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I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

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  • #1

    I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

    What do you guys think of this one?

    Portable Paint Coating Thickness Meter Gauge Fe / Non Fe function 120B | eBay
    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Portable-Paint-Coating-Thickness-Meter-Gauge-Fe-Non-Fe-function-120B-/251792357203?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item3a9ffe7753
    KC-120B coating thickness gauge adapts principles of electromagnetic induction and magnetic induced edd current. Portable Coating Thickness Gauge. Critical thickness of base 0.5mm. Units: mm / mil. Model: KC-120B.


    It's for a weekend warrior (me) who may only need it once or twice a year.

    Thanks in advance..
    Originally posted by Blueline
    I own a silver vehicle and a black vehicle owns me. The black one demands attention, washing, detailing, waxing and an occasional dinner out at a nice restaurant. The silver one demands nothing and it looks just fine. I think the black vehicle is taking advantage of me, and the silver car is more my style. We can go out for a drive without her makeup and she looks fine. If I want to take the black one out, it is three or four hours in the "bathroom" to get ready.
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  • #2
    Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

    I'm interested in one of these budget units as well, but $30 seems very low to be useful even for a weekend warrior like myself.
    Hope someone chimes in with a review or suggestion on a model to consider...
    "STRIFE" aka Phil
    2005 Infiniti G35 Coupe (IP/ aka White) the Toy
    2011 Subaru Impreza (SWP/ aka White) the DD
    2017 Subaru Forester (CWP/ aka White) Wifey's

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

      Yes, me too, at that price it is worth a test, a proper paint thickness report on a car cost about $40.00

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

        I think a cheap gauge is better then working "blind" how do you know if another detailer has done an extreme severe cut back with no interest in the car down the track.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

          I asked the same question over on AGO, and the responses I got were to not waste my money.

          The accuracy of this machine is +- 20 microns. By the time you've removed 20 microns, you could have well burned through the clear coat. So I don't think I'll bother.

          I was recommended two cheaper machines by the AGO guys: the CM8801FN and the DBPower CEM DT-156. I can get them locally for $175 and $149 respectively. Still pretty cheap for a PTG, but I can't justify that cost for something I'll hardly use.

          I don't think I'll bother. I'll probably end up borrowing one from a friend (member Selectchoice is kind enough to let me borrow his).
          Originally posted by Blueline
          I own a silver vehicle and a black vehicle owns me. The black one demands attention, washing, detailing, waxing and an occasional dinner out at a nice restaurant. The silver one demands nothing and it looks just fine. I think the black vehicle is taking advantage of me, and the silver car is more my style. We can go out for a drive without her makeup and she looks fine. If I want to take the black one out, it is three or four hours in the "bathroom" to get ready.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

            Thanks, We will go on your advice, I also can't justify that but it is a lot cheaper then the hi-end ones. These cheap ones seem to be made in China and it would be interesting to compare the readings with a high end one.

            Originally posted by davey g-force View Post
            I asked the same question over on AGO, and the responses I got were to not waste my money.

            The accuracy of this machine is +- 20 microns. By the time you've removed 20 microns, you could have well burned through the clear coat. So I don't think I'll bother.

            I was recommended two cheaper machines by the AGO guys: the CM8801FN and the DBPower CEM DT-156. I can get them locally for $175 and $149 respectively. Still pretty cheap for a PTG, but I can't justify that cost for something I'll hardly use.

            I don't think I'll bother. I'll probably end up borrowing one from a friend (member Selectchoice is kind enough to let me borrow his).

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

              Originally posted by rickylexus250 View Post
              Yes, me too, at that price it is worth a test, a proper paint thickness report on a car cost about $40.00
              Can you let us know which 1 you recommend in this price range?

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

                A quick disclaimer first: the following are my personal opinions only and not an endorsement by Meguiar's. Just so we're clear on that.


                The CM8801FN that has been recommended to you, Davey, is indeed a very good PTG. But the link you gave also showed another option, this unit which is the one I use and several detailers I know here in the US also use. Calibration is pretty straightforward and I've checked it against PTGs costing several hundreds of dollars and it returned the same measurements. At this price point, and even at several hundred dollars, you're going to get a device that reads the total film thickness - primer, color and clear as a single measurement. You have to shell out some pretty serious money, usually four figures, to get one that will read individual layers. That's great if you're doing a lot of heavy duty sanding and are routinely taking off a lot of material on a variety of unknown paints. For a detailer doing more light duty paint correction, those might be more than you really need for day to day work.

                The unit I linked to reads both ferrous and non-ferrous substrates (well, basically it reads steel and aluminum, as is common at this price point - again, you have spend a ton of money to get a decent PTG that will read on carbon fiber, urethane, etc). This one will automatically differentiate between the two substrates so there's no need to change settings depending on the vehicle or panel. One feature I really like is that it automatically gives you an average of the readings you take. For example: I'll commonly take 10 readings in a small area, maybe 6" square, and the tool will immediately give me the average of those readings. I can then correct that area, take 10 more readings and get an average calculation following the process. This is much more useful than taking a single reading, polishing, and taking another reading that was hopefully in the exact same spot. Trust me, it won't be in the exact same spot, and that can quickly skew readings. It's not uncommon for the 10 readings taken in a tight area to vary by more than a 1/10 of a mil, so taking an average is very helpful. That variance can lead to situations where a single reading before and after polishing, or even sanding, will show a higher number after the work than before. Take 10 readings, observe the average, clear the memory. Do the work, take 10 more readings, and you've got a much better picture of what's really going on.

                We used this unit very heavily during our recent NXT Training Program and it was a real eye opener when gauging the amount of material removed by aggressive DAMF compounding, light DA sanding and aggressive hand sanding.
                Michael Stoops
                Senior Global Product & Training Specialist | Meguiar's Inc.

                Remember, this hobby is supposed to be your therapy, not the reason you need therapy.

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                • #9
                  Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

                  I just realized rickylexus250 said "paint thickness Report"... Meaning have a professional take the proper readings and provide you with the info. My bad.

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                  • #10
                    Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

                    Thanks a lot for the recommendation Mike. It looks like a great little tool for the price.
                    Originally posted by Blueline
                    I own a silver vehicle and a black vehicle owns me. The black one demands attention, washing, detailing, waxing and an occasional dinner out at a nice restaurant. The silver one demands nothing and it looks just fine. I think the black vehicle is taking advantage of me, and the silver car is more my style. We can go out for a drive without her makeup and she looks fine. If I want to take the black one out, it is three or four hours in the "bathroom" to get ready.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: I'm Looking for a Cheap Paint Thickness Gauge

                      Thank you SOOO MUCH Mike! I swear I was looking at some PTG's yesterday, and I was ready to cry when I saw prices ranging from 800-2600!

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