This is where I am coming from on this. Regardless of whether or not people think 4:1 doesn't need to be calibrated, my customers apparently disagree. They are buying gages that are being claimed meet specific requirements, when if fact, oftentimes they are not. They are being charged for the privilege of purchasing higher accuracy gages to meet their requirements, and as often as I see gages that need to be reworked come through my door- I really hate to see how many customers who purchase gages direct and use manufacturer certs find out their gages are actually no good. I currently have 4 orders of gages on my desk that have to be returned- one of which were set plugs and thread rings that were made together- but the rings won't even go on the setting plugs, or have no root relief and will not go further than the full form. Yet, I have certs here that say the rings are perfect. This is the second time this has happened in a month- from two different manufacturers.
I can assume that most places that purchase direct from cheaper vendors don't really care about accuracy- which is their prerogative. I have to think about my customers though- in high accuracy industries that are relying on these gages to be correct before they use them.
As you can tell, I'm a little

about this issue- maybe I just need some perspective- but quite frankly, I have no choice in which vendors to use and I can't tell the customer "you get what you pay for" when they get upset at me for rejecting their brand new gage or for sending their gage back (if we ordered it) because it was no good.