Was dead against those cheap edge finders until I borrowed one from Dave at the Columbus plant last Tuesday

I always figured they'd snap off or give bad readings. But Dave let me try his on a tight tolerance job for a bracket part, and it hit the mark within half a thou every time. Ran it for 40 parts straight with zero issues. Has anyone else had decent luck with the budget ones or did I just get a fluke?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_henderson16d ago

Cincinnati here, I run a small job shop on the side. Those cheap edge finders actually work better on aluminum than steel in my experience. The aluminum ones flex just enough to not mess up softer materials, but on steel they can chatter and give you a false reading if you're not careful. I bought a 3 pack off Amazon for twelve bucks and two of them are still going strong after a year. The third one I dropped and it bent, but that's on me not the tool. For regular work where you're not pushing tenths, they're fine. Just don't treat them like a precision instrument and you'll be okay.

blake_williams15d ago

Oh man I was the exact same way. I bought a five dollar set off Amazon just to test and they've been shockingly consistent on my manual mill. Sometimes cheap tools just happen to work, doesn't mean we gotta admit it though.