Tape measure calibration tool - photos

[Altair]

Tape measure calibration tool.






Previously:

Tape measure with LED light - GIF
Digital tape measure - GIF
Tape measure sliding door mechanism - GIF
Chinese tape measure winding worker - GIF
The importance of maintaining the tape measure hook - GIF

[Jon]

A classic:

[Toolmaker51]

Aaaw, what's a few centimeters among friends....?

Plenty, as distance increases.

[tlnixon]

It is no wonder why building fall apart now.

[drivermark]

What's to calibrate? It's not like measuring tapes are adjustable, all it really does is tell you how bad that cheap POS from Harbor Freight really is.

[Frank S]

What's to calibrate? It's not like measuring tapes are adjustable, all it really does is tell you how bad that cheap POS from Harbor Freight really is.

You might be surprised at the slight deviations in length of even higher quality tapes can have. or how they can stretch over time. Never saw any as bad as those right out of the box though. Right after I got out of the Army, I went to work at a company that issued everyone a little 10-foot-long Lufkin stainless steel tape measure that was graduated in 0.02" of an inch. Bought by the gross, checked against a master once a week. starting at the 1inch mark, a deviation of 2 graduation lines in 10 feet meant you were handed a new tape. Think about it, that is only around 1mm in 3 meters.

[Toolmaker51]

In actuality, "calibrate" isn't a good title. As Frank S points out, it's "verification" or "certification". A few companies offer theirs with a traceable test report, that some work deems necessary. There is added expense, perhaps negligible compared to what some mistakes cost.
A company running a full 'Total Quality' program can probably write off the expense, easier than a mistake.