Tape Measure's

Jasonsmith13

Hi All
Ive now got 3 tape measures as I keep losing them so bought a replacement 1 stanley 5m 1 stanley 8m and a Dewalt, My problem is if you pull all 3 to 3m there is a differance of 8mm between all three??
annoying if you use 2 for the same table your making!

Reddleman79

Just checked my Blue Spot 5m tape against a Rabone Chesterman 1m steel rule and it's still spot on at 3m. The more expensive tapes aren't always the most accurate in my experience.

Jasonsmith13

I have had it one before and its so annoying , were is the blue spot one from

Reddleman79

I don't know its country of origin, but the metre rule is Sheffield made. I bought the tape at Boyes department store.

Jasonsmith13

Boyes my fav im Hull

casper_gutman

Tape measures come in three flavours:
Class 1, which should be accurate to ±1.1mm over a 10m length,
Class 2, accurate to ±2.3mm over 10m, and
Class 3, for domestic use, for which I can't find a defined accuracy.

I had no idea anything could be so poor as 8mm over 3m though. That's really quite bad.

Any two class 2 tapes should disagree by at most 4.6mm over 10m (and this is pessimistic - you're unlucky if you find a pair where each is at a different extreme of the permissible accuracy range). That's a smidge over 1.5mm disagreement over 3m. Yours disagree by more than five times that.

Possibly still accurate enough for many domestic uses, but a carpenter making a table would certainly need something better!

Le_Kirk

Could it be that the loose end of one or more of your tape measures (no apostrophe required) has worn in the slots.  This is required to accommodate the difference between inside and outside measuring.

Section62

Le_Kirk said:

Could it be that the loose end of one or more of your tape measures (no apostrophe required) has worn in the slots.  This is required to accommodate the difference between inside and outside measuring.

...or has jammed or been bent.

Jasonsmith13

bent i think