What is the finest pocket tape measure available ?
One meter/ one yard or here abouts. With an emphasis on metric if possible.
My eyes are not what they once were (they were fine a few years ago before I started spending all my time looking at computer screens and TV screens rather than wood working ) so I need easy to read. Of course I want it fairly thin because it will be in my pocket not on my belt.
Jyahh I want it all. : )
What I have has all the paint wearing off the tape and I have several of them in drawers here and there (wear was distributed ) so I want bomb proof, baked on, clear coated, nuclear weapon resistant unobtainium and stunningly beautiful besides. I don’t need it to talk to me or lay about on the couch smoking and ordering out for pizzas just durable and readable.
Whadayagot ?
Replies
Ahh
Go the old tried and true. Story stick. All you need to carry is a sharp pencil or a dull one and a pocket knife.
I don't think a pencil with an Elvis likeness for a point will be accurate enough. ;-)
Interesting.
I never thought about a one yard one. Always lug around a 16 foot stanley. I bought one of those new flat tapes with no curve to mess up the marking process, you know, the curve that lets you extend the rule without it flopping over. It had an edge that would take pencil marks and act as a roll-up story stick. It had a case side that you could write notes on. It had great marking. I never use it. It just never worked for me. I was so used to the curve of a trad tape allowing me to extend it that I couldn't get around the limp flat tape.
tape tell of the tape
Starrett makes a couple of small tapes that have both inch and metric markings. I find them pretty easy to read, but that's a personal opinion.
Have you considered a pair of "telescope" glasses like dentists wear? ;-)
Roc,
the best of the tape measures is ubiquitous and it is free! All you have to do is go to any IKEA furniture store. They give away tape measures all over the store, so that you can measure the stuff they have to sell. You can take as many of them as you want. You can glue them down to jigs, hang a few over any tool in your shop, keep some in your pocket, .............
Luckily, we have an IKEA right near the local Harbor Freight, so you can buy low-priced furniture, get free tape measures and go get bargain tools, all within a few miles. Besides, there is an IHOP in the area too. CHEESE BLINTZES like my mother used to make!!!!!
You should move to Northern Virginia. Envision UTOPIA --- IKEA, Harbor Freight and IHOP in the same neighborhood!
In addition, I hear that UnderArmor is coming out with a new set of stores catering to woodworkers. Their clothes not only wick away perspiration, but they repel wood dust as well as glue and wood finishes.
Come on and visit! I'll take you to the nearby CATHEDRAL OF WOOD - Dunlap's Woodcrafts which is a few miles away, near Dulles Airport. They have special bibs that you can wear while looking at their wood, which keeps the drool off of your shirt. And you can measure their wood with the tape measure you get from IKEA.
Have fun.
Regards from Utopia.
Mel
Ha, ha, ha, aaahhhh, Ha, ha, ha, ha
Wow, you sure live in a different world Mel. Yesserie.
UnderArmor
Yah I bet those boys have a lot of free time now that our people are coming home from Iraq. Not as many armor orders to ignore. It is hard work ignoring equipment orders. Oops not supposed to say stuff like that here. Hard to pass that one up.
Under Armor is an up and coming sports underwear company. Washington Post Magazine did a piece on them a while back. I don't think they made actual armor used in the war.
Roc.. how about a...
http://www.garrettwade.com/zigzag-antique-6-fold-boxwood-leipzig-rule/p/02D12.05/
the "Leipzig" inch - which is not an Imperial inch at all (the one that we are used to), but is actually about 15/16"..
You can save 1/16 inch on everything you cut.. After many years, you will have a whole board saved?
While not a "Tape"
You could go back in time. They still make FOLDING tape measures. Lufkin I think makes a 6' folding rule/ with a brass insert . Folded up, they are about 6" long. Unfold only what you need. Folded up, they fit in your back pocket.
Ha Ha
Will,
What a truly odd thing for GW to sell. Shame it isn't a useful calibration.
Queenmasteroftheuniverseandbabybunnytrainer Says I am saving too much wood as it is and why don't I get off the couch and make some thing; anything !
Nah she's sweet she doesn't say that. Bet she thinks it though.
: )
Solve it with volume!
ROC:
Since most 3 ft. tapes are freebie promotional items, you shouldn't expect them to last too long. I think you can solve that problem with our old friend HF - 6 ft. pocket tapes for $.99 ea. buy a gross of them. Scatter them everywhere, average out the wear and you will have solved your problem. That is the way my wife solves the lost reading glasses conundrum - scatter them everywhere.
Now, if you could settle for a 5 meter tape, then the likes of Starrett, Lufkin, etc. have several claiming to achieve multiple increases in life with coatings.
I personally prefer a 6ft. folding rule. Nearly indestructible and gets lots of looks at the mall.
Jerry
two comes to mind
I like a small staratt tape and my new favorite is the festool tape. It measures the insides well (just read the top) and you can flip the built in pivot pin and draw an acurate measure circle. I keep that one in my pocket. BTW both are metric/imperial.
http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/13088
Finally a Festool I can afford.
Thanks bones. Looks pretty good.
Measuring tape
I like the Talmeter http://www.talmeter.co.uk/ . Good for inside and outside measurements. It is fairly compact. Metric only.
Nice and compact.
Thanks
Interesting, when I entered Talmeter in the amazon USA it brought up a bunch of other tape measures so they know what it is at least. Any sources in the US that you could point me at ?
Change
I changed from a 25' Stanley (the de-facto standard in the field) to a small, light 12' tape with a name I don't recognize that I paid about $6 for at Homeless Despot.
It's a pretty standard tape, in sixteenths.
I also carry a 6" Starret machinist's rule, and it goes way, way down-- seems to me it's 128ths, but I'm not sure.
Since I can't SEE those little marks anymore, y'all are going to have to live with the results what come outta my shop.
I use it for lots of things besides measuring, it's my primary straightedge for drawing nice, straight lines in my log, for instance.
I changed because I never need to measure anything over 12' anymore, and lighter is better.
In general terms, change is bad. But this one worked out okay.
I use cut off pieces of broken tapes in 1, 2 or 3 foot sections in the shop. the 1 foot sections are real handy on the lathe as if something is in the way , just bend the section not being used out of the way. use for setting table saw.. A lot of tapes start over at the 1" increment after every foot. just cut a straight line at the start of the one inch section and you are away
Great idea.
Wow. I knew I had been saving my old tapes for something other than the fact that I am coming quite close to becoming a hoarder, the real kind, the kind that has its own section in that psycho diagnosis book.
Aaaaahaaahaaha haaaaaaaaaa... see ! I'm not crazy ! I'm making little rulers ! Long ones for me... little ones for mini me !
But I mean it, great idea. Thanks.
Talmeter
Sorry,
I don't have any sources in the U.S. They are widely available in Europe, also online. I picked mine up in a Swedish hardware store.
Keychain Tape Measure
Mini Tape Measure Keychain
Small Stanley Tape
http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=HT_TAPES_POWERLOCK&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=39-130&SDesc=3%26%2339%3B+x+1%2F4%26%2334%3B+PowerLock%26%23174%3B+Key+Tape
I like one with a clapper type device and a horn on it.
tom
I can see how those could be nice to have
>horn and clapper< The horn sounds when I begin to reel in the tape so there are not any people caught by the whip like lashing about of the tape end and the clapper would be nice so the last touches to my project are followed up with the sound of applause. Thanks for the tip.
I use cut off pieces by sid works
Hey, I tried it. Had a 16 footer with the first foot cracked. Cut some short 6" and 12 " ones. Then I did a six footer and guess where I stuck it? Down one of the eight foot black pipes in my John White New Fangled Bench. Just took off one of the end caps and it slides right in, handy as hell. I would have made it the entire 8 feet of the pipe but I only had six feet left after I made one that slides under the chop saw at four feet. Neat idea, sid works. You have no idea how light the rule is 'till you start cutting it to length. All the weight is in the case and spring. I have no idea why this type is coming out bold... don't have that clicked on.
cut off pieces part 2
I usually use plastic soda straws to clean out wet glue in corners. The straw conforms to the right angle and the glue goes up the straw as you push it along. But sometimes the straw is too flexible and guess what??? the cut off pieces of tape measure I made a couple of days ago work great as glue scrapers for wet glue squeezeout in tight corners. Who'da thunk it?
responding to the posting about UnderArmor, did you know about the new personal deodorant for men, called Umpire? It's very good for foul balls.
Tom
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