Tales of the tapes

In the digital woodshop, does anyone still use a tape measure? I do.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’m a tech-nerd kind of guy who loves the latest and greatest digital gadget. There are lots of them in my shop, including a digital laser “tape” measure that I almost never use.

It’s actually pretty cool, but its real use is for measuring distances, such as one wall to another, not length of lumber or objects. For that, I use a rule or a tape. I probably have a dozen tapes (you need a dozen, if you lose them as often as I do), in varying lengths. In the shop, the one I use the most is a 12’ that is just the right size to cover 99 percent of what I do. But outside the shop, I’ll use one of the two below.

That 25-foooter is a beast. It’s big, it’s heavy, and clipping it to your belt makes you tilt to one side when you walk. But for longer-distance measuring of just about anything outside the shop, its bulk and ultra-rigid blade is perfect. Measuring longer distances is much easier with a second person, but when working alone that blade makes doing it a one-handed job.

That 8-foot little Stanley, on the other hand, is light as it is old. I’ve had it for decades. It’s the one I slip into my pocket when I’m shopping, buying a new piece of furniture, or maybe measuring smallish things to be sure they’ll fit when I get home like, say, a silverware holder that has to fit a particular drawer.

More importantly, that’s the one I take along whenever we go antiquing or to a museum. With it easy to grab in my pocket, I’m assured of getting accurate measurements to go along with the photos I shot of things I want to reproduce back in the shop. In fact, that Stanley lives permanently in my car so I’m never without it wherever I go.