SAE Digital Gauge

I “rationalized” owning a dial indicator for first time, used for checking runout on drill press and displacement on stress-strain device after the usual checking thickness of paper, etc.build quality seems good, magnetic base secure, and digital display easy to read. Repeatability of readings seems good. I like that you can tighten all 3 joints with one knob and still have the extra vernier knob for fine tuning. I found with arm fully extended out it struggles a bit to hold position- this would be akin to a human holding a 50# weight close to one’s chest or at arms length. So I found that setting up arm at something less than 120 degree angle is better.I admit feeling shame for buying this tool built in China; I would have preferred to pay a little extra for something built in US, but only thing I could find was Starrett at about 7 times the price- could not justify that expense for my relatively small home uses.

In my initial testing it seems to work perfectly well, as expected. The total range is just over 1 inches (mine goes to 1.056" or 26.82 mm) so you can easily measure a full 1" reference. There is a button-cell battery behind door #1 (which was included, and already installed) but I am curious about door #2 which the brief instruction page does not mention. It seems to reveal four PCB edge connector pads, I'd guess for a data transfer cable.EDIT: If you lookup the Hackaday project "Digital Dial Indicator CNC Surface Probe" you can in fact get the digital readings into a computer automatically, IF you build a separate circuit. It's a custom 1.3V signal, clock and data protocol; oddly enough it's BCD in inch mode, but straight binary in mm mode. Anyway, not an officially supported feature, so the cable for this is not sold AFAIK.

standard style mag base. I am unsure of the accuracy of the gauge because i just use it for delta readings. however all of the attachments it came with were great. the needle point attachments allowed me to get into a tight space to measure the backlash of gears for assembly

Exactly what I was looking for at the right price. Magnet strength could be a bit stronger but quality , accuracy, is a good fit for my needs.

Works very well. Very adjustableCan mount a bunch of different indicators to it. Dial test, 1" travel. Etc..

its my first time using a run out dial, but I found it simple to set up - very nice that the turn of one knob stablizes the entire support arm. Some have mentioned the magnet being weak - seemed plenty strong to me as all it has to do is hold the device in place while you rotate whatever it is you are measuring. (Is it possible they didn't turn the switch to engage the magnet at all? seems unlilkely, though) The plastic case is good to have, but isn't very sturdy and I fear the flaps won't last long. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the parts back in the case, not really a custom fit

The magnetic base wouldn’t hold itself to the steel and cast iron vertical surfaces of my drill press. The digital indicator seemed to work fine. I returned for a refund.

Great Quality