How many times have you thought "How did I mess that measurement up?"

[SuperBuickGuy]

how many times have you thought "how the heck did I screw that up?"

I saw something on this on a feed on FB, didn't think much about it until today when I decided to see what was what....

the tape measures (in order of the first picture)

note the Stanley is 1/8" different then the Craftsman?
But it gets worse, there is a 1/4" difference between the Craftsman and the Bauer

Irony, Bauer and Harbor Freight - same company, Craftsman/Stanley - same company

 

[BBShark]

Ah tape measures. I'm still waiting for someone to invent a method to lock the tape that won't fail almost immediately after buying. I have a half dozen and the only one that still works is the metal Stanley, like the one in your picture.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Ah tape measures. I'm still waiting for someone to invent a method to lock the tape that won't fail almost immediately after buying. I have a half dozen and the only one that still works is the metal Stanley, like the one in your picture.

I have multiple tape measures for that reason (and convenience) - now my steps to building something is going to be first "calibrate tape measure" to be sure I didn't measure with the HF then build with the craftsman (yeah, it says channel loc but stanley made it off the craftsman production line).
Stay tuned though, I plan on adding more to this fest...

 

[phantomjock]

Makes me wonder; how close the 40" "yardstick" from HF is. Also the Tape-on measurement guides you can purchase for the bench.

I suppose if you picked one, and just used it every measurement would be "Equally off" - UNLESS the scale changes as the length. That would be BAD.

Cheers - Jim

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Makes me wonder; how close the 40" "yardstick" from HF is. Also the Tape-on measurement guides you can purchase for the bench.

I suppose if you picked one, and just used it every measurement would be "Equally off" - UNLESS the scale changes as the length. That would be BAD.

Cheers - Jim

I think the issue with these is they put the hook on in the wrong spot not that they scaled the distance incorrectly.

 

[rtj]

Isn’t there an old saying about a man with one clock always knows the right time, or something like that?

So, one good tape measure is similar.

On other issue with tape measures is that hook on the end gets loose and inside and outside measurements can vary appropriately 0.2 inches. More than one I cut a board and had it end up a bit short.