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Comment by urbandw311er | Hacker News Reader

Trying not to be too negative but this is quite a long blog post for what effectively just comes down to using a piece of paper to measure something, which I imagine lots of us have done in a pinch. Also, nit: one of the calculations on paper size seems duplicated due to a typo.

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Personally I make sure to always carry around a string and some scissors, so any time I need an arbitrary measurement I can just cut the string to the length of the thing I want to measure (making sure to label it in case of multiple required measurements), then measure the cut string later. Simple.

Although I still haven't figured out the best way to do that in reverse (when someone wants a specific measurement and I cut the string from that number), though I was considering a scheme where I start with strings of known length up-front then repeatedly cut successive halves until I converge on the desired number, accounting for cut accuracy and require precision.

Maybe you could start off with a long string and then mark off its midpoint, the midpoints of the halves, and so on. Then you wouldn't have to cut a new string every time you want to measure something.

There's also the concept of a story stick.

When working on a project where you need a bunch of things to be the same, you take a stick and mark on it at various points the dimensions you're using -- when working on a house, it might be things like the heights of outlet boxes and switches, the width and height of rough opening for doors, the height of window sills, etc etc.

Then, you just use the stick as the reference, using the marking for outlets to position all of the outlets instead of measuring the height of the floor in inches or millimeters or cubits or whatever each time. It's kind of like a measuring jig.

("Measure once, cut twice" is a superior methodology which has been unfairly maligned for generations.)

This works fantastic for building furniture as well, where the absolute dimension doesn’t matter as much as all of the pieces having matching dimensions. A cabinet with drawers, for example. The story stick captures the spacing between the drawers, the width of the drawer, the slightly smaller height of the drawer face, etc.

It feels really imprecise the first time you set the fence on a table saw based on a marking on a stick instead of a precise specific value but the results are hard to argue with.

With carpentry in particular, it is extremely powerful to make multiple cuts at the same time -- set a fence once and then cut everything that needs to match at the same time, or stack multiple pieces together, or cut a board to length before ripping it into several pieces that need identical lengths.

Sure, check your measurements to be sure they're correct, but the more times you can cut based on the same measurement, the less measurement error can creep in.

Was going to mention that too. 100% agree. If I mess up and end up needing to make matching cuts later on, I'll often set the fence using one of the existing pieces too instead of trying to re-measure. The story stick works great but lining up the teeth on the blade with the cut edge of an existing piece works fabulously well.

A similar strategy I've used when I've known that there was going to be cuts that I couldn't sequence like that is to cut "as built" story sticks with scrap dimensional lumber and write what they are right on the board.

What, and use the same thing to measure stuff anytime you measure something? Like that's ever gonna catch on! Next you're gonna tell me to use my lower arm as a measuring stick!

That's inconveniently long. Have you considered using your foot?

Reverse: perhaps carrying a measuring tape [0] ?

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Measure-iBayam-Measuring-Measurement-...

So besides the string and the scissors, you also need a marker that can write really, really tiny?

I do the same, but my piece of string has little lines and numbers telling me how long a thing is.

The span from my thumb to my pinky in a “measuring position” is 20 cm (and is easily repeated by moving the thumb to the pinky and then stretching out the pinky again). The length of my “thumbs up” hand is 16 cm. The width of my fist is 10 cm. The length of my pinky is 6 cm. The width of my thumb is 2 cm. This allows me to estimate distances between ~2 m and 2 cm pretty well. Knowing your foot/shoe length also comes handy sometimes.

> The span from my thumb to my pinky in a “measuring position” is 20 cm

26 cm for me. I can stretch to 27 cm quite easily, though.

> The length of my “thumbs up” hand is 16 cm.

18 cm.

> The width of my fist is 10 cm

Same.

> The length of my pinky is 6 cm.

7.5 cm.

> The width of my thumb is 2 cm

2.5 cm.

I guess the main thing between mine and more typical hands is my long, fairly slender fingers, then.

How long is a piece of string eh?

That works but with a piece of paper you can tell the time too, so long as you get a nice man to write it down for you[1]. ;)

1. And now the confusion of having to explain the Goon Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLQhQSiDR-k

But this is also quite cool! These kind of articles are what makes HN interesting and fun.

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