←back to thread

Only 5.3% of US welders are women. After years as a professor, I became one

(theconversation.com)
254 points Michelangelo11 | 2 comments | 06 Nov 24 00:24 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
martin293 ◴[06 Nov 24 15:28 UTC] No.42063782[source]▶
> One man, watching me while I cut 8-foot lengths of tubing for him, told me that I could simply hook my tape measure over the saw blade and subtract ⅛-inch to find the correct length. Piqued after I explained why his method wouldn’t work for a precise measurement, he responded by quizzing me on something I wasn’t likely to know: the purpose of the black diamonds on my tape measure.

Perhaps I'm picturing the situation wrong, but why wouldn't it work on the precision levels of a tape measure?

replies(7): >>42063901 #>>42064134 #>>42064356 #>>42064424 #>>42065158 #>>42065763 #>>42066888 #
1. iamtheworstdev ◴[06 Nov 24 15:50 UTC] No.42064134[source]▶
she may be implying a lack of precision from the floating tip on a well used/worn measuring tape. i wouldn't rely on that for anything i considered "precise". framing a house? sure.
replies(1): >>42064262 #
2. maples37 ◴[06 Nov 24 15:58 UTC] No.42064262[source]▶
Fun fact: the floating tip on a measuring tape is loose by design. It's to account for the width of the tip itself when you're measuring by pushing the tip into a corner, versus measuring by hooking the tip around the edge of your material.

So a "loose" tip on a measuring tape is actually more accurate than a fixed rigid tip that does not move. (though I don't think I've ever seen a tape measure that is lacking this feature)

https://asktooltalk.com/questions/faq/tools/tape_measures/ta...