Walked onto a site in Detroit last week and found my layout marks were off by half an inch

I was setting up a big boiler replacement for an old factory near the river. Got there early, marked my cut lines, then the lead guy walks over and points out I was using a tape that had stretched about 1/8 inch over 10 feet. He swapped me a fresh one from his truck and it fixed everything. Anyone else ever get burned by an old tape measure throwing off your work?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_lane15d ago

Three years back my helper grabbed my old beat-up tape and tried laying out a furnace platform while I was on the phone... ended up cutting a hole two inches off center and we had to patch the whole floor.

kai_stone9915d ago

Man you ever had a buddy who just refuses to throw away a tool? My friend Dave spent three days running pipe in a new build and kept fighting with his cuts. Turns out his grandpa's old tape measure was off by a solid inch over fifteen feet. He was blaming the saw, the studs, even the weather. Finally I made him check it against my new tape and his face went red. He still keeps that busted tape in his truck to remind himself to check his gear first. Half an inch is brutal but at least it was just layout marks and not a finished install.