Mitutoyo Dial Caliper Washer Bezel Clamp

thingiverse

Mitutoyo dial calipers are great, but starting in the 80s they put a really terribly designed plastic clamp to stop the bezel (which you need to rotate to zero the calipers). Especially in a shop or class environment, these break very frequently. Used versions of these with the broken clamp are easily available on auction sites for similar prices to a much worse plastic caliper from hazard fraught or the equivalent. As far as I can tell, the original clamps are no longer available, although very crappy replacements can be found online for ~$10. A proper fix would be to mill these out of aluminum, but this is my easy fix. I modeled it for the 505 series calipers in openscad. There's an interplay between making the top plate thicker to be stronger and making it thin so it flexes. This version is fairly thin for the flex factor. I think a better solution might be to put a small o-ring at the bottom of the screw as a spring, but for now this works. There's room on the stock screw to add more to the top plate if you want the thicker stiffer approach. Just add a mil to the top of the plate and body in the scad file. Other calipers than the 505 have a similar piece, but the keyed piece on the side of the body is instead on the bottom, facing the beam. This one won't work for them, but it would be easy to modify. This one is loosely based on the part 141863 that I used to get from the factory.