ALL TAPE MEASURE TRICKS Explained...In Just 13 Minutes! (Measuring Tape Pro TIPS, TRICKS + ADVICE!)

There are a lot of

tips

and

tricks

videos about

tape

measure

s and most of them are really helpful, but I wanted to make a quick, comprehensive video that covers all the basics of

tape

measure

s, from how to read them to how to handle them, even

tips

. about how to look and sound like a pro when you wear them all at once, so that's what I'm talking about today on Carpenter's honest show. I'll start by saying that I really prefer the Stanley Power Lock 25. It's quality, it's affordable, it's used by many professionals in the field, the mylar coating is quite durable, and the one-inch wide blade has a rigid projection of about eight feet before from breaking, which is useful and I use the Stanley with imperial measurements on both sides. inches and feet make a model with imperial and metric on opposite sides, but I like pure imperial because you will have to read from both sides frequently and also the tab at the end is supposed to move, this is because the tab It itself has a thickness and slides to add or subtract that thickness.

We call this travel, so if you hit something to measure, you add a 16. If you hook and pull, you subtract the 16. This makes your measurements accurate no matter what and the three rivets hold the tap. to change over time even with rough handling. Well, first I'm going to talk about understanding the tape. If you are already familiar with reading the tape, then perhaps skip to the driving section. I'll mark it on the timeline, but for the total. Newcomers, here goes, the tape is divided into feet, inches and fractions of inches and is designed to help you identify these things quickly, for example, the foot markings are in large black arrows, the most notable inches are in lines complete ones that cover half the width of the tape. inches or the next longest followed by a quarter inch, eighths and all smaller marks are sixteenths.

Here is the first big tip. When you pull a tape to get a measurement, you can basically ignore the foot markings, instead

just

mention inches, for example. In this measurement I will not say five feet three inches and 7 16. Instead, I will read the bottom line, which is the total inches grouped into, say, 63 inches and 7 16. This is how we do it in construction and we allows measurement. and it cuts faster and yes of course metric system users have the obvious advantage that everything is already in whole numbers not subdivided feet and your fractions are in increments of 10 which is logically superior but I grew up in a place that uses Imperial or SAE, so that's what I'm talking about today is where most Americans get nervous is with all the little fraction markings, it's a little discouraging because it looks like a mess, but here This is the trick if you want to read the tape you are on faster.

It is best to think of the small marks only in terms of eights, it is the easiest way to orient yourself. This is how it works when I take my measurement and it's a fraction. I immediately look for the last eighth of an inch mark, so the numbers on the front are 1 8 2 8. or 3 8, the midpoint is 4 8 and the numbers on the back are five, six and seven eighths, so if a measurement falls right on a sixteenth,

just

look at the last eight, double it and add one, so if I'm here, 5 8 becomes 10 16. plus 1 11 16. That's really the hardest thing you're doing is doubling your AIDS and adding one, you eventually get it, so you recognize the relative position very quickly and do that little calculation on a blank space.

That is the easiest way to learn for beginners. these fractions but if you want to sound like a professional do this avoid saying even increments in a workplace we would never say four eights we would only say a half and we would never say six eighths we would only say three quarters every even number falls under a larger fraction so say it as the largest fraction 5 8 and 7 8 are okay to say because they are between larger fractions they are odd 3 16 and 7 16 are two odd it is also okay to say them, but 2 16 should be an eighth, two eighths should be a fourth, It's a little annoying at first, but if you just focus on the size of the line, you'll quickly be able to get your bearings on the tape.

Well, let's get into the more interesting things about how to handle the tape, this may seem elementary, but it is very easy for professionals to spot a newcomer because they are very clumsy with the tape, these things are more uncomfortable than they seem, the Newbies fall victim to simple mistakes, so here are the best ways to use tape for manipulation. Read it and read it like a pro first, keep it handy. Measuring tapes. If your eyes are in the workplace, always keep them close at hand. Whenever you don't have a tool belt, keep the clip on so you can clip it to your belt. or pocket, if you have a tool belt, maybe remove the clip so it fits more easily into your tape pouch and keep the tape measure on the side of your dominant hand, you can draw it faster that way and be ready to go. measure and use it to practice. the drawing with one finger when I lift the tape, my index finger instantly goes behind the tab and pushes it out a little, this way I can hook it directly to something and easily pull or draw the tab with my left and up, this is something I do.

In the same way, reflexively, be good at bending the sheet with your finger. I don't use the lock button much unless I leave the tape extended and walk away or maybe make interval marks, but it's usually too slow to set up, so be good about locking the blade. with your finger when removing the tape use your index finger to pull up on the bottom of the blade catching it in place the grease from your finger will secure it here with friction and pressure almost all good tape handling revolves around this draw and crimp technique and when you are reading the tape you always want to look directly down the sheet, this gives you the best view of your actual measurement.

Looking at an angle can skew your reading, so whenever possible, place your view at a 90-degree angle to your Tiró Mark. You may have to stand on something, kneel, or crane your neck, but it's worth it. sorry for the precision. Additionally, rolling the blade can help curve the blade to make it more rigid. This means that the end of the blade will float off the surface and this. makes it harder to read the marked lines to get the best reading. Turn the sheets sideways a little, this will bring the edge into contact with the surface, making the correct mark much more obvious.

It also makes it easier to place the pencil mark. just in the right place, also rock the tape a little, especially if you are reading an edge. Rocking the tape back and forth a little makes the actual measurement more obvious because it contrasts, accentuates, and confirms the mark you are reading. In more complex things, sometimes it is necessary to pull a lot of tape at once, such as for a vertical measurement, to do this without looking silly, use the draw and fold method, pull the tab with your free hand and draw the tape about a meter and crimp, now double. the end of the tab down so it almost meets the case with the fingers of your left hand still holding the tab pinch the edge of the ribbon at the base pull another three feet and crimp again now release the tab and let it fall to through the hole between the thumb and index finger.

If necessary, you can repeat the process again, removing and releasing in the same way. The goal is to expose the blade enough that you can place the tab on the floor, hold the tape up, and push the curve up with this feeding motion. If you are reading a spot on the wall, such as a door frame, push the sheet. Fold up a few centimeters beyond the reading point. This way you can rod on a flat segment of tape and it won't twist or bend if you're pulling a lot of tape down, use the ground to your advantage, shoot the tape with your free hand, curl it and shoot again, let it the tab resting on the floor, now shoot again until the blade breaks under pressure, you can pass the tape through. the floor like this towards one end Point somewhere at the other end just remember that the treadmill is directed like a shopping cart, if you push to the right it will go to the left, if you push to the left it will go to the right, so try to direct the pressure primarily forward, in the opposite direction.

This is what the hook and draw is all about, if you are not hooking this on something but hooking it, you can shoot the tape several feet and suspend it in the open air. Now you can hook the tab on the pull point, crimp the blade very firmly and draw. Slowly while crimping, this hook and draw technique is ubiquitous in the trades and works best if you learn to crimp the tape well in short runs, you may not need to crimp the tape at all, but the more you pull, the more it will cramp. Because you need that pressure, why is that?

Because you don't want to let the tape bend. Let's say you have to pull the measure across an open space with the tape suspended in the air. Gravity will want to lower the blade, but if your blade sinks too much, it will corrupt its measurement by lengthening it, so you really want to use your free hand to move the center of the blade a little and you may even want to pinch and pull with your free hand to keep a lot of pressure. This way, the tab will not fall to the floor and its tape tray is free to do the rest of the suspended measurement.

However, suspended measurement is difficult, so as often as possible you want to use the floor to your advantage; it just sets the gravity. problem and that's the state, if you have a situation where it's going to be difficult to go a really long distance, consider splitting the measurement instead to do this butt or pulling from One Direction and making a little tick on an easily calculated measurement like 50 inches and then pull from the other side of this measurement, add the new number to your first number and you will have your total group. This is how you measure things longer than your total tape and also makes some long measurements much easier, but when you need short, precise measurements, there is another method we call burning in inches.

Sometimes you may feel like you can't trust your tab for some reason or you may be pulling on a marked spot that has nothing to latch onto or bump into. In this case you can take out the sheet and place the one inch line exactly at that marked point, then take the measurement as usual and just subtract the inch afterward, sometimes I even do this with a 10 inch mark because your hand can get in the way when you hold it close to the The point is that it doesn't matter where you start the measurement from, as long as you understand what number to subtract next, this produces a really accurate measurement, although now let's talk about a difficult concept:

measuring

in a corner , this may be strange because it often requires Bending the tape and reading the curvature is subjective because some tapes are flimsier than others and not all have the same radius of curvature.

It takes a little experience, but here are some tips to learn it. It can often help secure the tape. before pushing the curve in, in other words, you can pull most of the distance and then use your hand or foot to catch the blade on a surface. Now it stays in place while you crimp the blade with your finger at the base and push the ribbon firmly inward. corner making it bend tightly for reading this way pressing the tape with your hand will not cause the tape to slide. He has it pinned to read the corner.

Try to imagine how the rounded ribbon would lie flat. Imagine it unfolding. in the corner here is a really easy way to practice find an area with an inside corner and an outside edge push the tape towards the corner and read the distance to the edge now pull The Edge Bend tape towards the corner and read the curve Since you know what the actual measurement is, you can see where it falls on the curve and get used to reading at that point, but whenever possible, taking the measurements all the way to the edge tends to be more accurate, so do that if you can, well, Now let's talk. a little bit about marking remember the tape has highlighted measurements marked for quick layout so it's very easy to make one foot continuous markings by pulling the tape and simply taking each full line and 16 inches is a very popular measurement in construction Because we tend to frame things at 16 inches on the center of a tape, there is often a red mark that you can quickly see and mark every 16.

There is also a black diamond for every 19.2 inches, which is the common spacing for studs. of engineering, but the point is that all of these intervals end up breaking neatly at the eight-foot mark, which is the common width of sheet goods and a lot of lumber, so it's good to think in terms of a total of two feet. and a half for many rapid designs now being built. We can speed things up by scraping with the tab, this is where we pull the tape, place the desired measurement at our starting pointand we use the tab to make the mark.

You can just put a little pressure on it to scratch the surface. This is not terrible. precise and we really just do it for speed, but it's a really convenient way to make a lot of quick, rough marks, especially when you're just jumping from mark to mark. Another version of this is hold and write. Here you want to leave a long punctuation. line to pinch the tape at the cutting width, place your finger on one edge, then press the tab on the field and draw a long mark or you can even fix the pencil tip on the end of the tab and make a pencil line long, this is very effective speed dialing and of course the trick that everyone loves.

You can even draw circles with a tape measure. The tab has a small slot. This is to hook the nail heads and pull, so if you know the half diameter of the desired circle, you will be able to hold your pencil. Point here, move your tape in an arc, and write a circle. It is accurate to about a quarter of an inch and is a great way to produce Orcs and semi-circles quickly and finally, if your tape rusts or becomes brittle, throw it away and get a new one. One of these things is too important to waste time on exactly, start here anyway, those are my tape measure.

Basics, what did you think of the video? I have something to add, let me hear it in the comments. I'll also link some tape measures below as well as some marking tools, so feel free to check out those links if you're interested, as always thanks for looking, be sure to come back soon to Watch more videos and consider subscribing. and pressing the Bell button to turn on notifications, that way you'll know the men when we post something. I'm Ethan James with honest Carpenter. See you next time, thanks.