Digital Micrometer

Picked this up to use on my lathe (the big digital numbers are great, my conventional mike is hard to read for stuff mounted in the chuck). Saw it mentioned on a machinist's forum, had been professionally tested and was good. Mine is spot on with every gauge block I've tried. The ratchet is the big thimble, fools you at first. I'm very pleased with the performance and price.

Great deal for a digital micrometer. Works well so far. Used it to measure thread pitch diameter. The digital readout is really nice to have.

The online intructions are more correct, read them. However it is not clear that you have to hold the in/mm button for 5 seconds to switch between mm and inches, and clicking once puts into into relative mode. Also hold the on/off button when on for 5 seconds to zero it.

I bought this to measure metric sized motorcycle valve shims available in .05mm increments. I checked the accuracy of the tool by measuring shims that had the size marking on them and it was within .01mm, so close enough.

The illustration in the instructions that came with the tool have the thimble and ratchet stop reversed - but the manual on the HF webpage is correct.

Turn the small knob on the end (thimble) to open/close the anvil and use the bigger knob (ratchet stop) to close the anvil on the piece to be measured - it will click to prevent you from over-tightening the anvil.

It would be nice to have a lined wood box to store this in, but for the price that's probably asking too much. This is a good tool for the price and adequate for amateur mechanics like me.

At first, I also thought my 68305 digital micrometer had a non-working ratchet. But then I realized that the spindle knob layout is reversed in comparison to most micrometers: The little knob is a non-ratcheting "speeder", while the torque-limiting ratchet mechanism is built into the thimble.

All in all, I'm very favorably impressed with the performance of this micrometer, which easily passed a rigorous (and formal) calibration examination. BUT, there's a void in the brazing holding the carbide tip to the spindle. The void may be purely cosmetic, but it makes me a bit nervous and it does mar the otherwise high-quality look and feel of the tool.

At this point, I hesitate to give an unqualified recommendation, and instead suggest picking a good one from store stock.

I just picked this up today for general use around the shop.
I have not had a chance to use it, but construction seems to be well made.

I noticed that the thimble ratcheting mechanism does not work, so I will be taking it back for a replacement.