can you read a tape measure?

[LCHIEN]

Right tool for the job...
Tape measure of course is not the right tool, although its the tool many of have on hand.
These are centerline gage tips - fasten to your caliper and use to measure hole-to hole centerline distances accurately instead of guessing:

http://www.industrialboys.com/column...ssioncookieset

each tip has a groove cut precisely so the edge of the groove is on the centerline of the rod. The rod has a conical tip to fit into a hole to center it. The rods are mounted to the calipers so that the grooves set against the internal face of the caliper tips. Set screws hold them in place.

[pelligrini]

Assuming that the round thingies have the same diameter, one could take a more precise reading on the right edge of each of the round thingies. And that looks like 2 1/4 to me...

That's what I did as well.

[SteveK2]

Uh-oh

I answered the poll question "how long is it" with the maximum dimension cuz mine's pretty long.

I didn't realize there was a picture to use as a reference until after I voted.

Oops, my bad. Just take 1 off the longest dimension.

[cgallery]

I answered the poll question "how long is it" with the maximum dimension cuz mine's pretty long.

But the longest dimension listed was 2-3/8"

[ragswl4]

Basically what Loren said. In addition to the foggy image, the tape is not aligned with a good reference point in the center of the left lug. Aligning the tape with the center of the handle, IMHO, is not the correct way to make this measurement with a tape. I would put the 1" line on the center of the left lug and make the measurement if I was forced to use a tape measure.

That being said, its 4 31/64" as best I can tell from the photo

[Alex Franke]

still looks like 2.25 to me... Here's why: (I overlaid a different part of the measure because the divisions were clearer.)

[Salty]

Taking this a little further.......

Well, I can say first that there are some strange shadows in this image. The shadows on the right go to the left and on the left there seems to be no clear shadows at all. There must be several lights involved. The handle on the left clearly indicates that the angle of view is skewed to the left, at least for the left side of the image.
It looks as though the picture was taked through the bottom of a coke bottle!
Additionally;
I used Photoshop to cut out the center section of the tape measure. I then overlaped it onto the left side and the right side, applying drop shadows to be able to distinguish the cut sections. I agree with Uncle C, the tape cannot be stretched. What has happen is that the image has caused the tape to appear progressively shorter as you move away from center in either direction. This not only makes the tape measure a false reference but adds to the blur in the image at the far left and far right.
Using the center section of the tape and moving it to the left, the C-C seems to be 2-1/4".
But, if you agree that the tape measure gets shorter as it goes from center to the left, then the handle would be effected the same way.
So, the only true reference is the tape measure as pictured. Since as I stated before the image is so blurred, the 'best guess' would be 2-3/16". But, with this image I cannot be sure that the left side of the far left screw barrel is indeed sitting at the 2-3/4" mark on the tape. The blurred image, the curved nature of the barrel and the skewed angle makes that determination impossible.
Yes, I know how to read a tape measure. And I also know how to take a good picture.

[Alex Franke]

Wow. Nice work!

I almost threw in the towel but then I thought twice. (I gotta stop doing that!)

So I fired up the Gimp again and here's what I got... (Click to enlarge)



The measure from 5-6 is clearly longer than from 3-4), but at 2 inches it's a little better and at 2.5 -- the fourth blue line, and closer to the overall length to be measured -- its even closer to a match. (On the top of the tape, which is cut off because it's not perfectly horizontal, the line shifts to the right another pixel because of the curve of the tape.)

So from the second blue line, travel a hair less than a 1/16 to the right and you get the right edge of the barrel. Then skip down to the third blue line on the other side, which is a hair less than 5/16 past the 5. 5 5/16 - 3 1/16 is 2.25.

BTW, the first blue line is where I would put the left side of the barrel because the camera lens is more to the right of this image. My gut tells me that bright whites tend to radiate and make make something look a tad bigger in an image, and the barrel might be a tad higher than the tape measure. So that's 3/6 in from of the 3. On the right, the left side of the barrel seems to be at 5 1/16. Add them up and you get 2.25 again.

So what am I missing? Is it the GIMP? (I just knew that I'd pay for this free software in some way or another! :lol

[Alex Franke]

Here's another image that's artificially sharpened.

[dale]

I think the most important thing to note here is that if you're ordering replacement lugs for your snare drum, you can't assume they're all the same size.

[Salty]

It looks to me as though both of the lines on the left are set in from the edge of the barrel.
That is assuming the darkened area at the right of the left barrel is part of the barrel and not a shadow!

[Alex Franke]

It looks to me as though both of the lines on the left are set in from the edge of the barrel.
That is assuming the darkened area at the right of the left barrel is part of the barrel and not a shadow!

Yeah, that's right. I tried to make that clear in the description. The first line is where I would guess the barrel is considering angle, brightness and blur, and the second line is at the original inch marker. The barrel starts 1/16 to the right of it.

I think it is the barrel, though, and not a shadow because there's a reflection below it.

But it reminds me of some shadows I saw in the sky once when I was a kid... I think of contrails on clouds. They seemed to completely defy all reason. It's like looking at clouds -- you look at something long enough and you're going to see what you want to see. And then it's hard to see anything different. Light, shadows, etc -- all that stuff -- hard for me to get back "out of the box" after I see what I think I should be seeing.