Valve spring micrometer

I just checked mine, it will sit flush on the spring seat, and clears the step even with it run all the way down to 1.300.
Sounds like the center of yours could stand to be shortened a bit.

It’s amazing how some of that **** gets made wrong.
I bought mine about 30 years ago, the short one, and the normal one(which will go as short as 1.500).
Maybe 12-15 years ago I bought the “tall” one.