Mental Midget Moment

[Mojo]

Dang I hate those moments where your brain farts.

I seamed an awning the other day and thought I measured correctly and ended up being short by 6 inches. I had no more of this fabric left, Miami Corp was out of stock in Jacksonville so called Mike and he located some for me in Cincinatti. Higher shipping cost and more fabric cost. Great.

Flamed my rear end. If I could have managed it I would have kicked my own ass. Ever cut fabric to short and ruined the entire piece ?

It has been one of those weeks. I seem to do this twice a year. :(

Chris

[sofadoc]

I once bought a tape measure at a garage sale. This was the kind where the numbers start over every 12". What I didn't notice was that the entire first foot had been cut off in order to repair the tab on the end.

So when I measured and cut 3 dozen 13 ft. panels for some church pews, I was actually only cutting them 12 ft.  
Expensive lesson learned about trying to do professional work with cheapo tools.

[Bob T]

Within the last week we had a similar problem.  Turned out the measuring tape was made wrong.  We checked it against a number of other yardsticks, tape measures, etc. and the questionable tape was flat made wrong.  Dang, we've been using it for over 5 years!  Yeah, that explains a lot.  Years ago I had a similar problem with a tri-square that wasn't 90 degrees, more like 89 or 88 degrees.  DANG!

[Mike]

I used to have a frind and old gent that would  isit my bait shop he had suspenders printed with a tame. Easure on them. He joke sll tye time streaching them out "oh ya the fish was legal size" lol.

[Mojo]

Oh Geeesshh. Now ya'll got me heading to the shop to check all of my tape measures. :)

Typically I always buy the expensive tape measures ( Stanley or Lufkin ) because they use a thicker steel and wont bend as easy. I have never run into a tape measure that was off.

On my brain fart moment I actually was adding a top seam, center seam, bead and valance allowances along with a double folded edge and somewhere my math went bad. If I have a complicated project I almost always call my wife in to do the math for me or to double check my calculations. With her being a Calculus teacher she never screws up with this simple stuff.

I winged it on this one and did the calculations myself. I left the valance out of the equation which screwed me in the end. I learned that next time I need to call in the boss and hand the math off to expert. :)

Glad to know I am not alone here.

Chris

[sofadoc]

Typically I always buy the expensive tape measures ( Stanley or Lufkin ) because they use a thicker steel and wont bend as easy.

For measuring around bends of a sofa, I prefer a flexible tape measure. So I buy cheap ones, and just toss them when the blade breaks. So I knew that I was buying poor quality blades, but it never occured to me that the numbers might be off as well. That might explain a few snafus that I had previously blamed on Gremlins.

[byhammerandhand]

In the woodworking world, we were told for years to "start and end" with the same tape measure to avoid discrepancies between two or more rules.   Lately, though, they have been saying the technology is now accurate enough not to worry.   

But your tape measure can be off 10% or more and as long as you use the same tape measure to measure your distances OK.  Heck, you could even use a stick, sometimes called a "story pole."

[Mike]

hammer I used to work in a woodshop making office furniture and we would check each others tapes to match up.

[JDUpholstery]

for measuring around corners and bends I use a tailors tape...found a nice 10' long one instead of the smaller 6 footer..only problem is it is pink!

I under ordered a job, by 4 yards once...the first 3 I caught before the order was put out to the warehouse, so didn't cause problems...but then I ended up needing 1 more (total of 4) and had to pay 80 dollars for them to overnight me one yard to finish the job on time....

[gene]

A woman holds her finger and thumb about 3 inches apart. She asks, "Do you know why men are so bad at measuring things?" "It's because they think this (the distance between her finger and thumb) is 6 inches.

When I sold paper packing materials, we were assigned tape measures and the calibration was checked and recorded twice a year.

The measuring tape that is printed on my Juki is way off. I don't use it for accurate measurements so I don't worry about it.

When the metal tab at the end of a tape measure gets loose it can add 1/4 to 1/2 inch to your measurements.


The measure of a man...

gene

P.S. Oh, and in our politically correct society, it's "Mental small person moment".

[Mike]

unless im cutting a 2x4 I don't hook the end
if it a cruicial number I use a diferent part of the tape woodworking mostly
kabric is nevwer that criticle fraction of a inch 

[byhammerandhand]

Last year for Christmas, I made 1024 wood building blocks for one of my grandsons.  Since the dimensions (T-W-L) are critical because they stack certain ways, I made them +-.001"   I found that my planer (with current knife settings) cuts .001 thinner on the left than the right, and I used this to my advantage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapla

unless im cutting a 2x4 I don't hook the end
if it a cruicial number I use a diferent part of the tape woodworking mostly
kabric is nevwer that criticle fraction of a inch 

[JuneC]

I'm like Mike on this one.  I don't trust the first inch of any measure.  I always start at "1" and go from there.  I've found that all my measures are slightly different, maybe 1/32" or so.  I do have favorites.  For soft or rounded surfaces, I have a fiberglass tailor's tape that's 10' long and several 5' ones.  No worries about them being affected by humidity.  I just LOVE my transparent quilting squares for lots of measures and marking on the table.  Adding a 15" quilting square to a 4' aluminum ruler makes a good 90 degrees - better than a small "T" from the hardware store IMHO.  Oh, a word to the wise.  If you decide on a quilting square for any purpose, get the Omnigrid square(s).  I bought a cheap one about 2 years ago and I have to throw it out because the abrasion on Sunbrella took off all the markings.

June