The Science of Length Measurement

Lidl Parkside brand measuring tape. © Eugene Brennan

An excuse to add a post about one of my favourite things, the centre isle of Lidl. I saw these 50 m tapes yesterday. I already have two, bought in other places and had to resist the urge to triple up. These things are useful for measurements in the garden or laying out foundations for sheds. When I was building the garden shed, I used two of these to square the foundations and concrete base (made the timber formwork for the base, placed it into position and then adjusted it by trial and error until the diagonals were the same length). Four pieces of rebar hammered into the ground then marked the four corners and I tied the 4 x 2 formwork to these.

Stud wall frame for my garden shed. © Eugene Brennan

Formwork for the concrete base was adjusted so the diagonals were of equal length. © Eugene Brennan

I built the shed on a concrete slab. © Eugene Brennan

 

Using Trimble Sketchup for Mould Dimensions

© Eugene Brennan

I made up a mould and cast the cappings for my gate piers. They probably wouldn't have cost much to buy, but it was just an interesting project to make them from scratch. I could have used trigonometry to work out the sizes of the triangles for the mould's pyramid faces, knowing the overall height, but I drew it in Sketchup, a free 3D CAD application, and then just measured the side lengths with the tape measure tool in the application. I used my old kitchen cupboard panels to line the mould to get a smooth finish on the concrete. This would have been great for the pillars themselves, but I just used shutter ply (which cost more than the 2.5 tonnes of concrete).

 

© Eugene Brennan

© Eugene Brennan

© Eugene Brennan

© Eugene Brennan

© Eugene Brennan