lots of equiptment and if I need to know the size of a cylinder driveline or bushings up under a greasy tractor thats not working these get sent outside and take a lot of abuse . And they are still rideing around on the dashboard of my truck. TECHNICAL OK but NOT SO PRECISE or ACCURATE.

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

Came packaged in plastic and a little dirty, cleaned off the oil and grease and this is a real bargin for the price, a must for wood working and other fine measurements.

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

This is a nice little set for extremely cheap however I wish they charged a little more and finished it up a little better.

First I dug through all the sets on the shelf to find the best looking one because many of the calipers tips were visibly bent/misshapen.It kinda looks like finished with a grinder by hand.

The the spring calipers and divider seems fine (though like I said I cherry picked it). They adjust smoothly and whatnot. The scale and depth gauge seem perfectly nice with easy to read graduations. I wish they included a metric scale since everything else has metric as well (including the depth gauge).

Now the vernier calipers. Now whats frustrating is I've wanted a set of calipers for while now but its never quite high enough on my list to shell out the $20 for a dial or digital one. I'm always kinda wish I could pick up a semi decent vernier for $5 which I can throw in the tool box and not worry about damaging.

So anyway they look bad but then I try them out and the thumb adjustment is actually pretty nice and smooth. The inch side is virtually impossible to read with really lousy graduations and isn't zeroed correctly plus using a vernier scale on fractional numbers is more brain work than I need today anyway. So I try the metric side. Its off by about .1mm at zero so I tack that onto the measurements I took and compared with my inch micrometer after conversion. And it happens that all my measurements are dead on accurate consistently within 2 thousandths of an inch. Since the resolution is .1mm=.004'' that means +-.002 is perfectly accurate as far as I can figure it.

Despite its very good accuracy on the metric side the rest of the tool is trash. The jaws for the measuring inside diameters is off by about 1/8 inch and aren't even parallel.

So that's whats frustrating about this kit. The calipers are perfectly capable of being accurate if they where just finished up a little better. I would have gladly paid $20 for the kit of they had just finished it up better and it would be an even greater value. Still a handy little kit for the money. I would test the calipers before either trusting them or throwing them in the trash. Might just be good enough to toss in your tool box.

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

First and foremost, bear in mind the usefulness and the economy of price. These are not going to compare to a "professional" set of measuring tools. However, they do function.

The "Vernier" caliper is the worst. IT's stamped steel and the markings are very difficult to read, especially the "window" area where the markings need to align in order to take a measurement. This one tool is almost useless.

The 6" pocket scale is etched, but the markings are not done with great definition and thus it is difficult to read. There is a decimal scale on the back which is nice. The "slide" clip wobbles when moved.

The depth scale does function and is accurate, but again, it isn't machined with great precision. It does meet my needs however and was what I was looking for in the purchase of this set.

The three drawing compass-like calipers/divider are functional. These are not high quality, but for their designed function, they don't have to be. They work and they hold their settings. I would have preferred "brass" screws and thumb locks, but the dark-oxide steel functions the same, although not as clean and smooth.

This set looked pretty grimey in the plastic/cardboard package and since they were not fastened in any way inside the package, they had all moved from their intended positions and looked quite nasty in appearance (all 12 packages that I looked at). But, "the mess" was nothing more than protective oil and each tool cleaned up nicely.

Bottom line was that I got what I was looking for and the price was right. The "verniers" won't be used.

Comments about Cen-Tech 6 Piece Technical Measuring Set:

Grabbed this set on my last visit because I was in need of a set of outside and inside calipers. I wasn't that interested in the vernier caliper since I already have a digital caliper.

After I opened the set up and examined the tools I saw that they were of the lowest quality. Of particular concern are the measuring devices: the vernier caliper, the depth gauge and the 6" ruler. Both the ruler and the depth gauge have terribly finished working edges. The working edges of both are crooked and cause their measurements to read 1/32" high. All the other edges are fine, but the most important edges on the tool are totally butchered. The vernier caliper is the worst of the bunch.

The vernier caliper is similarly inaccurate. With the outside jaws firmly pressed together the caliper does not zero! What's worse, the vernier scale has been etched on slightly crooked, making it basically useless for accurate readings. The inside jaws are a complete cluster, being off by more than 1/16". I would not feel comfortable using this vernier caliper for any measurements.

The divider and the other calipers are of a similar poor quality. Every tool in this set is slightly warped or bent in some way. Like the measuring tools, the working faces of the calipers are terrible. The fact that the calipers are crooked can be overcome, but having jagged, poor working edges makes these not worth using.

I am incredibly disappointed with this set. I am a fan of many HF products, but this left me feeling ripped off.