If you are already a user of a diameter tape measure, these tips are for you.
- Keep it clean. If you keep sand and dirt from inhabiting your tape, it will look good longer and last longer.
- Line it up straight on the pipe. If you put the tape on a little crooked, you will get an erroneously high reading.
- Clean the pipe. This makes sure that surface contaminants aren’t interfering with your measurement.
- Use a felt tip marker to mark common measurements directly on the tape. Don’t be a hero. This tip will make your job easier.
- Put your name on it. Valuable and handy tools have a way of walking away.
- Buy only the best pipe diameter tape measure. Lufkin is a trusted brand name.
- Keep one in every location that you work (and leave it there). I keep one in the office, my shop, my tool box, and in all my vehicles and boat. A diameter tape doesn’t measure only diameters. The other side is a regular inch tape (or metric tape). So it comes in handy many times.
Please post your own tips in the comments here. I’d be interested in what you come up with. Thanks.