Customer Reviews

Fowler (FOW74-646-401) Xtender Electronic Cylinder Bore Gage

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't fool myself, I know most the Fowler line is now imported from China. I also know you don't get a reference standard gage for this price. But the shop I'm working in now doesn't need micron resolution, and this gage does the job. I run a small R&D machine shop at a company that manufactures pharmaceutical test equipment. I usually do small parts, no outside dimension over 1 inch, but occasionally, I get a piece with a larger bore, 3-4 inches. There are sets just like this by the big names in measurement tools, at 3 or 4 times the price. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is, the electronic gage has a pretty involved set-up procedure. The set comes with a disc you run in the computer, and it has a flash video with instructions. I've used the bore gage 3 times now, and I have to use the video to set it up each time. Once it's set up, it's really nice, it tells you how far over or under you are on the bore, and you can reset it quickly to take another measurement. Accuracy seems fine, I made a GO-NOGO gage which was a stainless steel plate with 2 bores, the part has to pass through one but not the other. The tolerance on one bore was +.0000/-.0005", and +.0005/-.0000" on the other. Once it was made, it was sent to the company that does all of our precision tool calibration, and it passed with flying colors. And that's the bottom line for any measuring tool, right?