Tag: measuring

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.

3 Tricks With A Pipe Diameter Tape Measure

Many people don’t use a pipe diameter tape measure because they never heard of one.

Here are 3 tricks that will make you a user:

Want To Know The Diameter of Your Arm?
Want To Know The Diameter of Your Arm?
  1. Wrap a diameter tape around a car heater hose that you intend to replace. Read the diameter, and the length. Go buy the correct hose, because you know the exact size. Remove your old leaky hose and immediately replace it with the new one. There’s no need to take the old hose to the parts store and leave your vehicle without a hose for a while.
  2. Use the tape to find the diameter of a copper water pipe in your basement that is leaking a little.  Go get the pipe, and have it ready to install when you remove the old pipe.
  3. Need a new rope for your boat? Get one that is the same size as your old one, by measuring the diameter with your “OD tape”.

 

Here’s the Secret About a Pipe Measuring Tape

Pipe Measuring Secret
Pipe Measuring Secret

If you have to find the length of a pipe, that’s easy. But what about the outside diameter of a pipe?  What if you can’t just measure the diameter at the end? What if the pipe doesn’t have its ends exposed. It is part of a piping system, or a pipeline. How can you fine the OD, or outside diameter?

The secret is finding the right pipe measuring tape. What is it called?

  • Diameter Tape
  • Pipe Tape
  • Pipe Diameter Tape
  • Pi Tape
  • OD Tape
  • Outside Diameter Tape
  • Circumference Tape (a misnomer, but they are sometimes called this)

To use one, all you do is wrap it around the pipe, and read off the diameter. You don’t need to divide by pi (3.14159).

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

What Can A Pipe Diameter Measuring Tape Do For Me?

Want To Know The Diameter of Your Arm?
Want To Know The Diameter of Your Arm?

Most people don’t use a pipe diameter measuring tape. The reason is not that they don’t need one. The reason is that they don’t know how powerful it is. They don’t know what it can do for them. Just ask the people who use one every day:

  • pipe installers
  • plumbers
  • pipeline inspectors
  • pipeline installers and repairmen
  • HVAC installers
  • car mechanics
  • boat mechanics
  • oil and gas rig workers
  • sport ball makers

They will tell you this: If you want to know the outside diameter of a pipe or any round object, just wrap the diameter tape around its circumference, and read the diameter on the tape. Simple. You don’t have to divide by pi. The best part of this: Even if the pipe is not perfectly round, the od diameter tape will give you the average outside diameter as if it were perfectly round.

Can I help, too?
Can I help, too?

 

 

 

Who in the World Needs a Pipe Diameter Measuring Tape

earth
Who in the World?

If you could wrap a pipe diameter measuring tape around the earth, you would get 7,917.5 mi diameter. That’s if the tape were calibrated in miles. But most diameter tapes are marked in inches or centimeters. Who in the world needs a pipe diameter measuring tape? These people do….

Oil Workers
Oil & Gas Workers
  • gas and oil line repairmen and inspectors
  • gas and oil line engineers
  • oil rig drillers and inspectors
  • pipeline engineers
  • plumbers
  • auto repair mechanics
  • boat repair people
  • arborists and foresters
  • hose manufacturers
  • ball manufacturers
  • HVAC installers and designers
  • engineers
  • architects
  • machinists

3 Signs You Should Invest in Pocket Diameter Tape Measures

Diameter tape measures are used by plumbers, oil and gas drilling companies, and tree people. When should you buy some diameter tape measures? Here are 3 clues:

  1. The shop’s diameter tapes are too large to put in your pocket when you need to go into the field and measure some pipelines.
  2. You don’t want to use a regular measuring tape and divide by pi.
  3. You want to be always prepared in case you need to find the diameter of a pipeline when you are away from the shop.
Lufkin Pipe Diameter Measuring Tape
Lufkin Pipe Diameter Measuring Tape