Back in March, my old cabinetry teacher kept saying 'trust the tape, not your eyes' when we were laying out upper cabinets. I thought it was nonsense because the level looked perfect. Ended up trusting my eyeballs instead, and the range hood ended up 4 inches off center. Took me 2 full days and a lot of drywall mud to fix it. Anyone else blow off advice from a teacher or boss and instantly regret it?
Watched a video from a tool maker in Toledo about how their machinists check tolerances. They use a calibrated straight edge that costs maybe 40 bucks. I got curious and grabbed one, then checked my "perfect" aluminum parts from last month. Three of them were off by more than I thought. My $12 square was the problem this whole time. Has anyone else found a cheap tool that quietly made their work worse?