dombeau

Hi folks,

I was looking over the web to buy one of these. Any tips, brand, price range you would suggest? thanks

doublecabmel

fender splendor works pretty well. They are all pretty good, though some are $$$$

ble2011

Are these any good? They are very inexpensive.
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=141355477702

il pirata

If it is accurate stupid low price, getting a meter that measures both steel and aluminum usually is pretty expensive.

To the OP what is the intended use? You can get meters that read steel, aluminum and plastic and are very accurate but these are around $2-3K. If you just need steel price comes down a lot.

IXLR8

I bought the Defelsko PosiTest DFT Combo from Autogeek when they had a sale on.

It comes with 5 calibrated shims of various thicknesses to verify calibration of the gauge.

Not cheap, but it is accurate.

dombeau

My basic need is when I search for used cars. Non commercial. I need something accurate but no need to be top of the line. Old Porsche, Bmw and mercedes is what I am looking for. Aluminium and plastic... do I really need? If a bumper is repainted I don't really care but the main panels ... yes .

thanks for your input

destaccado

Defelsko Positest is the answer. Hardly top of the line considering they sell models going for ~$3000.

If you don't like the answer you could try something like this... http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/Hi...FQwaaQodJlEACQ

IXLR8

Certainly not top-of-the-line with respect to their higher end products or laboratory standards, but certainly not a toy and far more accurate than needs be for our purposes.


* Measured using a DeFelsko PosiTest DFT Combo with a "zero" confirmed prior to each measurement using a polished metal plate.

Mark in Baltimore

I have a $250 Highline paint gauge meter and love it. It's a great truth-teller and a wonderfully persuasive negotiating tool. Car dealers just love it when I pull it out.

http://www.paintmeter.com/products/H...-Paint-Meters/ It's the first gen model.

bcameron59

Looks like precision (range of error) is +/- 4 mil which is pretty useless when most auto paint is 4-6 mil.

Might be useful for checking paint thickness on tanks and battleships.

FlatSix911

The ad states a Range of 0.1~2.00mm, ±0.1 accuracy

bcameron59

Remember, mils and millimeters are not the same. A mil is 1/1000 of an inch; there are 39.3700787402 mils in one millimeter. The meter's stated resolution of 0.1mm is equivalent to 4 mils, which is also the same as the stated accuracy.

A typical auto paint coat is about 6-8 mils, equal to about .15 to .2 millimeters. So if we have a 6 mil paint layer, the meter could tell us it's anywhere between 2 and 10 mils thick. Not useful for auto paint, seems to me.