New meter with poor contacts - what to do?

I just bought a Mastech MS8268 from Amazon. It's pretty inexpensive and has a lot of functions, but the included leads are pretty cheap and flimsy. The first thing I did was turn on the continuity test and touched the leads together, and nothing happened. I started to mash them together harder and I got a tone, but it was intermittent.

Basically, the leads only make a connection about 50% of the time. It's better along the shaft part of the leads. The tips are horrible (such as touching them to resistor leads on a circuit board).

I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to make these leads more conductive - maybe sanding them a bit to roughen them up? They are very smooth.

I don't see how this could be an acceptable level of conductivity out of the box.

Do you have the leads firmly pushed all the way in to their sockets? I read in one of the reviews on Amazon that they stop when only half-way in, making it feel like you've made a firm connection.

Roff said:

Do you have the leads firmly pushed all the way in to their sockets? I read in one of the reviews on Amazon that they stop when only half-way in, making it feel like you've made a firm connection.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I discovered that too, but that's not the problem.

stele said:

{snip}
I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to make these leads more conductive - maybe sanding them a bit to roughen them up? They are very smooth.

I don't see how this could be an acceptable level of conductivity out of the box.

Click to expand...

You might have an intermittent connection in one or your leads, test them one at the time.
All my test lead tips are smooth and shiny, the is the way they should look.
If the leads have standard banana plugs then you should be able to buy a replacement pair at RS or other electronic supply house.
Don't neglect sending the seller an email complaining about the sloppy leads construction.

Rolf said:

You might have an intermittent connection in one or your leads, test them one at the time.
All my test lead tips are smooth and shiny, the is the way they should look.
If the leads have standard banana plugs then you should be able to buy a replacement pair at RS or other electronic supply house.
Don't neglect sending the seller an email complaining about the sloppy leads construction.

Click to expand...

I guess I'll pop into RS and buy a replacement set. I've already sent an email to Amazon customer service. They offered to let me send it back on their dime, but since it's already here I thought I'd try to see if I can get it to work first.

Guess I should have just sprung for that Fluke 115. The sad thing is I have an amazing meter that I bought about 10 years ago (for about $250) lying around here somewhere. I've searched high and low for it 5 times with no luck. I figure it'll turn up one of these days, so I bought a "cheap" meter to get me by until then. Though I'm completely stumped as to where it is, considering I think I "saw" it a few months back.

So I picked up a new set of leads at Radio Shack. These are longer and have add-on alligator clips. Not perfect, but seems to be working better.

Still should have gotten that Fluke, but I didn't want to spend that much when I already have a fantastic meter floating around in the house somewhere.