Blew $80 on a fancy edge finder and it was a dud

Picked up a brand name electronic edge finder from a tool truck last month for $80. The first few times it worked fine but then it started giving false readings on aluminum parts. Ended up going back to my old mechanical edge finder that cost me like $15. Has anyone else had bad luck with the fancy electronic ones or did I just get a lemon?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_christopher1mo ago

Oh boy, sounds like you bought yourself a $80 paperweight there. I've never trusted those electronic edge finders for anything other than collecting dust in a drawer. My ten dollar mechanical one has been banging around for years and still works better than that thing ever did.

park.miles1mo ago

Read a post on Practical Machinist the other day where a guy swore by his electronic one after using mechanical ones for 30 years, so @hollywhite might be onto something with the setup thing. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I'm sticking with my old mechanical beater.

hollywhite1mo ago

Respectfully disagree here, I've had an electronic one for about two years now and it's been dead on every time. You just have to set it up right with the right offset in the DRO. @the_hayden is right about the durability thing though, mine hit the floor once and the display went wonky for a day before it straightened itself out. I'll still take that over having to carefully spin a mechanical one slow enough not to snap it off.

the_hayden1mo ago

Bet that mechanical one would still work after a drop off the table too lol.