Harbor Freight tape measures come up short

[Benson]

Originally Posted by goodcar

Once had an annoying boss, didn't trust the help, had to measure everything we built. Got ahold of his tape measure and cut off the first inch, replaced the clip. Thought we were going to have to call 911 when he freaked out next time he started measuring our work---the joys of working for the railroad.

Back in 1990 our company got bought out by a series of Corporate Raiders.


First thing they did was hire a bunch of Snot Nosed college boys with MBAs. (1 or 2 for each major city).



MBA = "Master in Bean Accounting". (they hated that name)



Our company had Company purchased and maintained cars (was one of several companies that they bought).



One day the Bean Counter started to bitch in a meeting about the cost of the Company cars. He said that it was costing them 34 cents per mile.


Some of us had company cars and the rest were getting mileage to drive our own cars. They were paying us 17 cents a mile.


So I raised my hand asked if it is cost you 34 cents how come you are paying the rest of us 17?


"You sit down and shut up!"


In the next meeting one of us told the Bean Counter that we, as drivers, were saving the company money on mileage for both CAR programs but we never told them how we were doing it.


Finally one Bean Counter cornered one of the guys and he had to "Spill the beans".


"On all of the cars we moved the front seat forward one inch so that we get to our destination sooner!"




.

[katy]

Ya gotta be careful, I ran across a tape one time that gave me fits, turned out it didn't have inches, it had 1/10ths of a foot. It was a surveyors measuring tape.

Then there was the old original measuring tapes that were made of cloth, which was fine when they were new but as they aged they began to stretch. The railroad threw thousands of them away in the '50s.

[ursus]

My uncle built homes for 45 years. Before allowing any tradesmen on the site he would check the tapes used by every one of them for accuracy. Some complained, especially when their "tried and true" tapes were banished from the job. Even when all the tapes were made here in the U.S., not all were accurate and many were a bit off after years of use and abuse. My uncle said that his obsession with tapes saved him a lot of time and money over the years.

[Y-Blockhead]

Originally Posted by Ted Duke

ALL tape measures are suspect. In 1968 we bought a new home in Virginia Beach. Needed shades on all of the windows (3 bdrm house). Picked up a CRAFTSMAN ruler at Sears and measured all of the windows, went back to Sears and ordered shades. Picked them up two days later they were all 1/4" short. Measured the windows again and went to Sear. They measured them and they were correct.



Salesman measured my Craftsman ruler, broke it it half threw it in the trash. Got a new one, measured it, handed it to me and said you blinds will be ready tomorrow by one pm.


No charge. All items you measure with may have an error; like GPS.

Those were the days. Now you can't find anyone in Sears to talk to in the first place and when you do they wouldn't have any idea how to use a tape measure if you took it off their own shelf and handed to them...

[Joe K]

Originally Posted by Y-Blockhead

Those were the days. Now you can't find anyone in Sears to talk to in the first place and when you do they wouldn't have any idea how to use a tape measure if you took it off their own shelf and handed to them...

Ask for a "combination square" and see what they hand you.

It ain't this.

How much we've lost in 140 years.

Joe K

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Your talking about measuring tapes got me thinking because I always carry a small 6 ft tape in my pocket along with a Swiss Army knife and a Craftsman 4 inch adjustable wrench. Amazing what you can fix with just what is in my pocket. Anyway I looked at my tape and it seems to have some history that I never knew about before. This is from Wikipedia.

The Keuffel and Esser Co., also known as K & E, was a drafting instrument and supplies company founded in 1867 by two German immigrants, William J. D. Keuffel and Herman Esser. It was the first American company to specialize in these products

[DBrer]

I guess I have not checked a tape for accuracy, I usually can mess stuff up on my own but now I can blame the tape.

[katy]

Originally Posted by DBrer

I guess I have not checked a tape for accuracy, I usually can mess stuff up on my own but now I can blame the tape.

Sounds like a good plan.

[old31]

Originally Posted by goodcar

Once had an annoying boss, didn't trust the help, had to measure everything we built. Got ahold of his tape measure and cut off the first inch, replaced the clip. Thought we were going to have to call 911 when he freaked out next time he started measuring our work---the joys of working for the railroad.

Wow, you are lucky. You only "ONCE" had an annoying boss. Now let me count the times..........