[Cory]

Unless you are using CNC machine tools or otherwise working on high precision non-FRC projects Starrett, Mitutoyo, Brown and Sharpe, etc are a complete waste of money. Buy a cheapo set of digital calipers. Amazon currently has them on sale for $15 a pair. Buy 4 or 5.

Your kids are likely to abuse them anyways and drop them, get oil on them, use them to scribe lines, etc. Don't waste $150+ on name brand calipers that will get abused.

I prefer dial calipers to digital and I love all Brown and Sharpe measuring tools. We have a mixture of B&S, Mitutoyo, and Starrett calipers and inside/outside/depth micrometers we use for high precision work on the CNC. We have a variety of SPI and Fowler calipers and micrometers for oddball sizes we don't use often and less precise work. For infrequent use we don't notice any difference. The only real difference is that 25 years from now the cheap Chinese tools will be in the trash and the high quality tool will still be going strong if properly cared for.

The more people who will be using them the cheaper calipers I'd get. It's too easy for someone to destroy an expensive tool in seconds to make it worth spending a bunch on general use measuring tools.