Tape measures accuracy

[Shox Dr]

If I had £1 for every time I've seen something.cut 100mm too short over the years!

The Upcast fan house* at Stillingfleet Mine was 100mm out thanks to a drunk Saturday morning setting out. . Not me but the Civil engineer.

(Not a small building the fans were around 4m in dia there 2 of them.)

 

[Brad93]

The Upcast fan house* at Stillingfleet Mine was 100mm out thanks to a drunk Saturday morning setting out. . Not me but the Civil engineer.

(Not a small building the fans were around 4m in dia there 2 of them.)

Had a “time served pipe fitter” with me once, similar age to me. Could not get his head around working from a centre line, and when I put the 100mm mark on the centre line, well that just about pushed him over the edge.
We were doing some plating that needed to be cock on for a good weld prep, 2mm-3mm gap like.
Well he was left to his own devices to cut these plates at different distances from the centreline, you can guess that they never lined up.
6mm gap overhead is no fund.

marked everything with a blunt piece of chalk too, which once the plates were rigged and manhandled into place were obviously rubbed off. So I give him my scribe and he lost it. Didn’t bother to scribe any plates with it either so we lost the centrelines that’s everything comes off.

 

[8ob]

You lot got me worried

Checked a few of the site tapes, not so worried about workshop because that's always steel rules.

Not good, Silverline 50M

Acceptable Hombase special. 50M ish

B&Q Magnusun 10M

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

You lot got me worried

Checked a few of the site tapes, not so worried about workshop because that's always steel rules.

Not good, Silverline 50M

View attachment 244233 View attachment 244234


Acceptable Hombase special. 50M ish

View attachment 244235

B&Q Magnusun 10M

View attachment 244236

Pic 1
Move the inside of the loop to.tje start of the tape

 

[8ob]

Pic 1
Move the inside of the loop to.tje start of the tape

Not much use if measuring out of a corner Robin, have to remember to take off 6mm

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Not much use if measuring out of a corner Robin, have to remember to take off 6mm

Aye but there designed to be hooked on toEto a.stake/nail either way one always be out.

 

[Paul.]

Inside of the loop is the datum, I have one the same

 

[Johnnybravo]

Where I used to work, the boss’s son and son in law had the most amazing Metric imperial elastic tape measures. Pity nobody else did, as whatever was made to their drawings never fitted

 

[Mick Annick]

These tool threads aren’t good for me, I’ve just ‘had’ to order a new class 1 tape off of Amazon

 

[8ob]

Aye but there designed to be hooked on toEto a.stake/nail either way one always be out.

Inside of the loop is the datum, I have one the same

If you hook the tape in pic 3 on a nail it will be 20mm out.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

If you hook the tape in pic 3 on a nail it will be 20mm out.

View attachment 244252 View attachment 244253

That's a bit gash.
Always gonna be a two person tape then

 

[Paul.]

Hasn't it got a hook /blade folded underneath though, I think you can see the edges of it

 

[Ton-up]

Its too warm Bob, its only right at 20 deg C.......

 

[8ob]

Trouble is I have never looked at any of these, I always give the dumb end to the dumb and there are a variety of tapes used on the same job. I think I need to keep a closer eye on this.

Bob

 

[8ob]

Hasn't it got a hook /blade folded underneath though, I think you can see the edges of it

That one has a barbed plate under it but it wouldn't hang/stay on a plank while you trollied off , as said above it would end up hung on a nail. The old chesterman steel tapes were bomb proof, they had a barb or you could use the nail or hold it in a corner and it gave the same reading.

Bob

 

[Feet 'n Inches]

If I had £1 for every time I've seen something.cut 100mm too short over the years!

Our workshop manager used to produce a cutting list for all jobs coming in. Back then most of the drawings were in Imperial measurements. One lot of drawings, though, were in metric so the manager decided to convert all measurements to Imperial for his cutting lists. The result? Around half the steel was just over length with the rest too short. After that he gave up on cutting lists and left us to it. Lucky for him most of the short stuff was almost perfect for a separate job. I still haven't figured out why he did this especially as all the tapes in the workshop were dual marked.

Then you’ve seen a lot of people who can’t do simple maths

Or if using a short tape to mark out a long beam, they've forgotten they're working from the 100mm marking on the tape.

 

[Barlidge]

Top one is my 10 year old Stanley, second is my Fisco Class 1, third is Linex 1m steel rule and fourth is a Rabone steel rule, at 600mm there is a difference of approx 0.5mm between the Fisco Class 1 and the other three. They are all on the edge of the wood although it might not appear so in the picture.

 

[Other Daniel]

As has been said, rules (especially tape measures), are inherently inaccurate.
If one has to be employed, you should only use it as a dimension transfer tool, and
use the same one. Especially if the dimension is reasonably critical.
Personally, I only measure something for a rough guide. If it's important, the workpiece
is cut oversize, then offered up to it's final resting place, upon which it's precise dimension
can be marked.

Builders work to the nearest cm.
Joiners work to the nearest mm. (dubious statement, used only for this adage).
Boatbuilders work to the nearest boat.

Any measuring tools the likes of us have at our disposal can only be classed as a
roughing out tool.

ATB,
Daniel

 

[Munkul]

I can't say I've ever thought about this much.... I tend to use the same Milwaukee tape measure on the bandsaw for everything, and it's always within 1mm If anything, it's usually if I have an off-day that i read the tape wrongly

 

[RichardM]

Its too warm Bob, its only right at 20 deg C.......

and also needs to be conditioned at that temp (and a set humidity) for 24 hours prior to measurement as does the part you are measuring

Must check my favorite (until it breaks) Wilko tape now