Jazz1
Well-known member
I thought those cloth tapes were just for estimates. I have a vintage steel Lufkin, it frequently measures boards too short or long depending on angle of the sun
Erroneous Lufkin 100' Tape measure.. BE AWARE !
- Thread starter Marctrees
- Start date
isb cornbinder
Well-known member
After 40 years of being married, my wife and I went to SUBWAY for lunch. She ordered a 6 in sandwich. Before her first bite, she suggested that I have been lying to her for 4 decades.
Owner is a member here for those that didn't know.
3xpendable
Well-known member
I had a buddy that insisted on pushing the tip of his tape in and crimping it down. Said it would read wrong if it moved.
He left it at the brick saw one day and I was running cuts. I had three cuts the same size in a row and made a comment to my dad about it. He said I keep bringing him his cuts incorrectly. After standing there arguing about how I have cut all of them exactly as he asked he pulls his tape and shows me ..... it’s off!! I go grab that tape and bring it over to him. He says is that Franks tape!!! Takes it and throws it into the woods LOL!!!
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He left it at the brick saw one day and I was running cuts. I had three cuts the same size in a row and made a comment to my dad about it. He said I keep bringing him his cuts incorrectly. After standing there arguing about how I have cut all of them exactly as he asked he pulls his tape and shows me ..... it’s off!! I go grab that tape and bring it over to him. He says is that Franks tape!!! Takes it and throws it into the woods LOL!!!
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James E
Well-known member
I dropped out of college for a few years and one of my jobs was working for a brick mason. I taught him the 3-4-5 trick and he was amazed-like monkey who sees a magic trick amazed.
Then I took a day off. While I was gone he started laying block for a foundation and when I got to the site the next day there were several courses of block laid, him scratching his head and the corners completely out of square.
Turns out he interpreted my instructions to mean that any three consecutive numbers would work and blamed me because my black magic hadn’t worked and he thought I had played a practical joke on him.
I would have felt sorry for him, but he was a completely worthless sack of **** so I just shrugged and knocked it down while he went off in his truck and got high. That POS still owes me money.
Then I took a day off. While I was gone he started laying block for a foundation and when I got to the site the next day there were several courses of block laid, him scratching his head and the corners completely out of square.
Turns out he interpreted my instructions to mean that any three consecutive numbers would work and blamed me because my black magic hadn’t worked and he thought I had played a practical joke on him.
I would have felt sorry for him, but he was a completely worthless sack of **** so I just shrugged and knocked it down while he went off in his truck and got high. That POS still owes me money.
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pancho400cid
Well-known member
That was a hilarious story that reminds me of my apartment painting days....
Xyorde
Banned
I only use Stanley tapes https://mechanicfaq.com/tape-measures-for-woodworkers/ The Fat Max 11' reach is a nice feature. A little known fact about Stanley tape measures - they are guaranteed for life. If you break it or it wears out, you can go to any Stanley retailer and exchange it for a new one free. This is for the class A tapes only (Fat Max, etc..) If you divide that initial $30 into the amount of times I've exchanged it over the last 8 years, it's way cheaper than your $5 tapes.
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PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I have a one foot Woodpecker ruler... I always test my new tape measures at a few locations along the way... If I am off by the thickness of a line, in one foot... it's a useless tape measure at distance.
glentre
Well-known member
Hired a new guy who said there was someone in his old shop who, during lunch, took all the steel tapes in the shop and hammered the hooks so they wouldn't move. Said they were loose and wouldn't measure properly unless they were tight.
Glen
Glen
Hdonly0
Well-known member
No such thing as an "accurate" measurement. No such thing as an "accurate" measurement tool. Some are just more accurate than others. Always use a quality metal tape. It is closer but still not perfect. The key is to use the same metal tape. Square corners and then double check with diagonals. Adjust till it's as close as you can get. It's still only close. You decide how close you want it. When I was working, I had a new welder that used to build missile launchers for the government. I had him building doors for our truck barn. He was taking an extremely long time on each door. He was doing an excellent job, but I had to tell him that we were building garage doors, not missile launchers. Get it within a 1/8" and weld it. I hated telling someone not to do such a good job, but sometimes hand grenades are good enough.
Packard V8
Well-known member
Does no one else here know or care what WaterBoyz "RCH" unit of measurement is? I remember it, but maybe it's just an old guy thing.
jack vines
PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I own a RCH ruler.
toplessHO
Well-known member
trying to remember if its larger than a Brown or Blond one
Material for study linked below
Test later.
Marc
https://www.google.com/search?q=hai...rome..69i57.7471j1j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Test later.
Marc
https://www.google.com/search?q=hai...rome..69i57.7471j1j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
It appears that the Scottish RCH is one of the finer measurements.
Marc
https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...0c23b845ebe629c65ec6de2cacf848650f4a/figure/0
Marc
https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...0c23b845ebe629c65ec6de2cacf848650f4a/figure/0
TheEquineFencer
Well-known member
LOL, I have a 300 foot Vinyl tape for doing fencing...Like in a pasture...the tape I use tells you how much "stretch/shrinkage" is in it at what footage...I always leave it a bit loose when I pull a line with it for marking...It's easier to cut a fence board off than have to out to the truck and get a board stretcher.
davethorik
Well-known member
I love vintage Lufkin tapes, but when Cooper bought that part of Lufkin...well...the quality went down. Modern go-to is Stanley. Not perfect but gets the job done. I used to check tapes new on a 6 foot Starrett machinist rule, more than 1/16 off and buh-bye. But I traded that scale, need to devise new method.
One of the new apprentices at work was marking layout with his bleh Kobalt tape up top and the rest of us use either the US DeWalt or Stanley tapes.
We get to do the blocking and they fit down low but up top they are about 3/8 off so we ended up tossing his tape cause we had to shift over 50 metal studs over
We get to do the blocking and they fit down low but up top they are about 3/8 off so we ended up tossing his tape cause we had to shift over 50 metal studs over
Thanks. I have several of them. I will remember not to use it for long critical measurements.
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Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Flybye
Well-known member
I hope you guys were not expecting items made in China to be accurate. 
Regarding burning an inch / foot / whatever. I had a superintendent on a commercial job who would get mad if he saw anyone doing that for layout. The rationale was that it won't matter if your room is ~1/16" too wide... You're gonna get minute errors from the thickness of chalk lines etc... But if a guy on one end of a tape miscommunicates and you're a foot off, you're in trouble. Precision is drilled into my head so I still do it, but I guess the main point is to know your tolerances.
dutchgray
Well-known member
We set out an 50m by 18m building with a steel tape, when the surveyor turned up and checked it with their equipment we were 8mm out of square, well within tolerances. Not hard to achieve just takes a little time.