Mark-O-Matic tape measure.

Not as neat:

Mark-O-Matic was a trade name registered in the US in 1988 by Fisco a UK tape manufacturer and was then allowed to lapse.

Fisco were founded in London in 1940 by Leo Fisher and despite now being part of a larger group their head office is still in Rayleigh Essex

That model probably didn't generate enough sales. Which normally might suggest it didn't meet any need which it presumably does. Maybe they didn't market or advertise it enough.

michael adams

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DIY version

Maybe, like Vincent motorcycles, they were so well designed and made, that the first owner felt no need for a replacement after a couple of years.

Might it be possible to back-fit a normal tape with canibalised or cloned parts?

sounds like another app for 3d printing

Re a snapped tape, can you not transplant a tape from another one into it?

NT

Not that I know of. I have a digital tape measure that talks. its still a steel tape of course and you can add the body to the measurements etc, but sometimes it gets an attack of the stutters and won't swith off. I suspect some dirt is inside due to use in dirty places and as it won't be quiet it never turns off. You have to take the battery out. Sometimes technology is its own worst enemy. it was fairly cheap though. Brian

I seem to recall it was one sold by one of the tv offers places like we used to use, Ronco or K-Tel, which now seem to have been superceeded by the on line shopping channels. So offer to buy the rights if the tooling is still around and get making them again. Brian

Sounds similar to a Hultafors Talmeter

That's what I'd like to have tried, but can't get inside it.

That may measure a gap - but doesn't transfer that to say wood in the same way. The whole beauty of this one is the built in pencils - so you don't even have to take the reading.

None of those have all the functions I mentioned.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Having convinced myself that moving to bi-focals will cause my eye muscles to become even more lazy, I have reading glasses strung on a cord round my neck.

Using a tape measure brings problems. With glasses on, I can't be sure that the tape end is properly positioned. A thumb nail reserves the measured length but I then only have one hand free to fit the glasses and read the measurement:-(

Any experienced woodworker will tell you that the solution is two lengths of pointed lath extended to the appropriate distance and then marked with a pencil. This can then be re-assembled and the marked length transferred to the workpiece......

Hultafors are the group who took over Fisco - the originators of the Mark-O-Matic - in 2008.

What the OP is looking for apparently is a tape with markers at both ends.

Apart from trying to market anything in the US which is always going to be difficult- there must be some reason why such a design never caught on. They sound as though they might have sold well off a stand at exhibitions which maybe misled Fisco as to their potential market.

I know Fisco used to sell through Buck and Ryan a big London toolshop in Tottenham Court Road before it closed down but I never remeber seeing Fisco in any of the sheds which were just getting up steam. I never even realised they were a UK firm until looking them up yesterday, having always associated them them with Fiskars the Finnish garden tools people.

Maybe not getting the Fisco brand into the sheds kept them a niche product as against the likes of Stanley. I can't say I ever remember them advertising either. So maybe that's why Mark o Matic never caught on.

michael adams

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Except of course that as it's impossible to get zero thickness lath, it means one pointed end of one of the pieces of lath with be a lath's thickness above the surface of the wood that's about to be marked. Marking this pointed end with a pencil held perpendicularly in some way doesn't take account of the thickness of the wood in the pencil and so it will be necessary to scribe around the pointed end of that end of the lath with a pencil lead held perpendicularly in some way.

The pencil can of course be angled appropriately at the other end where the lath is tight to the wood

That's of course assuming a required tolerance less than say

Or maybe being even more "experienced woodworkers" they'll have worked out that they'll need three pieces of lath. One at each end on the same plane and one in the middle. Plus a big packet of elastic bands if they really want to splash out.

michael adams

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they didn't close - they moved. Sadly their landlord in TCR wanted to redevelop the site. They had new premises in Southampton Row, but nobody seemed to know they were there. They finally closed about 3 years ago.

A great loss. In TCR they were an easy lunchtime stroll from the office.

Snickers workwear is also a Hultafors brand, I didn't expect the "holtafosh" pronunciation ...

Aren't the peanuts uncomfortable?

perhaps people thought it was a cheap washing machine.

G.Harman