How to Read a Digital Micrometer? | Direct LCD Reading

Guide / By

“`html

A digital micrometer shows its reading on an LCD in inches or millimeters — read it only after the ratchet seats both anvils on the part.

For the full breakdown, see our best Digital Micrometer guide.

There’s more to how to read a digital micrometer than glancing at the LCD. The screen will happily display a number whether or not the anvils have actually seated against the workpiece, and that number is only as good as the contact behind it. Get the seating right and the readout is exactly what it looks like: the measured size, in the units you selected, with no scale math required.

How The LCD Reading Works

On a digital micrometer, the LCD displays the measured dimension directly in inches, millimeters, or both, depending on the model. There’s no vernier scale or sleeve-and-thimble arithmetic like on a mechanical micrometer — the display is the measurement, provided the instrument was set up and used correctly.

The display only reports where the spindle is; it cannot tell you whether the anvils are touching the part properly. That is why the standard reading procedure for digital micrometers always starts with seating the anvils on the workpiece before the value on the screen is trusted.

Before you measure, confirm the display reads zero with the anvils closed and clean. Wipe the anvils and the workpiece first — a chip or film of grease between the surfaces reads as real measurement error. If the display isn’t at zero, many models need a SET or origin procedure that establishes the zero point; skipping that setup leaves the displayed value carrying an offset.

How Do You Get A Reliable Reading?

You get a reliable digital micrometer reading by closing the anvils with the ratchet, not by forcing the thimble, and by reading the LCD only after both anvils are seated against the workpiece. Bochem’s digital micrometer manual — a typical example of the IP65 instrument guides — says to rotate the ratchet until both anvils make contact and then give it 1 to 1.5 revolutions so the surfaces seat correctly.

  1. Open the anvils wider than the part so the workpiece slips in without dragging.
  2. Position the part between the anvils, square to the measuring faces.
  3. Rotate the ratchet until both anvils make contact with the feature being measured

    Please use a real email you check. If it's fake or mistyped, your message won't reach us and we can't reply — wrong addresses are rejected automatically.