Check your tape measure

My dad was in his shop adding a shelf to a small cabinet.

He measured the inside of the cabinet, then measured the board and cut it with the hand saw. I expected it to fit perfectly, after all, he was a skilled carpenter and woodworker.

To my surprise he had cut it half an inch too short. I think it was the first time I had seen him make a mistake like that. He shook his head.

Luckily, he had another board that would work, and he went through the same routine. Measuring the cabinet, measuring the board, and making the cut.

Again, it was half an inch too short. He couldn’t believe it and mumbled something about getting senile.

Then suddenly it struck me, he had used two different tape measures. May be one of them was off.

I suggested to check both, and he did although he was skeptical about the possibility of a fairly new tape measure from a well know brand being inaccurate. But sure enough, one of them was missing half an inch from the hook, clearly a factory mishap.

Dad didn’t care that he had to throw it in the trash. He was just happy that he wasn’t to blame for the mistake after all.

I use tools on a regular basis, and I have never experienced noticeable inaccuracy of a tape measure, ruler, level, or tri square.

However, I will probably never trust tire gauges of any kind. I remember using three different gauges on the same tire and the readings were all over the place. Even using the same gauge a few times successively gave me different values.

Recently I bought a better quality one and even now I’m not sure how accurate (or inaccurate) it is. After three tries I just stick with the average. That’s the safest policy I guess.