24VIDEO Milwaukee tape measure test

Tape measures are something that everybody who builds uses, and tape measure quality has been

on the rise now for about 10 years or so. This is the latest in the pro-grade tape measure series

that's put out by Milwaukee. They're starting to take this tool category fairly seriously

It's meant for pros, but I think anyone who needs a tape measure needs a good tape measure

and I want to show you why I like this one and what's going on inside too. First of all

it's nice to grab and hold. It has high friction overwrap, which I'll show you more about in a

minute. The first thing I noticed about it was how easy it is to lock. Locking a tape measure is a

pretty important thing. I like to lock tape measures, especially when I'm measuring internal

spaces, and I don't have to worry about numbers and getting them wrong and things. I can just put

the tape measure between two surfaces, lock it, and then I've got a full-length replica of the

part that I need to cut. So locking is especially easy. A lot of tapes, you really have to work hard

to press this locking feature here. Not so with Milwaukee. Another thing I like about it is the

wire belt hook. As opposed to the flat metal ones, which can have sharpish corners, this is round all

around, so it clips on quite easily. It feels very strong too, and that's one of the reasons I took

one of these apart, so we could see why it feels strong. This is a slightly smaller version of the

same type of tape, and you can see here how thick the plastic is. In the tool business, overwrap is

this high friction thinner layer, and you can see that it's keyed right into the body of the

plastic. So there's some kind of adhesive action going on, but there's also this physical interlocking

There's a lot of extra plastic around the sides and corners and where the screws go. So if you

look in here, you can see why the tape lock works so smoothly. When you activate it, it's only pressing

against the tape in two small places, so there's not a lot of friction there. It's enough to grip

the tape, but not so much that it's hard to push and hard to release. The thing about professional

grade tape measures nowadays is that there's no room for a huge revolutionary change

This is a pretty refined tool category. What you're going to be seeing is evolutionary change

little things like the belt hook and the easier to use locking and the solid grip. Possibly the best

advance in high-end tapes is the way the blade can support itself as it extends out farther

and I want to show you what that looks like right now. So they call this, what I'm going to show you here in the tape measure business

stand out, and that's how far the tape can be extended before it buckles

So you often see numbers like 13 feet or so. I can hardly ever get it to go 13. Right now I'm at 9

If you can just see it's kind of bending. I'm at 10. It's a little bit of a wind here too

I can get it to be at 11 or so, but even a 10 foot standout is plenty for when you have to reach out

and make some sort of a connection to something you're measuring. So how tough is this tape? I

don't really know. This is the one that used to be a part. I've put it back together again

I've put it back together again, and I'm going to drive over it. Let's just see how it survives that

Wow, pretty tough I'd say

So it was a pretty good test, but it did sink into my

gravel driveway here. So we're going to go and try it on some pavement right now. So it's some real pavement here

So so Wow, bombproof. Driven over by my half ton on pavement. Still works, still locks

Wow, pretty impressive. Thanks for watching. Click here to join the thousands of people who

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