PowerLock Tape Measure, Heavy-Duty, Engineer’s Scale with Metal Case, 12-Foot (33-272)

Excellent quality

It is incredibly useful- for avoiding the awful bane of fractions and varying incompatible denominators. Fractions just should not be used at all, there is no good reason. If it was a great idea, we'd use fractional cm too. I work in engineeering, from 0.001" to 12 ft or so. This will be so handy. I was using a tape with fractional inches vs. mm on the other side, and just converting mm to inch.xx, but this will save that step. With judicious reading I should be able to get to accuracy similar to a 1mm division. Metal case for longevity. Works just like it should. Fast delivery. Quality product. Plus it even says "Engineer" right on it, in case I forget. I did not find the markings to be blurry or grayed as of 5/2016. Maybe they had a bad production run previously. How could it be better? Mark it in Inches, 1/10" one side, down to 1/50" all the way down. Mark the other side in meters, cm, and mm. Maybe add some small special mark for each one foot. That would be all purpose.

Excelente para ingenieria

Compact, robust, reliable

I make high end furniture. I keep this baby in my pocket and use it for nearly everything - at the lumber yard, to select boards from my stock, to cut planks to rough lengths, measuring cuts on my chop, table& band saws. Sure, the geeks will argue that this is not a precision measure; of course I have other tools and techniques for dead on precision and fit, many of which don't even involve measuring. I learned the value of this little tape measure from my mentor, a winner of a lifetime achievement award for his Early American Furniture reproductions; he keeps his clipped to his belt. I've carried one myself for about 8 years and have not worn it out - I ordered this one because I made the mistake of leaving my original one laying around and it took me awhile to find where someone else stored it - couldn't wait to find it. Due to its 1/2" blade,the case is thin enough to fit in my side pants pocket without the annoyance of a thicker (3.4") tape measure. I much prefer the metal case over the plastic ones that others sell. And, as an added bonus, it is NOT made in China, though, unfortunately, they are no longer made in USA.