Decimal In. measuring tape

oddball_wp · Jan 9, 2014

I have looked around for and while and with further research before making a purchase has revealed that the product is not what I'm looking for.
Is there a measuring tape out there that reads in decimal inches like my pocket rule, or my rigid 12 inch rule? The ones I have found that do have decimal readings but just have it for the 1/8ths or 1/16ths. I am well aware an 1/8 is 0.125 and a 1/16 is 0.0625. I would like one that has graduations purely decimal.
I rarely work with fractions but some parts (20+ foot) require to be a certain length and my only option has been to take skim cuts until I meet a 1/16 to get a "bearing" of where I'm at and then proceed to continue to cut it to length. A tape with tenths and 20ths increments would be a blessing.
In a nutshell, I'm a machinist, not a carpenter, so is there a tape for machinists? (Nothing against carpenters

)
Any suggestions would be helpful.

Dennisrech · Jan 9, 2014

oddball_wp said:
I have looked around for and while and with further research before making a purchase has revealed that the product is not what I'm looking for.
Is there a measuring tape out there that reads in decimal inches like my pocket rule, or my rigid 12 inch rule? .

Available from Aircraft Spruce or Amazon.

STANLEY DECIMAL INCH TAPE MEASURE

Part # 33-272

310 Guy · Jan 9, 2014

Mcmaster also has one...
McMaster-Carr

They also make one marked in decimal feet, which is what I use for laying out aircraft stations.

alonzo83 · Jan 9, 2014

Or just drop the crutch. Learn to read a tape and know the decimal form. I kick puppies every time I pick up a print with a mix of decimals and fractions. It makes me know what I am dealing with quick.

You don't know what a bad engineer is until you know a good engineer.

learn your craft. Peace be with you.

Ox · Jan 9, 2014

..or learn your decimal equivalents.

----------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

310 Guy · Jan 9, 2014

Ok, I'm a little confused here...
Alonzo and Ox, are you saying that you see nothing wrong with using machines that are marked in 10ths, 100ths, and 1000ths of an inch, but use a tape that measures in 1/8ths and 1/16ths? Wouldn't it be easier to use a tape marked in 10ths? (I'm not sure that I would trust a tape measure for 100ths of an inch, but I guess you could.) Why do people still use fractions? I've never seen a lathe or mill that was marked that way.

When I was designing stuff for NASA, I would make all the features to 10ths, 100ths and 1000ths of an inch, not to the decimal equivalent of a fraction. In other words, a bolt circle might be 3.7 in dia, located 2.8 in from an edge. Not 3.75 or 2.625 in. The machinists loved it, said it sure made it easier to layout and program.

Or maybe I'm just all wrong. It's happened before... :cheers:

Bailey (the bent-tail lathe dog)

oddball_wp · Jan 9, 2014

Well aware of my decimal equivalents, but my problem is when I need to cut to length a shaft 15' 3.070" +/-.020, a regular tape just doesn't cut it.

Ox said:
..or learn your decimal equivalents.

----------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Ox · Jan 9, 2014

I would not use a tape to cut it with either, just to measure it with.
I have no trouble getting there with a fractional tape, but I honestly prefer that they doo NOT have them scaled to /32's. Too fine'a lines. I can "read between the lines" just fine, and if it aint so dense I can read it too.

No doubt that the metric system is much easier. ..and I say that with experience behind me now, rather than when they were trying to shove it down our throats back in the 70's in skewl. The fact that nobody seems to use "deci" or "deca" seems to really help keep cornfussion down. Just like we don't use 10ths or 100ths of an inch in machining. I have to train the new kids that if they ever say "tenths" there had better be an awfull lot of zero's before it or we aint gunna git along too well....

But I have no issues with decimal equivs at all. 64ths above 5/8 I would hafta think about, but if you gave me a decimal number to hit, I know which mark on the tape it is. I may not be able to rattle off if it is 43, 45, or 47 /64ths, but I know where 1.800 is without thinking.

The new kid?
Well - he's gotta get up to speed...

--------------------

Thikn Snow Eh!
Ox

John Welden · Jan 9, 2014

Decimal inch tapes are way better then fractions. Fractions are the most retarded system ever invented. Machinsts shouldn't use fractions.

I'm a machinist, not a carpenter that's building up some concrete forms for a sidewalk. Don't make me use your stupid measurement system.

steve45 · Jan 9, 2014

Lufkin makes decimal foot tapes. Their website is pretty bad, but I see the tape measures being used every day in the oil field.

http://lufkintool.com/Lufkin_Oil_Gauging_Tape.pdf

Pete F · Jan 10, 2014

310 Guy said:
When I was designing stuff for NASA, I would make all the features to 10ths, 100ths and 1000ths of an inch, not to the decimal equivalent of a fraction. In other words, a bolt circle might be 3.7 in dia, located 2.8 in from an edge. Not 3.75 or 2.625 in. The machinists loved it, said it sure made it easier to layout and program.

Yes but you weren't supposed to be using either

How many major screw-ups can NASA put down to using imperial measurements, I know of several off the top of my head. This is just one. Mars Mission's Metric Mixup

Anyhow, just pulling your chain, good luck with search. I don't often agree with Weldon, but even he got a like to the fractional system being the most retarded form of measurement ever devised. Man I've seen some confusion through it.

Crossjcc · Jan 10, 2014

I use to work at a company making the rods that push the ailerons for the 747 up and down , we roughed the blanks out reliably to +/- .01 with the stanly tape mentioned in the second post it's fine for your purpose because we then Checked are work when In question with a laser measuring device.

But I would make sure you lay it across a 12 inch caliper to double check accuracy. The rivet holes can get stretched out on them from dropping , or using them a lot. I stretch out my caliper to 10 inches hook the tape on the id reading point and see how it lines up on the other. The reason I use 12 inch caliper is short ones the points aren't long enough.

Pete F · Jan 10, 2014

Crossjcc said:
I use to work at a company making the rods that push the ailerons for the 747 up and down , we roughed the blanks out reliably to +/- .01 with the stanly tape mentioned in the second post ....

Oh gawd, some things I don't think I want to know :eek:

Crossjcc · Jan 10, 2014

It was just a roughing op before we did the real work on it to make sure the blank fit in the gun drill and then after onto a mandrel. With that type of work record keeping is quite meticulous and nothing shady was going on.

Modelman · Jan 10, 2014

steve45 said:
Lufkin makes decimal foot tapes. Their website is pretty bad, but I see the tape measures being used every day in the oil field.

http://lufkintool.com/Lufkin_Oil_Gauging_Tape.pdf

Careful, that's not what's being discussed here. Land surveying here in the US traditionally uses decimal feet rather than feet and inches. If your lot is fifty and a half feet wide, it will be dimensioned on the survey as 50.5' rather than 50'-6".

What the OP wants is a Decimal Inch tape, where each INCH is divided into 100 parts, the same as a calipers is.

Dennis

Ox · Jan 10, 2014

Heck - I have some prints for machined parts that are spec'd in feet and inches. (1' 3.5")

Takes some time to get my head on strait for that!
Might seem normal for something 10' long or more, but for 15.5"? Not normal....

---------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

DDoug · Jan 10, 2014

Ox said:
Heck - I have some prints for machined parts that are spec'd in feet and inches. (1' 3.5")

Takes some time to get my head on strait for that!
Might seem normal for something 10' long or more, but for 15.5"? Not normal....

My construction friends work that way. Try to machine something for them,
drives me nutz.

That's the world they live in, feet & inches.

Blue chalk line to start, red supercedes blue for changes etc.

SPDTool · Jan 10, 2014

There are some "Digital Tapes" that allow you to switch measuring units with a button.
I am not a big fan of measuring tapes that use batteries but I have one made by Starrett that works pretty well.
-Scott

oddball_wp · Jan 10, 2014

Modelman said:
Careful, that's not what's being discussed here. Land surveying here in the US traditionally uses decimal feet rather than feet and inches. If your lot is fifty and a half feet wide, it will be dimensioned on the survey as 50.5' rather than 50'-6".

What the OP wants is a Decimal Inch tape, where each INCH is divided into 100 parts, the same as a calipers is.

Dennis

Thank you for understanding my need. I rarely work in fractions (except thread a drill stuff).
Example of an issue that happened today at work:
A rod I was turning needed to be 146.125 inches long. (I do know that that is 146 inches and an 1/8). But when I pull my tape to see how long my stock was it fell in between 149" and 5/32 and 3/16. So I made facing cuts to bring it to as close I could to 149" and 1/8. Then I had a starting point to continue to getting it to length from the 1/8, which is .125 and my machine can work with decimals and not fractions.
So using the above example a decimal measuring tape in the start would have shown a better value than the decimal equivalents of 149.1562 or 149.1875. It may had shown me that it was infact 149.180. That is a value I can work with. And these are long measurements and tolerances are usually +/- .020 to +/- .050 or so. I would hate to have to use a tape for anything that required more precision.

Impractical · Jan 10, 2014

I bought a 12' stanley tape measure several years ago that had fractions on one side and decimals on the other side. It was just like this one...

I didn't realize it was graduated "funky" on one side until I started using it. I'd like to get another, as it proved to be a great little tape measure over the years I used it, but it looks like it's discontinued now. Perhaps with enough digging you could still find one for sale somewhere? I see stanley currently sells them with the same fraction/decimal graduations in their powerlock line.

Decimal In. measuring tape

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