Tape Measure

[terabyte]

I have a Kobalt with English\Metric. It was the only one I could find local that had both. It's white on the outside 33' long and I love having both. I like working in metric but the english comes in handy. Especially when figuring out where wall studs are.

 

[Bolster]

I'm a tape measure fanatic. Had to turn over half a valuable drawer to them. My favorites are:

(1) A Starrett, which gets a special place hanging on the wall;
(2) a Stanley 5m tape. I find the metric tapes really useful. So easy to calculate centers, thirds, to do division and subtraction with mm. But the Stanley 5m was difficult to find; spent a long time looking and finally paid top dollar on evilBay.

I'm not a big fan of standard/metric combos. The scale you want to use will always be on the opposite side of the blade from where you need it. So I choose either one or the other, and tend to carry both.

Biggest disappointment was an 8m Lee Valley tape. Big, heavy, and no coating on the blade so it's already wearing off after gentle use.

Definitely look for a coated blade, no matter what brand. And beware the tapes that 'lock' by throwing a plastic lever into the blade, that causes a lot of unnecessary wear on the blade.

 

[Kevin54]

I just got a new FatMax last week. 30' and will runout 12' before dropping.

 

[eschoendorff]

I just got a new FatMax last week. 30' and will runout 12' before dropping.

I've heard only good things about the FatMax tapes. They seem to have done their homework when designing these!

 

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Those long standout tapes are great when you are up in the air trying to square a roof or wall, however you have to twist the tape to mark accurately since they have such a heavy curve!

The best tapes are those that hook where they are supposed to (and stay until asked to stop) and have crisp lines to the edge so you won't go cross-eyed reading it. Hard to tell unless one goes to the store and tries it out since everyone and their brother makes 29 different models.