Why is it like that....

Mark E Smith

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Arkansas
Noticed today in the shop that every single tape measure I own, some almost as old as I am, all have the belt clip on the left side of the tape. Didn't realize until today how stupid that is, because now you always put it on your right hip so the tape is facing forward, ready to go when you grab it, why is that stupid, because most people are right handed and if I am using a tape measure probably going to mark some thing with it, so I am gonna have a pencil in my right hand...lol...now I gotta put the pencil down pull out the TM make the measurement transfer holding the Tape to my left hand, grab my pencil, do some kinda contortion and make the mark, then switch hands again to put it back on my hip. Now I guess I could put it back on my left hip with my left hand, but the tape would be backwards then so now you gotta turn it around. Looked on the web today, couldn't find one tape measure by any of the big names, or no names for that matter with tapes that have clips on the right side...hhmmm...wonder why it came out that way during it's history and every body that makes them decided to play along...lol...you would think someone would say hey why don't we make this with a clip on the other side, but nope not happening.

I obviously have too much time on my hands, but I thought I would start a thread to see if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon or something weird about any other tool in the shop
 
The clips are still on the left side of the case, but Lee Valley sells several tapes that read right to left instead of left to right. They allow you to hold the tape body with your left hand and run the pencil with your right.

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32562&cat=1,43513,43003

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32565&cat=1,43513,43003

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32563&cat=1,43513

Yep but all three still have the clip on the left side of the body, the tapes reads different, but the case itself still has the clips on the left which means you clip to the right hip for the tape to face forward
 
Why years ago, I bought one of those leather tape holders. Pull off the clips and put it on the side you want it on.

Great solution, never thought of that..shame they don't make it so you can decide which side the clip goes on, but that would interfere with their logo wouldn't it..lol...but the point is, that every body seemed to have the same thought process when making these things, that in itself is amazing, nobody thought to break away from the pack...how odd...
 
After wearing holes in my shop pants for years, I now remove the belt clip altogether, and no longer have leaky shop pants. Hold the case tight while you loosen the screw, slip the clip off, and retighten the screw.
 
The few times I clip the tape to my belt, usually when I am going to the borg, and may want to measure something, I take the tape off my belt to do the measurement. Then I set it down and forget where I left it.
 
Now hold it a minute are you picking on left handed people. lol I'm like Roger I have it on my belt for a while but then I use it once and then put it down somewhere and have to spend a few minutes looking for it and then the pencil which is somewhere else. I now am the proud owner of 10, count them 10 tapes. Now all I have to do is look up from the work and there is usually one tape in my line of site.:bliss:
 
The exception that proves the rule... (no pun intended...)

-O-CFKRHbzFVknRnEx42SYNllYhPtGAUdqEzsV7Hq8es9YBi9Pe6Zxs3BXkYx4qt2Q_yszOk5WakFEtu5kTJ7ANI-BJb7jL-Xd2R9c0kDv3IldWttUaCQv1_Y-rUDO4AlJXCtHpgSg=w2400
 

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Tony, note that it is only the clip on the wrong side - the tapes all read left to right. To save my pants pockets, I take off the belt clips, which I traced to the cause of my shop pants all getting leaky pockets.

They all appear to be metric tapes. Are you from Canada or elsewhere that uses the better system of measure?
 
Charlie, you're quite correct about only the clip being on the other side, otherwise the tape is the same. But I was more fascinated by the fact that I found a tape measure with the clip on the 'other' side because when I read the original post I Googled "tape measure" then selected 'images', and every image had the clip on the left side as the OP pointed out. Then when I went to my workshop the very first tape I picked up had it on the 'other' side.

For the record I'm from Australia, and the highlighted tape is a combination Metric/Imperial made in Australia (branded Stanley). I think I purchased it in the early '70s when Australia began the painful process of moving from one system to the other and I began my woodwork journey. I still use it on occasion as any plans/Youtube videos originating from the US are inevitably in Imperial and it saves me having to do the conversion.

As for metric being the better system? I think you'll find plenty of your fellow countrymen who'll argue that point with you but having used bother systems (Imperial till my '20s) I'd have to say I much prefer metric once you're used to it. And there is absolutely no doubt my children, who were brought up with metric, have a lot of trouble getting their head around a measurement like 13 56/64" :)

Metric makes a lot of sense too for volume measurement because a litre of water weighs exactly a kilogram. This means you can get a syringe and easily measure say 15 grams by drawing 15 cl into the syringe. Having grown up with pints and quarts I now realise what a big advantage that is.
 
As an aside, even after forty five years of using metric I still fill my car tyres to 28 psi. Kilopascals (the metric equivalent) means nothing to me even though 'pounds per square inch' doesn't really either ... :)
 
My wife and I were both educated in Science - she in Medical Technology and Research, me as an Engineer, so we both speak Metric and are bilingual. My large combo woodworking machine is bilingual, marked in both metric and imperial. I would gladly do everything in metric, but my customers speak Imperial, so my fluency (what I think in) is still imperial even though I prefer metric. When we cook the kitchen scale is often used in metric - "gimme half of that 3 pound 3.3 ounce thing" is a nuisance, not an issue as 1454 grams.

I thought most metric countries used ATM in tires, rather than kilopascals. I can get my head around 1.9 atm in a tire - 1.9 times standard atmospheric pressure, but pascals didn't get along with me in college. :)
 
I like the bilingual too, Charley. Math is so much easier. I learned it while teaching woodworking to mostly retired aerospace machinists and engineers! So bilingual tapes are a must in my shop.
 
Since starting to do much more in 3d printing, lasers, and cnc, I find myself using metric a whole lot more for those projects. I only purchast rules that are bilingual anymore.
 
I find it amusing to see people refer to a 2400 (mm) 3 x 2 (inches) :)... and in fact I often do it myself. Of course going metric does present some practical issues. Consider this:

Currently, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The conversion to metric would mean that a gram of prevention is worth approximately one‑sixtieth a kilogram of cure.

Just doesn't sound the same, does it? :)
 
Noticed today in the shop that every single tape measure I own, some almost as old as I am, all have the belt clip on the left side of the tape. Didn't realize until today how stupid that is, because now you always put it on your right hip so the tape is facing forward, ready to go when you grab it, why is that stupid, because most people are right handed and if I am using a tape measure probably going to mark some thing with it, so I am gonna have a pencil in my right hand...lol...now I gotta put the pencil down pull out the TM make the measurement transfer holding the Tape to my left hand, grab my pencil, do some kinda contortion and make the mark, then switch hands again to put it back on my hip. Now I guess I could put it back on my left hip with my left hand, but the tape would be backwards then so now you gotta turn it around. Looked on the web today, couldn't find one tape measure by any of the big names, or no names for that matter with tapes that have clips on the right side...hhmmm...wonder why it came out that way during it's history and every body that makes them decided to play along...lol...you would think someone would say hey why don't we make this with a clip on the other side, but nope not happening.

I obviously have too much time on my hands, but I thought I would start a thread to see if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon or something weird about any other tool in the shop

FastCap heard you and solved your problem!

 
As a lefty I have had to adapt to the right handed world for 80 years-----have done so somewhat successfully thruout---small such problems fade into insignificance in the real world-----works for me.
 
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