Paint Meter/Thickness Gauges!

Here are the responses about the highline PTG.

On your meter will it measure in intervals of .1mils?



The HighLine Paint Thickness Meter Gauge measures in intervals of 0.1mil.



What is the error % in mils and um?



Plus or minus 1-3%.



What is the interval of reading in the um…..01um?



The interval of reading in um is 0.1um from 0-99.9um, and 1um for 100um or above. Please bear in mind that this paint gauge is pre-set to read in mils because of its target market segment of car dealers. If you need it in um, our lab will need to re-set it.



I will have to compare this to the Phase II 3550 PTG. I wish the user could switch between mils and ums. I like ums but the customers dont understand ums If you look at Posting #74 you can see this info now.
 
Greg Nichols- I *still* haven't tried out my PhaseII yet :o I'm glad it reads in both um and mils but I think in terms of mils anyhow.



But I needed to be able to use it on aluminum, so I had to pony up for the more expensive unit. If you don't need that the highline one might be a smarter buy.
 
The highline claims it can read both Fe and NonFe. You just cannot easily switch from mils to um on the highline model.



Since I do some wet sanding I like the smaller graduations of the um measurement.



Accumulator........break out that Phase II and give us a heads up!
 
'
Greg Nichols said:
^^^^\r\nWhile the above meter sounds great please consider the error % and the interval reading in both mils and um. I\'ve noticed this company does not post that info, I\'ve emailed them for more info. If all things are equal the highline might be a consideration. However you usually get what you pay for, and I think the accuaracy will be less than the PTG by Phase II 3550.\r\n\r\nGreg
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\r\n\r\nI agree with you, Greg, in regards to the \'2nd golden rule\' of you getting what you pay for. :)\r\n\r\nIf I have more than $500 to spend, I wouldn\'t buy the Highline paint meter either. I would probably go for the 311 Milgage or the 415 coating thickness gauge - both by Elcometer, because I have physically held them in the palm of my hand before and they are very sturdy and solid.\r\n\r\nHowever, if I need a budget paint meter costing less than $500, the Highline is head and shoulders above the other paint gauges pound for pound feature for feature at a lower price.\r\n\r\nMy advice is to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges in a whole different price segment.'
 
Greg thanks for the info from highline. I was asking myself all the same questions you just answered. Wouldn't the ulm reading be more accurate than mils? seems like 124um would give a more accurate reading than say 2.3 mils right. Then you could correct the paint and take a second reading of say 120um. Would that small of a correction even register in mils? This part confuses me still.



Can someone with alot of experience using these please share with us some real world readings of before and after corrections and what you have learned from using these tools. BOth ss and clear coat finishes? Thanks
 
Conan777 said:
Greg thanks for the info from highline. I was asking myself all the same questions you just answered. Wouldn't the ulm reading be more accurate than mils? seems like 124um would give a more accurate reading than say 2.3 mils right. Then you could correct the paint and take a second reading of say 120um. Would that small of a correction even register in mils? This part confuses me still.



Can someone with alot of experience using these please share with us some real world readings of before and after corrections and what you have learned from using these tools. BOth ss and clear coat finishes? Thanks
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+1 with a tax return coming this is high on my list of things to buy.
 
when you are using um (micrometer is 1000th of a millimeter) vs. mils you will notice smaller intervals of change over millimeter. the only way you could notice the same change is if your mm reading carries out to .001mm, most mm PTG read out in .1mils.
 
Greg Nichols said:
when you are using um (micrometer is 1000th of a millimeter) vs. mils you will notice smaller intervals of change over millimeter. the only way you could notice the same change is if your mm reading carries out to .001mm, most mm PTG read out in .1mils.
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Ok sure so I assume then that for detailers it makes more sense for us to have the meter set to um versus mils correct? How many micrometers of clear are usually taken off from wet sanding vs compounding polish vs medium polish etc. Without understanding what we are looking at on these meters it simply becomes an expensive digital display with little meaning. I understand that one panel may read 4.2 mils and the next panel may read 7.5 mils. Ok I get it that the 7.5 mil panel was obviously a repaint, now what does that mean to us? Does that mean that there is alot more clear on that panel and I could wet sand it with much less worry if needed?? Does that tell me that due to the repaint that the clear may be much softer or harder on that panel because the same clear may not have been used?



For those of you who use these meters what are you looking for when you use them. WHen do you say to yourself Uh-Oh! and when do you say Ah...great I have alot to work with here?

Thanks for anyone who can help us out.
 
Conan777- When you have a repainted panel all bets are off, you simply can't know how much clear there is; all you can do is guess. I guess conservatively, figuring that the average painter doesn't use any more clear than they feel they have to. If they faded into adjacent areas/panels the clear around the fade line will be thin indeed and sometimes you can open a can of worms if you disturb the fade-in area.



Repainted panels are usually softer than the factory paint (about the only time it was *harder* was when I had the Mazda spotted-in with Spiess Hecker paint, which worked super BTW).



E.g., when I rotaried the repainted hood of the M3 it was quite a bit softer than the factory paint. But the big news was that after just a few passes I uncovered "solvent pop", zillions of tiny pits that were just below the topmost surface of clear. I didn't take off much, didn't even get the marring to the 75% range IMO...but I quickly decided I had to quit because things were gonna get worse instead of better generally-speaking. I know that's not the "how thick is the clear" issue, but it's a good example of the unpredictable nature of repaints. I could tell by the overall quality of the work that the repaint wasn't top-notch, but I was still surprised by what I uncovered.
 
Accu, thanks for that tid bit on knowledge that was helpful to know. I'm still interested in hearing from others that use paint meters on a regular basis to understand what type of reading do you get and what are they telling you? Thanks
 
I don't want to put you all off, but I'm short on time today. If you start reading this thread from the beginning you will learn a lot, and mostlikely your question will be answered. If not I'll try later on.



Cheers,
 
Greg I read the entire post with great interest. I am still a bit confused hence I asked the questions that I did. Keep in mind alot of us don't have the knowledge of Painting cars like you do. We are just noobs to the paint meter thing. THanks!
 
Here are the stats for the Phase II PTG



Measuring range: 0-2000 µ m max. or 0-80 mils

. Resolution: 0.1µ m / 0.01mils(0-99µ m) or 1µ m (over 100µ m)

. Guaranteed tolerance:

After one-point calibration: +/- 1-3%n or 2µ m (whichever is greater)

. Display: 4 digits (digit height = 10mm/0.4")

. Min. measuring area: 0.2" x 0.2" (5mm x 5mm)

. Min. radius of curvature: Convex: 0.12" (3mm)

Concave: 1.2" (30mm)

. Min. substrate thickness: Ferrous: 20 mils (0.5mm)

Non-ferrous: 2 mils (50 µ m)

. Calibration: Zero Calibration
 
I played around with the PhaseII just a little, and I can't get it to toggle between µm and mils....gotta call them tomorrow when their tech guys are there.



There's definitely a knack/skill to using this, I was getting some pretty big differences in µm readings on adjacent areas of the same panel :think: Gotta see how it goes when I'm measuring in mils.
 
After a quick talk with Neil at PhaseII I was able to toggle between mils and microns...he'd left one line (" then push the 'zero' button") out of the manual.



But when I tried to recalibrate/ test its calibration, I got *wildly* divergent readouts. Neil walked me through the process over the phone to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong, but I kept getting inconsistent results. So my PhaseII ETG is on its way back for a looking-over.



Lesson: as soon as you get one of these things, start working with it and don't hesitate to call them if you have problems. BTW Neil is a nice guy and doesn't condescend to people who are newbies to the ETG.



I'll post back when I get it back from them.
 
For all of you that are following this thread still.



I contacted Highline.com which makes a paint gauge that is identical to the Phase II in my opinion. I called them to confirm and it surely seems so, yet it costs 280 with shipping.



We can buy 2 for 499$ with shipping. Anybody interested?



these have a elcometer warranty of 3 years too.



cheers,

GREG
 
Greg,



Might be interested in 2 months or so if this meter is indeed the PTG II Model. Otherwise I'd go for the PTGII with the Probe, seems like a great first PTG meter.
 
I bought the HIGHLINE PTG and played with it yesterday some. It seems to be very good and the price is great.



I want to hear Accumlators review on the Phase II meter also.



I found some areas on my own car that are 4.2 mills, and one spot that is 23mills



cheers,

GREG
 
Greg Nichols said:
I bought the HIGHLINE PTG and played with it yesterday some. It seems to be very good and the price is great.



I want to hear Accumlators review on the Phase II meter also.



I found some areas on my own car that are 4.2 mills, and one spot that is 23mills



cheers,

GREG
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Arg!! I'm just coming back to this thread because I'm about to purchase one myself.



Whats that saying, a day late and..
 
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