Reed Wells
07-14-2006, 7:24 PM
My 13 year old daughter is working in the shop with me for the summer school break. ( Try it guys, great bonding! ) So while measuring some 8/4 stock for rough cutting, she informed me that the tape measure was broke, so without looking at it I gave her a different one. Five minutes later she tells me that one is also broke. Hmmmm. The way she explained it "the little tippy thing that hooks the board is moving a little bit and won't let her get an accurate measurement." Of course the little tippy thing she was talking about was the tang. Flashback, 1967. A seventeen year old carpenters helper decided to fix his own tape measure, "broke the same way", by taking a nail set and peening the brads holding the tang. Now wait, it gets better. Feeling proud that he could fix broken tapes he decides the bosses tape needed a little repair. OK, now you can laugh. With my daughter I used the very same explanation that was given me some fourty one years ago, why that little bit of play at the end of your Stanley is there. I hope I used the same patience and understanding that was shown to her father. Reed