Finally broke down and ordered a dial indicator (and base) from Lee Valley.
Our dial indicator has 1" of travel and reads to 0.001".
My understanding is that for some usages/setups a lever (test?) indicator is applicable having a hard time finding listings for them — suggested price range and vendors to consider?
Yeah, a test indicator, often called a dial test indicator and abbreviated “DTI”. I have Mitutoyo, and the particular unit I have would cost more to replace it today than it originally cost me; about $170–180 today, but maybe that’s because models have changed since. You shouldn’t need to pay that much. Haas sells a half-tenth DTI for $73 these days, and that’s probably fine.
Mitutoyo are probably the most knocked-off brand, so you do want to be careful to buy from a reputable supplier if you are buying Mitutoyo. No point in paying for the brand and then buying a knock-off. But you don’t have to buy Mitu…
What precision do you need? Do you want metric or imperial?
I’ve been leaning towards just buying a Mitutoyo from McMaster-Carr for peace-of-mind.
I’d prefer metric, because that’s what I usually work in on my CNC, and that’s the usage context for this, but isn’t one of the advantages of these that they mostly are used for relative measures?
Precision is a good question — the notable impetus for this was a video on YouTube showing using one to adjust a spindle mount so as to be vertical, so what would be the point of diminishing returns on that?
EDIT: If there’s somewhere reputable which will take Paypal (oxymoron?) that would be convenient for me, since it allows me to sidestep the finance committee…
Zero experience here, but…
As far as I can tell Judge Tool & Gage is reputable. This at least shows some of the range available:
I’ve seen some good review for Global Test Supply who do take PayPal, and seem to carry at least a wide range.
(I just searched there for “dial test indicator” and see quite a few, both imperial and metric.)
I have no direct experience with either company that I recall…
You can try the pawn shops in your area for dial indicators
Bought a Mitutoyo off Amazon, seems to work well enough.
This:
Test Indicator Holder Arm Dial Indicator Holder Half Round Combination Test Dial Indicator Holder 8Mm Dial Indicator Support Stand
was suggested on Reddit, which looks like a kind of cool supplement to the Dial Indicator I got from Lee Valley, allowing me to mount it in a spindle and then check things. Added it to my Amazon Cart, then saved it for later to think on for a while.
Unfortunately, I am using a custom spindle mount which doesn’t have direct support for the test indicator dovetail setup which we offer — may need to revisit that, or, maybe I’ll just drill and tap for an 8mm mounting hole.
Stefan Gotteswinter has several related designs, and his most recent video may be relevant to your interests:
