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+-- Thread: stanley tape measure accuracy (/showthread.php?tid=7332958)
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - Downwindtracker2 - 09-12-2017
You had me wondering about my tapes. so I checked my Stanleys. The Fat Max 1 1/4" 25' split the line and the 30 year old metal cased 3/4" 16' Powerlock II touched the line , so it was half a line long. I used a 4' Starrett #C604R rule. Good 'nuff I say.
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - Bill_Houghton - 09-13-2017
NIST standards for a fabric tape??
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - hbmcc - 09-13-2017
(09-13-2017, 11:38 AM)Bill_Houghton Wrote: NIST standards for a fabric tape??
If that is from Roly's link, and it is with the aluminum carpenters speed square, that's why the whole site is a SCAM. I'm waiting for a sector to be posted.
Actually, metal, and cloth tapes were used by surveyors after chains up to perfection of electronic measurement.
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - Downwindtracker2 - 09-13-2017
As apprentice carpenters we were taught to use a theodolite, but only tested on the level. I remember the instructor telling us how accurate the original surveyors with chain and trig tables were.
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - hbmcc - 09-14-2017
I know this thread wandered ... a lot, but tape measures must be the hot button of dull-edge tool users.
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - hbmcc - 09-14-2017
(09-13-2017, 10:15 PM)Downwindtracker2 Wrote: As apprentice carpenters we were taught to use a theodolite, but only tested on the level. I remember the instructor telling us how accurate the original surveyors with chain and trig tables were.
I recently read that the early surveyors were incredibly accurate? Precise? Ya' know I had this figured out, then Allan blew up everything! Accurate. I learned to pace chains, but it only worked on clear, flat ground. Then you have to deal with the goofy dimension. But the whole mess of acres, sections, miles is goofy too.
And, we whine about a fraction of an inch, while I mentally convert tenths and fractions back and forth. Give me a foot and thumb, please.
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - Stwood_ - 09-15-2017
(09-14-2017, 11:05 PM)hbmcc Wrote: tape measures must be the hot button of dull-edge tool users.
There's a few in here.
RE: stanley tape measure accuracy - daddo - 09-15-2017
(09-03-2017, 10:44 AM)vernonls Wrote: Yesterday I needed to cut some 1 1/2 x 25 x 3/4 stiles. I pulled out my Stanley 16 ft tape measure and measured 25 inches and marked the wood from one end. Since I was going to be making a lot of these I wanted to be very sure that they were cut accurately so I checked it against two metal rulers and found that although both metal rulers (one an old carpenter's square and the other a new machinist's square) and found that although both agreed that 25 inches was 25 inches, neither agreed with the Stanley tape measure. The steel rules were consistently about 1/6 more than the tape measure. I then picked up another steel ruler, this one only 18 inches long and measured 18 inches plus 7 inches. This resulted in the same mark as the other metal rules.
Am I wrong in expect less than 1/16 accuracy over 25 inches of the Stanley tape measure? FWIW, I checked it with a 25 ft Stanley tape measure and it measured the same as the 16 ft tape measure.
I ended up using the mark from the metal rule and then cut all 16 of these stiles to the same length using a stop-block. It was more important that they all be the same than that they be exactly 25 inches. Yet, 1/16 in 25 inches means a lot when you are trying to join multiple pieces together squarely.
Any thoughts by other woodworkers? Is it just Stanley or was I expecting too much from a tape measure?
Vern
I've built several new pieces without once touching a measuring device- just an awl.