Most people don’t know this…
Did you know a tape measure tip is intentionally supposed to move?
The movement is supposed to be equal to the thickness of the material the tip of the tape measure is made out of.
This is to allow the tape measure to take an equal measurement either pushing the tip into something or hooking it and pulling.
Just something that was brought up during my precision measuring class I thought was kinna cool! Nobody ever told me.
Whoever is keeping track, add “measuring things” to the list of things to teach in a basic makers course.
Neat, never thought about that before.
For future reference, we are looking at adding a class on measuring to the metalshop’s catalog.
A fairly recent donation filled up that red husky cabinet with thickness gauges, ball gauges, dial indicators, and a bunch of nifty magnetic stands for the mills among other things… though, we’re a bit lacking on the caliper side.
Good to know my friend!
Will it be covering metric inches? 
…says the guy that can do all of those calculations in his head…
I would add…“gauge when you can, measure when you must”.
Gene White
I’m more measure twice cut once kinna of fellow
There’s also a slot in the end that fits on the head of a nail. Not exact, but close enough for a number of things.
It can be used to measure out circles as well.
For me it’s more like “Measure 3 times, but still cut it wrong”.
Cut twice, measure once, still too short!
Measure thrice cut once, measure once swear thrice is my philosophy.
Here lately its measure 0 times just throw it on the laser lol
For me its measure twice, wonder why they are different, measure again, get distracted, month later wonder why there are pencil marks all over the place.
Or blame it on the dang Chinese, they’re the ones that made the darn tape measure.
Saw a thread on garage journal asking why nobody made high quality tape measures. From his description of high quality, I took it to mean fancy. Like cnc machined aluminum case and stainless hardware. I thought, why would anybody want to lose something that expensive!?