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A "decent" tape? What do I mean by a decent tape?
Yes indeed. And this is something you don't realise until you've used one. Aside from the obvious things of it having the measurements in your preferred "language" of metric or imperial (other measurement systems are available).
I'm talking about steel retractable measuring tapes here. Again, there are a wealth of different other types of measuring tape available, I'd just suggest that in the world of retractable steel "pocket“ tapes there's some benefit in getting a half good one.
So; a basic one:
Nothing desperately wrong with it, it pulls out, springs back, it measures and it has a belt clip.
But you can do so much better..
This is a Stanley FatMax 8m / 26’ steel tape, it’s a little bit better in a couple of ways
Obviously it’s a bigger tape, it measures a greater distance. They both have a belt clip and they both have a sliding lock button.
One important difference is the hook on the end. It has a slot in the end so you can hook it over the end of a nail or screw. This is useful if you’re working alone, you can just tap a nail into your start point, hang the tape end on it it wander off to your measuring point. But better still are the “wings” that protrude out the side and upward. You can hang the tape by these wings and measure along the side of something or underneath something.
Like this
and like this
But probably the thing that I most like about this tape is something called “standout”
Standout is the amount you can push the tape out of the case without it collapsing like this
As you can see, at 840mm or 34 inches the Starrett has collapsed
but with the Stanley...
The end of the tape isn’t resting on anything and the tape is pushed out 2750mm (9’) so if you’re on your own and trying to measure a window dimension for curtain rail for instance it’s a great advantage and for me, that alone is a good enough reason to own it.
so, if you think it’s as good as I do and you want to buy one here’s a link to Amazon
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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