Product Shars dial height gage

[PeterT]

I mentioned in my other post, I decided to get an 8" Shars dial height gage. As of 12-03-22 it appears to be on sale for same net price of recent Black Friday discount. Came within a week via Fedex ground. I'll probably get customs assessment dinger email soon

8" Dial Height Gage

www.shars.com

Here are some pics & first impressions. Comes in a blow molded box. Includes certificates & inspection reports, which of course I would accept nothing less LOL

 

[PeterT]

Squareness from front seemed OK (just using my TMX machinist square). Squareness from side... not so good. I forgot to take picture of base underside but it seems decently ground, no discernable rocking on th egranite plate. I'm not sure how tune-able the column is with the set screw near the base bottom, didn't get that far yet.

 

[PeterT]

The removable carbide scribe & dial & holding fixture & scale & micro adjuster & dial set screw are collectively not bad. Its not a Mitutoyo but its a fraction of the price. For layout scribing type work I think its OK.

 

[PeterT]

Now onto DTI integration. Eyeballing the catalog pictures I was giving low odds it would be plug & play to my Mitutoyo DTI & that turned out to be the case. They are of different dimensional standards as far as I can tell. I have the typical DTI fixture kit, 2 cylindrical stem diameters & a bar/clamp which holds by dovetail or pin stem accessory. No permutation worked on the height gage. Making up some fixtures would not be difficult, but I think the effort is better spent on a Noga arm based DTI holder because most everything is already there except making a base.

So in the absence of any kind of height gage to use on my Grade B granite, I'm OK with what I got. I preferred dial over digital. I've seen other models which look generically the same but higher cost. Also some 'vernier on a base' style that looked a bit dodgy for similar cost. Buying a double column style height gage costs quite a bit more. An industrial name brand is big bucks.

 

[Susquatch]

Very good write up Peter. Balanced and informative.