Been drafting for 8 years and just realized I've been using the wrong scale ruler this whole time

I was checking a set of prints at a jobsite in Phoenix last Tuesday and the foreman asked why my dimensions didn't match his. Pulled out my ruler and he goes "that's an architectural scale, not an engineering one." Felt like an idiot standing there. I guess nobody ever told me there was a difference and I just grabbed whatever I saw first at the supply shop. Anyone else have a basic tool mix-up that took years to catch?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.val25d ago

Wait, you went 8 years using the wrong scale and nobody caught it? That's wild. I'm sitting here trying to picture a whole set of architectural drawings being read wrong that long without some massive gap showing up somewhere. Like, did your lumber always come out a few inches too short or too long and you just figured it was normal? I'd be losing sleep over how many jobs might've been off by a few feet that nobody noticed. Feels like you dodged a bullet.

mason28325d ago

Dude I had a buddy who did the same thing with cabinet builds. He was scaling everything off a 1/4 inch rule for like two years before his boss walked by and was like "uh why are your drawers six inches deep?" He just thought it was normal shop fudge factor or something.