Author: admin

Maglite Flashlights….LED or Incandescent?

When you are shopping for  Maglite flashlights, you will be faced with the decision of whether to get an LED (light emitting diode) or incandescent bulb. Which one should you choose? It’s kind of like choosing between a Lincoln Navigator and a Ford Fusion. There’s a difference in price, and a difference in

Maglite-At-Night
Maglite®-At-Night

quality.

The LED bulb is much brighter, but more expensive than the original incandescent bulb. So, do you want more quality, or more economy. Both types of Maglite® are popular, and as far as I know, neither one is destined for cancellation.

Another feature of the LED Maglites is the ability to have different modes. You can have different brightnesses, strobe, and SOS. All this is possible because of an advanced electronic circuit.

I hope this makes it easier to make your decision.

Maglite®

A Big Secret About the Diameter Tape Measure

The Diameter Tape Secret
The Diameter Tape Measure Secret

Diameter tape measures are made for wrapping around pipes and poles, to find the diameter. That’s a good enough reason to keep one in your tool box, garage, and vehicle. But there’s one feature that no one talks about, until now….

The other side of the diameter tape measure is a regular tape measure, in inches or centimeters. It measures length, not diameter. So, even though it is a special tape, it is also a handy every day tape, too. Lufkin, and the other manufacturers, thought of everything when they designed these handy pocket tapes. Everyone should have one or two.

Lufkin Y906PD pipe diameter tape measure, not Barlow W906PD Lufkin Diameter Tape

 

What Will Pipe Diameter Tape Measures look like in 2030?

Measuring Techniques
Measuring Techniques

There are distance measuring apps out there, but measuring the diameter of a pipe presents a unique measuring situation.

  • Calibration. There will need to be some way of checking to see if the app is working correctly. You will need to measure a known standard to see if the app is measuring right. If not, there needs to be some way of calibrating or adjusting the reading, to make it accurate. In other words, if you measure a 2 inch pipe, and the app says 2.1 inches, you need a way to adjust the setting to read 2.0 inches. Otherwise, when you measure a 3 inch pipe or any size pipe, the measurement would be off.
  • Calibration should be done with different sizes of pipe, to make sure you will get an accurate reading at any of those sizes.
  • The curvature of the pipe needs to be considered. You aren’t taking a picture of a 2D object. The pipe is 3D, so your camera may not see the top and bottom of the pipe as being 180 degrees away from each other. If you are too close to the pipe, you wouldn’t see the full 180 degrees. So your measurement would be too small.
  • Resolution of measuring. A pipe diameter tape measure normally has a resolution of 100th of an inch diameter. Can a smart phone app be that accurate?
  • The nearness of the object. For calibration, we would need some standard distance from the cell phone. Maybe this could be accomplished by using an object like a 12″ ruler, placed between the pipe and the phone. Hopefully, a less mechanical method will pop up.

If you know of an app that can accurately measure pipe diameter, please let me know. If one does not exist, I’m sure it will be invented in the near future.