there is a critical place that this is not consistent with the cheapies that the better ones get right: there are 4 ways to measure with a caliper - between the

there is a critical place that this is not consistent with the cheapies that the better ones get right: there are 4 ways to measure with a caliper - between the front jaws, outside the back jaws, the plunger on the bottom, and the ledge on the back/top. On cheap calipers these almost never match. On good ones they do. Buying the really bad ones from HF or similar doesn't necessarily produce inaccurate readings, but it means none of those 4 measures can be reliably compared.