I’ve always admired good carpenters. Basic carpentry is seemingly a logical skill that usually but not always just needs basic math skills. You’ll never be good if you can’t measure and cut correctly. I love to watch carpentry and handyman shows such as This Old House. My dad use to say measure twice… cut once. He also said he could cut a board in half and it wouldn’t fit back together again. It’s something that intimidates me, and I avoid. I think a big problem is a lack of experience. Part of the problem is if you cut something incorrectly, you may have to go back out and buy more material. I wish there was an undo button like there is in computers. My grandfather was a great all around handyman with carpentry and electrical skills. I could have learned a lot from him, but unfortunately he’s gone now. Honestly I just miss being with him more than his skills. I miss seeing him drive over on a Sunday to watch the Miami Dolphins play on TV. He was a very kind grandfather with a good heart.
Anywho…
I wanted to cut a piece of wood that went from the floor up to a certain point, to use as a brace for my table that holds my computer. I’ve been leaning on this table top that is secured to the wall, for 30+ years.
I used the tape measure, below left. So I set it on the floor and pulled the steel “tape” up to the point I wanted to measure. I then marked and cut the board. It was inches off. Stupid mistake. Luckily I have a stack of wood that my neighbor threw away when had had a deck built in his yard. I immediately realized I forgot to factor in the measurements of the tape measure itself. Unfortunately as you can see the tape measure doesn’t tell you it’s length. So I used the tape measure on the right, for my next attempt, which as you can see clearly says 3 1/8 inches. So you must add that to your measurements, if you include the tape measure in the measurement as I did.
OK, another problem as my eyes are getting old, is just seeing the marks on the tape measure. So I took a picture of the “tape” itself. This way, using my phone camera, I can see there are 16 total marks per inch, or 8 bigger marks per inch which honestly are hard for my older eyes to distinguish from the smaller marks.
It’s just easier to lock the tape in place and take a picture of it, so I can clearly see it. As you can see it’s 24+2 marks or 24 2/16 But I have to add 3 1/8. To know I need to cut the board, to a length of 27 1/4 “. OK, problem #1 solved!
The next problem is actually cutting the board. If I just used my table saw it would have been easy, and more exact, but it’s bulky and I would need to setup my woodworking table to use it. So I turned to my easily accessible hand held circular saw. To make a long story short, just from prior uses I used the edge of the top of the notch, as a guide, to follow the line I have drawn on the wood, as seen below. Which gave me a end result of a very close fit.
