That time a senior drafter told me to stop using a scale ruler for everything

Guy named Pete at my last firm said I was wasting time scaling off prints instead of reading dimensions, so I tried his way for a week and caught two errors I would have missed on a $50k job in downtown Austin, anyone else ever get called out for a bad habit that actually saved them?

3 comments

3 Comments

viola_ward1mo ago

Pete might have meant well, but scaling off a print caught those errors for a reason. Did he ever explain why he thought reading dimensions was better than double-checking with a scale?

rubys801mo ago

Right there with you. I had a foreman who swore by reading dimensions and we ended up re-cutting half a dozen studs before I finally just pulled out the scale and did it myself.

gavin69223d ago

Know that Pete was probably coming from a good place, but scaling a print isn't a crutch when the dimensions on it are wrong. I've found it's a solid habit for catching those little things that slide through, especially on jobs where one wrong cut can cost a lot more than a few minutes of time. Just keep it as a double check rather than your only move is all.