An Ambidextrous Tape Measure
By Benjamen Johnson
Reading a tape measure upside-down is a good way to make errors, so FastCap makes a tape measure in their ProCarpenter line that reads both left-to-right and right-to-left — you don’t have to twist your neck to read the scale.
The Lefty/Righty’s black and red scale contrasts nicely with the heavy-duty 1″ white blade. Like the rest of the tapes in the ProCarpenter line, this tape features an erasable notepad, thumb and finger locks, built-in pencil sharpener, rubber casing, and heavy-duty belt clip.
The 16′ Lefty/Righty tape retails for $8, and the 25′ retails for $11.
Lefty/Righty Tape [FastCap]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
16-Foot Tape [Rockler]
16-Foot Tape [McFeely’s]
25-Foot Tape [McFeely’s]
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I got one of those at Woodcraft a couple years ago and it’s a great tape. I don’t use the writing surface that much but being able to easily read in both directions is really handy.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:04 am
I have this as well. I’m not good at the fractions so thats why I bought it =)
May 4th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I was very frustrated with normal tape measures that read Left to Right. Being right handed, the tape measure was always ‘upside down’ when holding the measure with my left hand and marking with my right hand.
After some search, I found that Lee Valley had R to L tapes. I bought one and really liked it.
Then I found these FastCap tapes that provide R/L and L/R on the same measure. FANTASTIC! It is such a simple idea that was a l-o-n-g time coming. I have since bought a 16′ and 25′ FastCap tape.
The black/red scales are legible and easy to use.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I too bought one from Woodcraft (last year). It is a great help for people who can’t read a normal tape’s markings and being left handed, a regular tape was fine for me. It really is helpful to give a young person a tape and have them accurately measure and cut material, even though a friend told me that using my FastCap tape hurt his brain- there is too much to read, he said!