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Thread: Stanley quality

  1. #1
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    Default Stanley quality

    I just found this and suspect that one was left in the sun and expanded.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    I would love to grow my own food, but I can not find bacon seeds

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  3. #2
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    The top tape is missing the first 1/4”
    Cheers

    DJ

  4. #3
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    I would say that is a very excellent sign, of the times we are living.

    Cheers Matt.

  5. #4
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    I think this tape belongs to my local hardware bloke. His cash register has the same problem.

    mick

  6. #5
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    Old rule of measuring things- 'Never swap tapes midway through a job'.

    Either tape is OK for made to measure work, i.e you use a tape to measure up what you need to do and use the same tape to measure when cutting, shouldn't induce errors that way. Use one to measure up and the other to measure for cutting, mild to serious grief either way. At best a trim cut if you measure up with the short one and cut with the normal one, at worst new material if you do it vice versa and cut short. Use the same tape both times, shouldn't be an issue provided there is a little surplus in the material prior to cutting.

    Boss was in a charitable mood at work 16 years ago and decided that since the industrial supply had tapes on special, he would buy one for everyone in the factory. Came back, handed them out, everyone was happy. Urgent job comes up, I work through lunch getting it all cut and pre polished for the welder while he is on his break, stack it on his rack with the jobsheet, and head into the lunchroom as he is heading back to his station. He comes back 5 mins later wanting to know where the urgent job is, so I show him and he starts arguing that it's not the one, dimensions are wrong. I grab my tape and measure everything, all within 0.5mm, he grabs his tape, long pieces are 8mm short, medium are 3mm short, short bits are 1mm short. Compare two supposedly identical tapes, big differences. Get everyone else to check the pieces with 'their' new tapes, 14mm total variation over 2.8m among 8 supposedly identical silk screen graduated tapes. Boss back to the industrial supply to refund these tapes and buy 8 others at more than double the price, but hey, they matched within a mm over 6m.

    Never mix tapes on a job.
    I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.

  7. #6
    rrich Guest

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    First, the top tape looks as though it has been "fixed". The corners of the tape where the ¼ is missing are rounded. Don't know what else to say.

    Second, When someone asks me to cut something for them I always require that they bring the tape over that they used to measure. I'll use that tape to set the saw. The nightmare is when they have 'fixed' the hook so it doesn't move. There have been times when I went back to re-measure. And going through the 15 minute argument / lesson as to why the hook moves and how much it moves.

    Then I usually throw their tape in the trash and give them one of mine. I have probably given 5 Fat Max tapes away this way.

    Just now, sitting here with some flavored ice cubes, I got to thinking. What about an Imperial tape with another set of markings for Metric. Would a Metric tape with Imperial markings be any more accurate? Which set of markings would be correct? I think that more flavored ice cubes will be necessary to answer that question.

  8. #7
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    That's just inflation at work.

    Sent from my Nokia 4.2 using Tapatalk

  9. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by rrich View Post
    .......Just now, sitting here with some flavored ice cubes, I got to thinking. What about an Imperial tape with another set of markings for Metric. Would a Metric tape with Imperial markings be any more accurate? Which set of markings would be correct? I think that more flavored ice cubes will be necessary to answer that question.....

    The answer is an emphatic NO!
    Several decades ago, I came 'home' from a long stint in Canada. When I left Aus (early 70's) we were just starting to metrify seriously. Canada was supposedly going the same route, but because of their very large, backward neighbour, they were dragging their feet about it. By the late 80s, when I left, they had got as far as switching to Km instead of miles on (most) roads, but every lumberyard & hardware store was stolidly sticking with Imperial when it came to measuring anything.

    Soon after we arrived home, I got involved in a major house renovation, and quickly discovered we had pretty much switched to metric in the building trades - the 19 & 20 year olds would look at me blankly when I asked for "6 feet of 1/2" pipe", or whatever. So I had to make a quick conversion, & I reckoned the way to ease myself into it was to buy a tape with both systems on it (there were still plenty around at the time). It proved to be one of he worst ideas I've ever had; I made more mistakes & ruined more bits of good wood with that bi-lingual tape than I'd ever done in my life before! One day in frustration I chucked the damn tape in the bin, stomped off & bought an all-metric tape and have never looked back - I have to struggle to think what a foot or an inch is, these days....

    Oh yeah, that moveable end to compensate for the thickness of the tab. It rarely does so with sufficient accuracy for fine work, so if you must use your tape for more precise stuff, we were told to always start measuring from the first whole division (e.g., inch or cm) and subtract accordingly from the total. It solves the roving tab issue, and you get consistent measurements, but you'll also end up with a lot of short boards if you don't pay attention - damhik!

    Cheers,
    IW

  10. #9
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    That then makes the tab, hence the tape measure almost redundant for long measurements. I only use a tape for long measurements therefore, unless I have someone to hold the tape at the end of the length of timber at say the 10mm mark, I have to use the tab.
    When my father bought a new tape measure, he used to use the tab and mark off say 100mm then measure the actual distance to that mark with his steel rule. He then knew the error and had that marked on his tape measure case. Every once in a while he would repeat that exercise.

  11. #10
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    Interesting conversation this, got me off my chair to check two tapes that I have. No1 a Wattmaster from China when checked against a Stanley steel rule was spot on. No2 Komelon made in the USA checked against the same rule was 0.5mm short. No2 was purchase from the BGS and No1 was found in roadway outside my home. Both are useful for general work but where accuracy is needed I always use steel rules of the appropriate length. Cheers Brian.

  12. #11
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    I do love a folding ruler! Easy when majority of your work is under a metre.

  13. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Potts View Post
    I do love a folding ruler! Easy when majority of your work is under a metre.
    Haven't used mine more than half a dozen times in the last 45 years! It's Imperial, of course, & only a 2 footer, & of limited value for both those reasons, but its main issues for me are the thick, blurry graduations & the thickness of the wooden parts.

    I suppose the old folding rules were the best compromise of portability & functionality in the days before steel tapes, but they are not meant for precision work. Even if the graduations are still fine & sharp, the thickness increases the chance of parallax error, so I much prefer a thin steel rule when a high degree of precision is required, which is mostly in metal work, in my case. The majority of my woodworking doesn't need rulers with inches or milimetres, parts get marked against each other or with gauges. My tape measure is mainly used for setting out rough dimensions, a job which doesn't require high precision. That is, when I can find the *##* thing amongst the clutter - how can a bright yellow object still manage to hide itself so successfully?!

    Of course it's a totally different matter when more than one person is working on some project & their individual contributions need to match up - you'd certainly want rulers & tapes to agree that 100mm always equals 100mm!

    Cheers,
    IW

  14. #13
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    That is, when I can find the *##* thing amongst the clutter - how can a bright yellow object still manage to hide itself so successfully?!

    You mean I am not the only one to suffer from this


    I can put a tool down, not move from the bench, and not be able to find the bloody thing 10 minutes later (the tool not the bench, if I start loosing the bench I will give up completely)

  15. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jasethebeginner View Post
    .....I can put a tool down, not move from the bench, and not be able to find the bloody thing 10 minutes later (the tool not the bench, if I start loosing the bench I will give up completely)...
    Cheer up Jase, it'll get worse as you get older.

    My old dad used to claim the tools hid themselves while he wasn't looking. After he'd searched & searched & given up, they'd sneak out to where he'd put them down & pretend they'd been there the whole time. I thought he was just telling tall stories, but now it's happening to me, so he was telling the truth after all....

    Cheers,
    IW

  16. #15
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    I actually have a NATA certified calibration tape measure. You can buy the calibrated tapes for not a lot of money but mine is a 30m one that has been sent to a NATA lab (not by me) for verification.
    If anybody wants to check the accuracy of their tape measure send it to me and I will compare it to the certified one. Now that this thread has reminded me I have this tape I am going to check all my users.
    Those were the droids I was looking for.
    https://autoblastgates.com.au

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