How do you guys store your measurements? I have a method that has worked great for me for over 25 but I have never seen anyone else do it- nor will the guy I have worked with for the last 15 do it for a sustained time. I buy 3/4 drafting tape and put it on the back of the first 3 feet of my tape. I write on it with ball point (even in the rain if the pen is working good). The measurements are in just the right place when cutting (I can remember them for that second it takes to turn the tape over), and the drafting tape will come off, unless the measuring business has been extreemly slow.
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Glue a piece of formica to the side of your tape. Write on it with the same pencil you use for everything else. Erase it with your thumb.
They actualy make disks of the stuff, with adhesive already on it, that fit the side of a stanley tape.
Don't bogart the Ghost
Quittin' Time
Does it work when you leave the tape at the saw table?
I've always clipped my tape to my right front pants pocket. ALWAYS! Now, why isn't it always there when I get up to the top of the ladder?
Yea, Me too. The only way I combat it is to buy tape measures when they are 5 to 7 bucks a piece. I pile them at the start of the day where I am working and usually carry them back 3 at a time. It keeps me from getting irked and losing the fragile train of thought I maintain.
Doesn't that make the front edge of your pants pocket awful heavy?
Might be able to come up with a velcro system to stick them all over a vest, or something. Hey! You ever see those velcro suits that people wear then spring off a mini trampoline against a wall and stick there? Funny stuff.
There's usually enuf room on the plastic part of my tape to write a couple of dimensions down, in a pinch. When there's a cut list with numerous dims. I grab a chunk of scrap, flap from a lockset box, whatever, and write them down. Unfortunately, my brain, at age fifty, can only seem to store about 3 measurements, max..
Ken Hill
Hey, I'll keep that in mind next time I wanna stick to a wall. Thanks!!
I carry a checkbook in my back pocket, and I've developed the habit of writing measurements on the backs of deposit slips. Seems I use far fewer deposit slips than checks these days.
Mac
Yes but I bring in a temporary support.
LOL
Fonzie,
Yeah, I just use my photographic memory.... works great 9/10 times, or at least until I get tired and cranky! ;)
Thanks for the tip - it's a good idea.
Ragnar
When you become "tired and cranky"....wait till you add "old" to the description!
That's when the "mind camera" becomes a Kodak Disposable.
....................Iron Helix
Helix--
I had heart surgery last year, and the doc warned me that I'd probably have some memory problems afterward. I tested myself on several things while I was still in the hospital, and found that I could still remember most of my trivial BS, phone numbers out the yaya, etc., etc. Then, about three weeks later, I got out onto the job for the first time. Could remember a dimension for about the time it took to roll the tape back up. Woops! I'm doin' better on it now, but I've had to learn at this late date to write all that stuff down, where it was never a habit before.
Mac
I wonder if that is because of blood starvation in the brain during surgery ?
And if it is, I wonder why they don't do something about it ? Seems to me that if they can rig up a pump to take over for your heart for a while, they could certainly rig up a way to feed the brain a little better during that time.Don't bogart the Ghost
Quittin' Time
That's a question that was never answered to my satisfaction, either. It's funny (odd), but while this is an extremely common aftereffect of heart surgery, there are almost as many opinions as on this board as to what causes it. Some suggest that the period of transition to and from the machinery is what causes it. Some think that there are enzymes released or not released during the processed that cause it. Others blame it on the collective damage done while the heart was having problems, in the case of slowly developing coronary artery disease, or during the heart attack, in my case.
I had a sudden heart attack one night, with no prior warning of heart problems and a not-very-high cholesterol reading on a fairly recent test. I nearly died on the way to the hospital, and when the cardiologist (my New Best Friend) did an angiogram, he discovered that my coronary arteries were in much worse shape than he expected. He predicted that I could have another attack within a week, and said he promised I'd have one within 24 hours if they tried to do angioplasty. All this time, I was still in pain from the heart attack, and was still--what can I say--terrified. So they did a quad bypass, and I woke up in a few hours with a sore torso, but still alive on this earth, still able to go home to family and dogs, etc. My thought about my diminished memory was "so what?" It's been getting better. Two months after I had my heart attack, my younger brother had one, and was dead before he hit the floor. I'll take having to write things down. Heck, it makes me do a better "old fart" impression.
Mac
Heyyyyy!
The builder called me up and asked me if I could remember the length of the downstairs living room we measured last week, I did, 27'-6". The mind is a wonderful thing. I used to wonder how some waitress could take all of the orders from a table of six without writing anything down untill I realized that I can do the exact same thing with a series of measurements. I have a small writing pad in my top pocket that I almost never use and there are the odd days when I have to climb a ladder four times or just get two steps away and forget what the heck I was measuring. I write most of that off to the days my mind is completely swamped but I'm getting older too. I saw a new tape with a voice recorder, is it time for me to face up to the fact that I'm starting to lose it? Nah! Maybe next year...
Gordsco
Some manufacturer of measuring tapes (maybe Zircon, the stud finder people?) has a tape with a microchip in it that will hold a bit of your speech, spoken into it. Pull the dimension, push the button, read it into our tape. Get all your measurements, go back to the saw, push the button, and your tape talks to you.
Have to admit it could look suspicious on the job site, standing there talking to your tape ... "Man, get him outta the sun!"
I have one of those tapes. It survived exactly ONE drop to the floor. Now the recording mechanism only works sporadically. The tape is as thin as a newspaper too - So it's not really for jobsite use IMHO.Maternity is another word for eternity.
Crap! I forgot what I was going to say!
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Well, I'd be interested in one of those memory tapes, but sure as I'm sittin' here the missus would find out about it and make some of those little cooing sounds into it to brighten my day and I would get distracted from my work.
My cell phone (which is always on belt) has an interesting feature. Motorola calls it voicenotes. Same as the talking tapemeasure. You bark into it, it'll bark back later. You can hold 10-20 voicenotes at a time. take alot of measurements then goto cuttingstation/ wetsaw for an hour to make all the cuts. Forget where they all go, start cussing, Wait a minute. What were we talking about again?
Can't I go 1 day without spilling my coffee?
You know what they say; "the shortest pencil is better than the best memory"