RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
25’ Milwaukee with engineering scale for like 17ish….
Finally a tape measure with 10ths…..
- Thread starter RetiredUnit1
- Start date
Feral Feline
Well-known member
If only it had Cun on it, too.
I bought a small metal ruler from my at-one-time local shop (Hong Kong), and it had Cun (Chinese "inch") and metric on one side, and imperial inches and metric on the other side.
Ayahhh that caused a few problems before I realised one side was not in inches at all.
I bought a small metal ruler from my at-one-time local shop (Hong Kong), and it had Cun (Chinese "inch") and metric on one side, and imperial inches and metric on the other side.
Ayahhh that caused a few problems before I realised one side was not in inches at all.
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
I had a heck of a time finding a precision metric ruler here in SoCal. At Home Depot, Lowes, Zorotools, ACME tools, you type in metric ruler and you get metric sockets. Aaarrrggghhh! I like to work in Metric when I'm making small stuff, and inches when making large but I eschew doing math with fractions.... Got an A in advanced Trig and Calculus, doesn't mean I like working in fractions, lol....If only it had Cun on it, too.
I bought a small metal ruler from my at-one-time local shop (Hong Kong), and it had Cun (Chinese "inch") and metric on one side, and imperial inches and metric on the other side.
Ayahhh that caused a few problems before I realised one side was not in inches at all.
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
Well I have been for decades, I've been using Visio since version 1 and it defaults to four digit precision in either metric or inches. But when you cannot find a ruler that is in decimal, then when you're building xyz you have to do this math: If I build something in Visio and it comes out to .2656, I have to multiply that by 64th's and then see if there is a common denominator for further factoring. In this case .2656 x 64 comes out to 16.9984, rounding that up comes out to 17/64ths. If the result was 18-ish/64's I'd have to factor that to 9/32's, etc...
I'm *tired* of doing that, lol....
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
Yeah like I said I like to use metric, when I'm using small stuff. NO ONE sells LARGE metric measuring devices in the USA, if they do they are well hidden from the internet. I have a precision ruler with metric on ONE side, but can't measure out 7-ish feet (2133.6mm) with it. And I'm 67, I think in feet and inches. When designing in metric, I start in inches to approximate sizes, then convert.10ths of feet? You're so close to the metric system
Now I can work in Visio, interchangeably in metric and inches and actually be able to build with the plans. This is why I wanted the tape measure, my soon to be built workbench. Gonna be one TOUGH top made from 2x8x10's (38mm x 89mm x 3m48)
jhaneyzz
Well-known member
Consider yourself blessed. I started out in graphic design where we use Points and Picas.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
Check out FastCap tapes. A woodworker I know online turned me on to them, and now I have like 5 of them for different things. Fantastic tape measures, and they have them in various useful forms. Metric/Imperial; dual-imperial; dual metric; imperial/story stick; flatback…
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
As a programmer I used pixels to convert to points and picas, and inches and mm's.... ugh. Like two lifetimes ago, back in the caveman days of 640x480 displays....
KR Sound
Well-known member
I have about three different ones and they’re awesome. Definitely recommend them.
ProCarpenter AutoLock Tape Measure - FastCap
tape measure, tape measures, tapes, measure, tape, PMS, lefty, righty, lefty/righty
www.fastcap.com
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
Man, I swear, the search engines have been so deviated into trying to sell you stuff that costs more than what you want that it's almost impossible to find what you want. I searched everywhere for tapes like these and always ended up looking at metric sockets, which I've had for 56 years 'cus my first motorcycle at age 11 was a honda.
Searched for fastcap tapes, and bingo there they are... really a simple check box "Don't suggest substitutions [x]" would make my life 10 times easier.... I search for "unscented cat litter" I get Fresh steps scented cat litter...
sigh........... I have over 10 MILLION lines of code with my name on it (granted a lot of it reused code, but still mine), I would have NEVER done this....
RetiredUnit1
Well-known member
hmmm....
PapaBear
Well-known member
I learned pretty quick on cutting things to use the same tape you measure with to mark your cut, and if your working in tandem with one or more people be sure they all have the same tape
I still find it crazy that feet (as in those things at the end of your legs) are measured in barleycorns. WHY??
After a lifetime of working in metric (which I highly recommend!) I have been using imperial when I build amp cabs. Mainly because the chassis I use are made in the USA and are made to imperial dimensions, as are the speakers. Even the timber is in imperial, because a 19mm thick pine board is really 1" dressed to 3/4". It's been interesting to use imperial, including using fractions instead of decimal. Now I can see why some folks prefer to work in imperial but overall I much prefer metric. For a lot of my finer measurements I use a steel rule - I have them in 30cm, 60cm and 1m. All have metric on one side, imperial on the other. The 1m rule has imperial in fractions of inch along one edge and 10ths of an inch along the other edge, then flip it over for metric in two different levels of decimal gradation.
After a lifetime of working in metric (which I highly recommend!) I have been using imperial when I build amp cabs. Mainly because the chassis I use are made in the USA and are made to imperial dimensions, as are the speakers. Even the timber is in imperial, because a 19mm thick pine board is really 1" dressed to 3/4". It's been interesting to use imperial, including using fractions instead of decimal. Now I can see why some folks prefer to work in imperial but overall I much prefer metric. For a lot of my finer measurements I use a steel rule - I have them in 30cm, 60cm and 1m. All have metric on one side, imperial on the other. The 1m rule has imperial in fractions of inch along one edge and 10ths of an inch along the other edge, then flip it over for metric in two different levels of decimal gradation.
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