Well this seems to have gotten off track quick, however, just to update. I did hear back from Fowler, not theirs but they are similar. The search continues. I really have only used these a few times to measure the car frame I am working on, they beat the hell out of the other tool I made to measure it. To be completely transparent about them: I thought they would be cool to hang on the wall at 96" long, but then I started using them and now the wall remains barren. I know there are Vernier calipers out there with a large capacity. That being said, I haven't seen anything else with this large of a capacity, hence, the purchase. I am a dense with resiliency, and I don't like to give up when something else can always be done. If anything I will take the caliper apart and see if I can find out what else can be causing the issue. I still need to build a case for them, so there is that.
@Ron Hofer:
in regards to the nail polish trick.
Like mentioned the conformal coating does wear off on boards in which there is the possibility of wear through contact. The worn through coating can cause issues especially in cases where small deviations in conductivity or resistance values can affect operation. I used nail polish to repair a set of Mitutoyo ABS Digimatic calipers in the past. It worked, it wasn't the best repair in terms of being the MFR spec way but it got the job done. Just to redress this a little, there are small conformal coating "pen" style dispensers, the coating is UV curable and works great. I went back and made a more permanent repair on the calipers with the the coating and while there is no difference in the performance, the repair looks more professional. I have used it for a few other repairs on circuit boards in where a trace has gone bad and needed repair.
@partsproduction:
regarding accuracy
I wouldn't use these for anything super critical, I am not doing anything that requires the type of accuracy that these calipers can't provide. I don't know the exact accuracy at this point as I haven't tried to measure anything significant yet. Although once I get them working, I will have my neighbor use his CMM to check them just for grins.
@Trueturning:
With regards to the misidentification
I don't think the misidentification was out of malice, I just wish some people would be more adept at answering messages. There are another set of calipers the seller has (which are Mitutoyo) that I am interested in, however, I just don't need them desperately enough to warrant another dice roll. There may have been marking on the tag which previously inhabited the rear of the case, but it was long gone by the time the caliper got to me. The caliper face does have some very light semblance of a name brand on it, but I cannot clearly read it and therefore I do not want to assume.
@bamabo:
regards to the SPI identification
In regards to the SPI identification, AND ONLY THE SPI IDENTIFICATION (the rest is between you and EG). Thanks for the heads up, I will shoot them an email and post the response. Hopefully maybe they can come through.
Edit: I just tried to reach out to SPI but the website I have (
Web Server's Default Page) is either down or defunct. Does anyone have any more updated website, or did this just become the Grail Quest?