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That tape measure picture brought to mind a story.

Worked on an apartment complex back in the 1970’s. Big, long buildings, two stories, there were 12 of them in the development. I was framing crew, so frame them, roof, windows, siding.

We were on one building putting on 4’ x 8’ plywood for the roof. Well, we get to throwing it down and the rafters on this one building were getting further and further off, the ply was not hitting center. Of course we laughed and joshed at the guy who laid them out. He swore they were all good, so we go to checking to see where he screwed up.

Sure enough, he had them dead to rights, 16” centers. We go to looking at the plywood, did someone drop a cut one in somewhere to throw us off? Nope, all looked good. We tried starting another row, up from it and ran into the same thing.

Now we got to wondering. We just tacked the lower row at 16” centers, and now this new row was getting off from that?

We start checking the plywood 4’ by 8’, ok, looks good. We all laughted a bit, it is standard plywood right from the factory, why would it not be 4x8!! HaHA HA!! Well, we all sat and thought, what the heck was going on and how to correct it. We figured un-nailing and moving the rafters as we went was the easiest.

The crew on the ground cutting, got to checking the stack. Someone measured diagonals and said it is out of square 1/8”. We all had a good laugh! Yeah, ok. We all went down and checked the pile, sure enough the top one was out of square 1/8”. Then, we started looking at his tape measure. It is plywood from the factory, how could it not be square? We used another tape, then another one, all were showing the whole pile was 1/8” out of square!

We checked them better and each side was a frog hair off in 4’ from square. Their cutter was just a tad off at the factory. They butted up to one another fine when put down in a straight line, but we lost that 1/8” with every sheet. By the time we got 6 sheets in the row, we were falling off the rafters.

😊
 
Woody said:
That tape measure picture brought to mind a story.

Worked on an apartment complex back in the 1970’s. Big, long buildings, two stories, there were 12 of them in the development. I was framing crew, so frame them, roof, windows, siding.

We were on one building putting on 4’ x 8’ plywood for the roof. Well, we get to throwing it down and the rafters on this one building were getting further and further off, the ply was not hitting center. Of course we laughed and joshed at the guy who laid them out. He swore they were all good, so we go to checking to see where he screwed up.

Sure enough, he had them dead to rights, 16” centers. We go to looking at the plywood, did someone drop a cut one in somewhere to throw us off? Nope, all looked good. We tried starting another row, up from it and ran into the same thing.

Now we got to wondering. We just tacked the lower row at 16” centers, and now this new row was getting off from that?

We start checking the plywood 4’ by 8’, ok, looks good. We all laughted a bit, it is standard plywood right from the factory, why would it not be 4x8!! HaHA HA!! Well, we all sat and thought, what the heck was going on and how to correct it. We figured un-nailing and moving the rafters as we went was the easiest.

The crew on the ground cutting, got to checking the stack. Someone measured diagonals and said it is out of square 1/8”. We all had a good laugh! Yeah, ok. We all went down and checked the pile, sure enough the top one was out of square 1/8”. Then, we started looking at his tape measure. It is plywood from the factory, how could it not be square? We used another tape, then another one, all were showing the whole pile was 1/8” out of square!

We checked them better and each side was a frog hair off in 4’ from square. Their cutter was just a tad off at the factory. They butted up to one another fine when put down in a straight line, but we lost that 1/8” with every sheet. By the time we got 6 sheets in the row, we were falling off the rafters.

😊
Click to expand...

Some deep troubleshooting going on there
 
Woody said:
That tape measure picture brought to mind a story.

Worked on an apartment complex back in the 1970’s. Big, long buildings, two stories, there were 12 of them in the development. I was framing crew, so frame them, roof, windows, siding.

We were on one building putting on 4’ x 8’ plywood for the roof. Well, we get to throwing it down and the rafters on this one building were getting further and further off, the ply was not hitting center. Of course we laughed and joshed at the guy who laid them out. He swore they were all good, so we go to checking to see where he screwed up.

Sure enough, he had them dead to rights, 16” centers. We go to looking at the plywood, did someone drop a cut one in somewhere to throw us off? Nope, all looked good. We tried starting another row, up from it and ran into the same thing.

Now we got to wondering. We just tacked the lower row at 16” centers, and now this new row was getting off from that?

We start checking the plywood 4’ by 8’, ok, looks good. We all laughted a bit, it is standard plywood right from the factory, why would it not be 4x8!! HaHA HA!! Well, we all sat and thought, what the heck was going on and how to correct it. We figured un-nailing and moving the rafters as we went was the easiest.

The crew on the ground cutting, got to checking the stack. Someone measured diagonals and said it is out of square 1/8”. We all had a good laugh! Yeah, ok. We all went down and checked the pile, sure enough the top one was out of square 1/8”. Then, we started looking at his tape measure. It is plywood from the factory, how could it not be square? We used another tape, then another one, all were showing the whole pile was 1/8” out of square!

We checked them better and each side was a frog hair off in 4’ from square. Their cutter was just a tad off at the factory. They butted up to one another fine when put down in a straight line, but we lost that 1/8” with every sheet. By the time we got 6 sheets in the row, we were falling off the rafters.

😊
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. That probably explains a couple problems I had when I did my big roof. If not, I will still believe it was the problem to make myself feel a bit better. :ghostly: I would have never thought the plywood would be out of square, and aside from your story explaining how the problem built up as you progressed most people wouldn't think a tiny 1/16 of an inch would matter in a big 4x8 sheet of plywood in "rough" construction.
 
Peanut said:
View attachment 77342
Click to expand...
My brother had a lot of jobs, meat cutter, AC installer & sheet metal fabricator. In his sheet metal work shop is a prefect brass scale/ruler that is 48 inches.
Before starting work you must pull your ruler over the scale to make sure your rule matches it, if not you must adjust your ruler to match & tap the pins to hold the ruler in place. Any mistakes you make as a fabricator come out of you pay.
 
joel said:
My brother had a lot of jobs, meat cutter, AC installer & sheet metal fabricator. In his sheet metal work shop is a prefect brass scale/ruler that is 48 inches.
Before starting work you must pull your ruler over the scale to make sure your rule matches it, if not you must adjust your ruler to match & tap the pins to hold the ruler in place. Any mistakes you make as a fabricator come out of you pay.
Click to expand...
Having a known standard to work from is critical in anything that needs to be exact.
 
1639866782908.png
 
Peanut said:
View attachment 77342
Click to expand...

I carried a 10ft tape for many years. It was either a craftsman or a stanley, a quality tape. It was missing the first 1/4" of markings like the tape in the photo. The little tab on the end of the tape accounted for the missing 1/4". It didn't wiggle or move but was fixed permanently... As long as I hooked the tab on the end of the object I was measuring, it measured perfectly.
 
Peanut said:
I carried a 10ft tape for many years. It was either a craftsman or a stanley, a quality tape. It was missing the first 1/4" of markings like the tape in the photo. The little tab on the end of the tape accounted for the missing 1/4". It didn't wiggle or move but was fixed permanently... As long as I hooked the tab on the end of the object I was measuring, it measured perfectly.
Click to expand...
The hooked end on some tapes were made the slide in and out so it could measure correctly both when hooked or compressed when doing an inside measurement.

Ben
 
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