an example of why I am a skeptic about many things

[bloke]

E28C14D7-2A66-4CFD-910A-30F624C96FDE.jpeg (196.71 KiB) Viewed 1219 times

[York-aholic]

What’s 3/16” between friends?

Worst is that each tape measure is probably 3/32” off and the correct measurement is halfway between the two of them.

[bloke]

What’s 3/16” between friends?

Worst is that each tape measure is probably 3/32” off and the correct measurement is halfway between the two of them.

Yeah, but they were marked down to a dollar.

[windshieldbug]

Wow! Where did you find a steel bar that was at least 1" wide!?

[bloke]

Wow! Where did you find a steel bar that was at least 1" wide!?

I pulled it out of a tenor sax promoted as offering a "heavy" sound.

[York-aholic]

What’s 3/16” between friends?

Worst is that each tape measure is probably 3/32” off and the correct measurement is halfway between the two of them.

Yeah, but they were marked down to a dollar.

Buys two $1 tape measures, then is surprised that one or both aren’t accurate.



For that price, I'm surprised that they don’t switch back and forth between Imperial and metric every foot (288 mm).

[bort2.0]

Those tape measures are crap anyway... The metal hook on the end always gets loose and starts to wiggle. So your zero point on the hook is a little past the zero part on the tape.

But measuring tapes aren't really about precision, they are about recording the measurement on that one tool. That is, it doesn't matter what the number is you read off of the tape measure, that's totally arbitrary. You just need to be able to transfer that measurement of length to something else.

Sort of like measuring something with a board of wood... Put it in place, mark it where you need to cut it... Then take it over to your table saw or whatever, set the stop for wherever you made that mark, and then cut. Doesn't matter at all what the number of the measurement was. You just have to be able to do it the same way, twice.

The stupid loose-end measuring tapes are really only problematic when I measure something with the measuring tape, but then use a different measuring tool to measure the thing I'm cutting.

[bloke]

confession:

I didn’t actually buy these.

[Three Valves]

The famed "Monday morning made" gag!!

[bloke]

I DO buy HF calipers...because I tend to drop them on the floor, and I don't like the idea of dropping my Brown & Sharpe on the floor...so - if your slide alignment is off by .0003" - you can blame my crappy toolz.

[Tastuba]

@bort2.0
The wiggle of the hook is there to allow for its thickness when doing inside measurements.

[Tastuba]

Back when I was an apprentice a workmate and I were trimming out the inside of a coolroom. He was inside calling out measurements and I was outside cutting them and he would fit them. The first few I cut were too long so he’d throw them back out and I’d trim them and then they’d fit. After about 3 or 4 he started to get abusive questioning whether I could actually read a tape measure. By this stage I was double checking before I sent them in to him and I let him know that I thought he was having trouble doing the measuring. Just before it got nasty we decide to compare our tapes and sure enough they were a couple of mils out…

[sdloveless]

@bort2.0
The wiggle of the hook is there to allow for its thickness when doing inside measurements.

Back about 20 years ago when I had a functioning neck and was actually doing carpentry for a living, we had this guy come along who "fixed" his tape measure so that the hook wouldn't move. We didn't let him do any finish work.

[bort2.0]

@bort2.0
The wiggle of the hook is there to allow for its thickness when doing inside measurements.

That just blew my mind, I always just thought it was loose because it was a cheap piece of junk, like so many tools are these days