About Uni-Trade Uni-Safe Gauge

I had just ordered the Uni-safe unitrade clear plastic gauge.

I am now hearing that the gauge is not to be used. Apparently it was made in china and they used the wrong font size when printing and the lines are wrong.

Has anyone heard this?

Very first time I've heard that. If so, then I have months of non-stop work (yes, I mean including quitting my job to reach that amount of time...) to check all the perf varieties in my various collections.

Say it ain't so...

Peter

The one I have says Made in Canada and the outside plastic sleeve it comes in says manufactured in Canada. It is called the Perfect Gauge.

(Unitrade does make other gauges, which I don't have.)

I tried lining up the lines and holes with an older black plastic perf gauge from Germany by Lighthouse and they match.


Does the gauge you are referencing say Made in China? If not, how can it be?

aha... went back to my source..

some are made in Canada..they are okay
others were made in china and say so.. they are wrong..

As a general rule, ALWAYS check the calibration of any new gauge. I have seen BRAND NAME gauges that were produced off-calibration, even though manufactured by well-established philatelic manufacturers (not out-sourced to no-name manufacturers. The fact is, plastics are a tricky lot during the manufacturing process. The brand names shall remain nameless, because they were a statistical coincidence as far a I am concerned. Also, as I mentioned, checking the calibration should apply to all brand gauges. I have had collectors email me back at other forums in shock to find out their gauges were off all this time. The odds are very very small that your gauge may be off, but it DOES happen. Better safe than sorry.

You should check every type of measurement on your gauge -- millimeter ruler, perforation guides (usually 20 mm wide), grids... everything where measurements count.

This not only applies to plastic gauges, but any material gauge. There can be production errors/anomalies on paper and metal gauges as well.

Obviously, you should be confident that the standard you are using to compare your gauge to is also correct! Otherwise, you might be tossing away a perfectly good gauge.

Good to know. Thanks for mentioning it.

I did realize, after I posted, that a fake could have been made with whatever lettering on it that the faker wanted. But in the case of such a precise tool as a perf gauge it would be hard to sell and continue to sell a gauge that measures differently than others. Also not everyone compares gauges, but if you measured 13-1/2 and I measured 13-3/4 when I bought the stamp from you, that is a big difference.

After reading khj's reply, which I missed first time out as I was typing my reply above, I have to say I had never heard of other gauges being off but I understand it could happen. Thus my statement about measuring is incorrect.

The foundations of my world are crumbling! The grey areas are creeping in upon my happy black and white areas.

Maybe if I measure stamps against other stamps.

Usually when the gauges are off, they are off by less than 0.25mm. So compare against the longest possible length/measurement. It's a small difference, but the problem is, that might be the deciding factor in 1% of the stamps where the perforation measurement has been rounded off to the nearest 0.5 or 0.25.

For example, most people don't realize that many of the 20th Century US stamps are not actually perf 11. Some of them are perf 10.9. That's no big deal. But it can cause problems for some worldwide stamps. But one of my big complaints about the Scott catalog is that it rounds most of the pre-1980s stamps to the nearest fractional 1/2 perf. This is a huge problem because there are more than a few 20th Century BC stamps where the specifications perforation is at 1/4, not 1/2. I had fits with my Aden stamps (yeah, I started sorting with the A's) until I figured out what was going on. I thought I had found a few unlisted perforation varieties. Thanks for the 1 week headache, Scott!

I also ran across one ruler which was completely missing one of the grading millimeter grading lines in one spot! It only had 3 minor ticks between the half-centimeter marks, instead of 4. Yeah, these things only happen to me...

k

That's what I often do.

But don't get me started on the pitfalls of paper shrinkage in wet-printed stamps...

k

I had thought of the possible perils of the wet and dry printings of the Canada Admiral's but I thought I daren't mention it.

Sorry to have brought it up!

If it's any consolation, there should be no shrinkage problems with the dry printings.

The only thing you have to worry about is if someone put it through a pressing machine...

I find it hard to keep those wet printing Admirals moist. I'm constantly having to replace album pages. ;-)

Peter

Good one Peter. You need an aquarium for you admirals!

Seriously...

I find counting holes under my illuminati loop easier than lining up a perforation guage, whether it is made in Canada, China or Equatorial Guinea.

Perforations represent the number of COMPLETE perforations per 20mm (2cm), so I take the longest measurement possible on each side of the stamp that covers complete perforations. Say I measure along 18 full holes and it is 26mm. So I use the formula: X holes/20mm = 18 holes/26mm. Do the math and it is 20 X 18 / 26 = 13.85 and you have an exact perforation. Scott would round that down to 13.75 or 13-3/4.

I do like that way better Bee See, thanks for showing the formula and reminding us all. Seems easier on the eyes.

I just recently bought the newest version of the Unitrade Uni-Safe Perfect Gauge and found its measurements to be very accurate. There are some older versions and some knock-offs of it that may not be as accurate.