Tape measures - some show and tell

[Lewill2]

Nice collection, glad to see somebody else get crazy about a specific area of tool collecting.

[wvtools]

I'm a sucker for two and four fold's.

I don't have as many of those.  I like the two fold metal ones and the odd four fold ones like the ones with the level in them.  I took photos of my 800+ zig zags yesterday.  I will have to make a thread for them sometime.  I have a lot of same model type variants of those, particularly the Lufkin ones.

[turnnut]

   very impressive collection, and those drawers are just the right size to store/display that type of tools.

[Bill Houghton]

Sorry Bill; I did not mean to hijack your thread, but I had to respond to the challenge to show them!

Not a hijack if it's on topic - and even wandering off topic is fine with me, as long as we're all having fun!

[p_toad]

Thank you both for the pictures.   Amazing.   

[Yadda]

I just looked at the 6 foot  tape measure I picked up a few weeks back.  It is a Lufkin.  On the reverse side of the tape it says "Cocktail Tape" and recipe after recipe for cocktails.

Here's one from Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/201470628/vintage-tape-measure-cocktail-tape-dad

[wvtools]

That is a cool tape.  I will have to try to pick one up sometime.  There was a sold one on Ebay for 12.00.

I have 4 or 5 tape repair kits.  They are pretty hard to find; especially the fancy Lufkin ones.







Here are some more photos of my other display/storage cabinets:

[bill300d]

Very nice vintage storage you have there.

[wvtools]

Very nice vintage storage you have there.

Some of them I got pretty cheap, but several I had to pay quite a bit for at Donnelly's July auctions.  My room is getting really crowded.  I have one room up in the attic about 10 x 15.  You will see when I post pics of my tool book collection.  Most of those shelves are in them middle of the room.

[Papaw]

John- I sent you a message and an email about an Invento tape measure made in France.

[Papaw]

Maybe wvtools has a new email address, I don't get any response from him here or by email.

[wvtools]

Papaw,

I sent you a reply, but I must have messed something up.  Thanks for thinking of me.  I think I have that one, but I will have to check.  I will be out of town for awhile.  I have to get ready this weekend to go to the longest yard sale in TN next week to sell, and then I will be out of town for work for several days when I get back.  When I get back, I will post pics of the many zig zags and tape measures I got at the Donnelly sale last weekend.

Thanks,

John

[Bill Houghton]

They keep showing up; I picked up a "Walsco" measure today.

[Bill Houghton]

And they keep showing up some more.  Here's a Lufkin "Pee Wee" tape - 6 foot capacity, but 1/4" width.

[Bill Houghton]

And more...

The Lufkin engineer's tape, to the right, is another with fractional measures on one edge (32nds for the first foot, 16ths after) and 10ths and 100ths of a foot on the other.  Presumably for civil engineers.


The K&E "LST [level-square-tape]" is an odd duck.  K&E, or Keuffel and Esser, was a respected maker of drafting and surveying equipment (including slide rules) in New Jersey and New York.  This tape seems to have been a rather desperate attempt to be hip and relevant, probably in the 1960s or 70s.  It's a ten foot tape, nothing fancy there.  Four little nubbins on the case, two on the bottom and two on the vertical side, test to a pretty accurate square; but there are limited uses for testing inside square on a very short baseline.  The nubbins, though, allow the level bubble on top of the case to test both level and plumb, but, again, on a very short baseline.