In article ,
Vir Campestris wrote:
Cut the worktop to fit (it was 3050mm, and the walls are 29-something).

Tried to put it in, and doesn't quite fit.

Cut a bit more off.

Tried to put it in, and it doesn't quite fit.

Cut a bit more off.

Now it's half an inch too short

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil leads
built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than transfer
directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the reading. It was
so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

--
*I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Wednesday, 26 February 2020 11:12:19 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil leads
built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than transfer
directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the reading. It was
so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

I expect it's possible to 3d print a snap-on bit to do that. I don't know whether it's still patented or not.


NT

In message ,
writes
On Wednesday, 26 February 2020 11:12:19 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil leads
built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than transfer
directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the reading. It was
so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

I expect it's possible to 3d print a snap-on bit to do that. I don't
know whether it's still patented or not.

I have, but rarely use, a combined tape, pencil holder and notepad.

Came as a freebie from ITS London or some such.

Smiths golden rule. Measure twice, cut once:-)

--
Tim Lamb

Fitting shelves and worktops into alcoves with wonky walls is almost impossible to achieve a good fit to all three walls so I concentrate on the sides mainly as those are the bits you are most likely to see. Measuring only the back and front only tells you how much overall you need to remove but not each individual end. Having fixed support battens to the back and sides, I fasten a board at least as wide as the shelf or worktop onto the back batten with one edge as best fit at right angles to the back wall and if possible on centre but it does not have to be central as it is only a datum line. Measure left and right from the datum line at the back and at the front. Mark a datum line on your shelf material and repeat the measurements on the shelf cutting to your marked lines should now give give you a shelf that fits nicely between the sides. This works for angled but straight alcove sides, if they are undulating then using two boards scribed to each end will produce a left and right template and these just need to be positioned correctly apart on the shelf to achieve the same result.

On kitchen worktops just use any side of a base unit as a datum measure into the back corners and at the front in a similar fashion, mark the datum on your worktop and repeat the measurements to get your cut lines. If creating templates you might even be able to use them as guides for a router.

Richard

In article ,
wrote:
On Wednesday, 26 February 2020 11:12:19 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil
leads built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than
transfer directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the
reading. It was so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

I expect it's possible to 3d print a snap-on bit to do that. I don't know whether it's still patented or not.


The beauty of this one was it used ordinary propelling pencil leads built
in so easy to replace. Or use the provided steel scribe. And it was the
same size as any other small 5m tape.

Called Mark-O-Matic.

There are others that claim to have some of the functions, but none with
all of them. It's very odd for me to like a tool that others didn't find
excellent too. And simply disappears from the market.

--
*DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T PET THE SWEATY THINGS.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, 26 February 2020 11:12:19 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil leads
built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than transfer
directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the reading. It
was
so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

I expect it's possible to 3d print a snap-on bit to do
that. I don't know whether it's still patented or not.

The patent is irrelevant if its just for your own use.

On Thu, 27 Feb 2020 05:40:23 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH senile arsehole's troll****

--
about senile Rot Speed:
"This is like having a conversation with someone with brain damage."
MID:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil leads
built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than transfer
directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the reading. It was
so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

Try a hultafors talmeter, not pencil leads, but a marking blade, also
has a retractable end that offsets the body length directly between the
two sides of an opening.

In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil
leads built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than
transfer directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the
reading. It was so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

Try a hultafors talmeter, not pencil leads, but a marking blade, also
has a retractable end that offsets the body length directly between the
two sides of an opening.

I'll look that up, thanks, Andy.

--
*If PROGRESS is for advancement, what does that make CONGRESS mean?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Try a hultafors talmeter

I'll look that up, thanks, Andy.

https://www.hultafors.com/articles/talmeter__taking_measuring_further

In message , Andy Burns
writes
Dave Plowman wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Try a hultafors talmeter
I'll look that up, thanks, Andy.

https://www.hultafors.com/articles/talmeter__taking_measuring_further

Or the d-i-y version. Two pointed battens and a small cramp:-)

--
Tim Lamb

On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:17:56 +0000, Tim Lamb
wrote:

In message , Andy Burns
writes
Dave Plowman wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Try a hultafors talmeter
I'll look that up, thanks, Andy.

https://www.hultafors.com/articles/talmeter__taking_measuring_further

Or the d-i-y version. Two pointed battens and a small cramp:-)

vs £30+ for the 6m hultafors !!!

On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 11:06:45 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Vir Campestris wrote:
Cut the worktop to fit (it was 3050mm, and the walls are 29-something).

Tried to put it in, and doesn't quite fit.

Cut a bit more off.

Tried to put it in, and it doesn't quite fit.

Cut a bit more off.

Now it's half an inch too short

I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil leads
built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than transfer
directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the reading. It
was so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

I think that to work this assumes that the alcove is symmetrical.
I have recently done a similar desktop exercise and the walls in the room
are neither entirely true nor absolutely parallel.

An added source of buggeration, of course, is that the desktop has to be
presented exactly flat to settle as a snug fit. Fine if it can be slid in
front to back from a wider area. Otherwise there has to be enough of a gap
to allow the desktop to settle into its final position from an inclined
state. So a small gap is almost inevitable.

Cheers


Dave R


--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

In article ,
David wrote:
I use to have (broken now) a tape measure which had marking pencil
leads built in to the body. So you could 'measure' an alcove etc than
transfer directly to the shelf, etc, in one go, without needing the
reading. It was so useful, I'm surprised it is no longer available.

I think that to work this assumes that the alcove is symmetrical.

Not really. You can capture the angle(s) using one of those pivoted 'set
squares'. Then measure the width at the inside and outside of the alcove.

I have
recently done a similar desktop exercise and the walls in the room are
neither entirely true nor absolutely parallel.

If the wall along the major axis isn't true, you're going to have to do
some scribing.

But none of that reduces the usefulness of that tape measure. I can only
assume few have tried one.

--
*Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.