metric carpenter's tape

Twenty years ago I bought a Craftsman tape marked in mm on both edges. It was so much easier and more reliable than fractions for reading and remembering measurements that I bought a spare.

Eventually, the first one broke. I want to buy a third in case anything happens to my second one. The only ones I've seen have mm on one edge only, and that's not as good. Mine is especially good because the marks for mm 1,4,6, and 9 are shorter than the others, which means I can read it without counting lines.

Doesn't anyone in America sell metric carpenter's tapes?

Reply to
J Burns
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This is Tater. Try here

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Reply to
Tater Gum Fries

Thank you! They even have a 3-meter model. I could keep my 7.5 on the shelf and use the little one most of the time: easier to carry, cheaper to break.

They would be perfect if the pattern didn't have 4 adjacent marks of the same length. On my old ones, there are no more than two adjacent marks of the same length (2 and 3, 7 and 8). That means my eyes don't have to count little marks. I wonder why it's not common.

Reply to
J Burns

Ace Hardware.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Lee Valley has an 8 meter version:

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Paul F.

Reply to
Paul Franklin

I believe we converted to metric several years ago.

But we may have abandoned tape measures.

Reply to
mm

Just go through the tape once scraping the paint off the ones that should be shorter. (yeah, I wouldn't wnat to do that either, but...)

Reply to
mm

mm wrote the following:

In what State?

Reply to
willshak

"willshak" wrote

We tried in the 70's, but it did not get very far. The US and Burma are the only two countries in the world that do not use it. More and more though, companies have to or die. As an example, if you want to make tooling for any of our machines (none are made in the USA), it must be metric. Yes, some toolmakers try to convert, but they tend to have problems with accuracy.

Eventually we will change, but many people are afraid of change, afraid to learn a new way, others think the rest of the world should change to our standard.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Thomas Jefferson wanted a decimal system:

1585 A decimal system for weights and measures is proposed (by Simon Stevin, in his book "The tenth").

1670 Gabriel Mouton, Vicar of St. Paul's Church in Lyons and an astronomer, proposes a metric system. Authorities credit him as the originator of what was to become the metric system.

1790 Thomas Jefferson proposed a decimal based measurement system for the USA. A subsequent vote in the USA congress to replace the current UK-based system by a metric system was lost by only one vote.

1790s Investigations conducted into reforming French weights and measures, which result in development and adoption of the metric system. Credit for authorising this is variously assigned (depending on which document one reads) to Louis XVI, Napoleon and the National Assembly of France.

1795 The metric system becomes the official system of measurement in France

1840 Metric system compulsory in France since this date.

1800s International support for metric system grows. International scientific community switches to metric system.

1900s By 1900, 39 countries had officially switched to the metric system. By the end of the century virtually all countries, with the USA being the only notable exception, had switched to the metric system.

1959 UK and USA redefine the inch to be 2.54 cm. In 1963 the UK redefines the pound to be exactly 0.45359237 kilograms. In 1985 the UK redefines the gallon to be exactly 3.785411764 liters. The USA took similar steps, although the USA gallon is smaller and consequently has been redefined as 3.785411784 liters.

1960 The metric system officially renamed to "Système International d'Unités" (International System of Units), and given the official symbol SI.

Current The metric system has been adapted by virtually every country, with the only notable exception being the USA (the other non-metric countries are Liberia and Burma). Some countries (such as the UK) are still in transition to the metric system.

Reply to
Kuskokwim

I just want a tape scale that's easy and reliable. In the 1980s I measured to replace a board. Let's see... 29" and.... more than half.... less than 3/4.... less than 5/8... more than 9/16... 19/32.

Write it down. Go through the same process finding the line to mark the new board. Cut. Measure. 28 and 19/32. The fraction was such a distraction that I went on the wrong side of 29 inches.

When something similar happened a few months later, I went metric. 29 and 19/32 inches is 752 mm. What could be simpler?

One thing that makes my Craftsman metric tape so easy to read is that no more than two adjacent mm lines had the same length. Dadburnit, I can't find another marked like that! All English tapes use differing lengths for the marks. Why are manufacturers so backward with metric tapes?

And metric/English tapes? It's like trying to run a race with one shoe on. You may use one edge most of the time, but in some situations you need to use the other edge or accuracy will suffer.

Reply to
J Burns

Isn't the Imperial Gallon 4.54609 liters?

Reply to
J Burns

Why would you want one? Material is all in imperial units. You never have to take into account the size of the material?

Reply to
krw

Don't believe that. The thinner 1/2" plywood, sold as 15/32 is really

12mm. That 2x4 that isn't quite 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 is a 44x88. It is almost impossible to find ceramic tile that is not metric.
Reply to
gfretwell

wrote

Once you cut that board, it is any measure you deem it to be. Just as we drink beer in ounces, but you pee into a cup in milliliters.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

US officially adopt it, but just never enforced it. Remember for a few years, highways were signed both ways, and speedometers also had KM scale? Booze/pop went metric a couple decades ago, cigarettes have been metric for ages, spark plug threads were always metric, most film was metric, etc, etc. Anybody manufacturing for an international market is a fool if they don't document it in metric, and use metric fasteners. Computer screws are mostly metric now, so that coffee can full of 6/32 screws won't ever get used up. (At least drive makers that put both size mounting holes are labeling them now...)

I'll note that Canada, long since officially metric, still uses a long of traditional measurements in real life. Older folks still like the old British 'stones' for human weights. 4x8 plywood (although the thickness is called out in mm now), 2x4 studs, etc. Land deeds in US and Canada can be anything under the sun, and they are all legally valid, as long as both parties understand and agree what the units are. Miles, feet, decimal meters, chains, rods, acres, hectares, sections, whatever. Ammo is still labeled and sold both ways, at least in the smaller calibers.

I can live with the mishmash, except for one thing. Engineers that use SAE heads on metric bolts, or vice-versa, should be shot.

Reply to
aemeijers

I had a tape once; metric inches.

Used to enjoy loaning it out.

Lemme see your tape.

Sure!

WTF...?!

It ran away. -----

- gpsman

Reply to
gpsman

An imperial tape could be more convenient when measuring for a factory size, such as marking for wall studs. (With a calculator, a metric tape can do it nicely.)

Most of my measuring is to cut pieces. A couple of years ago, a neighbor was cutting panels of plastic skirting to cover his brick underpinning. The panels were 5' (1500mm) wide. As the ground wasn't perfectly level, he needed a measurement for each end, and he had to add

5/8" for the panels to tuck under his siding.

He'd cut several wrong when I came along. First, he didn't start with precision because reading a tape in 32nds is a hassle. Second, it's easy to goof adding fractions. Third, it's hard to keep two mixed numbers straight long enough to make two cuts.

I got my metric tape and a piece of paper. After that, the measurements were easy and every piece fit nicely.

My BIL worked as a carpenter, then built himself a house. Once he showed me how to repair lightning damage to my roof. In cutting a piece less than 2 square feet, he ruined a whole sheet of pressure-treated plywood.

He needed four lengths to cut that piece. He kept trying to remember four mixed numbers long enough to climb down the ladder and make his cuts. When he kept goofing, I went up with him with a pad, but he wouldn't tell me what he measured. Writing the numbers could have saved time and lumber. A metric tape would have helped because he wouldn't have avoided mixed numbers.

Shingling alone, snapping a chalk line is more trouble than it's worth. I make spot checks with a tape measure. A metric tape works best. It's precise enough to show me if I'm starting to drift, and I don't have to remember a mixed number.

Reply to
J Burns

Using a surveyor's tape marked in hundredths of a foot was one thing that inspired me to get a metric carpenter's tape. Another thing was making desktop measurements of charts. The metric side of the ruler worked better.

Reply to
J Burns

Snort! Ain't it fun, messing with people like that?

Reply to
aemeijers

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