Found out my tape measure was off by a full inch after a year

I was hanging shelves in my garage near Austin and kept wondering why nothing lined up. Got frustrated and grabbed my neighbor's Stanley tape to double check. Turns out the hook on mine had bent somehow and was throwing every measurement off by exactly one inch. Did a quick search online and learned you can file the slot on the hook to fix it. Has anyone else noticed their tape measure giving bad numbers after a while?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_murphy155d ago

Man that's frustrating. A bent hook on a tape measure is one of those things you don't think about until everything's wrong. Filing the slot is a common fix but honestly I'd just buy a new one if yours is that far off. They're cheap enough and you don't want to trust a sketchy tape for important cuts. Makes you wonder how many other things you measured wrong over that year though. Just grab a fresh one and start over.

mark494d ago

Grab that new tape and toss the old one in the trash where it belongs, you'll sleep better knowing your cuts are actually square. Nothing worse than blaming your saw for half a day before realizing it was the damn hook all along. At least you caught it before framing a whole house with the wrong measurements.