Carpenters working to frame houses with high ceilings have a unique challenge. Setting studs to be both vertical and the right length becomes hard because the standard tape measures they use for nearly all their measurements are designed to work best when used to take measurements in a horizontal orientation. But when they're used to make vertical measurements over a span that's longer than the carpenter can reach, things go awry.
Here, if they can get the tape to stay straight, the measurement they need to read is often well above them and hard to read. But over a long enough span, the tape will start to flop under its own weight. That makes it hard to keep straight, stay in the right orientation, and cover the distance they need to get an accurate measurement. It almost ensures they have to go through a lot of trial and error to successfully cut a vertical stud to the right length for every board they need to cut. They can cut the boards long, but will often have to do extra work with multiple iterations to trim it down to the right size. And if they cut it short, they will have wasted material because once it's cut short, it cannot be used how they intended.
A Kickstarter project that will run to 10 March 2025 aims to address that challenge with some true outside the box thinking. In the following 3-minute video, Ray, a framing carpenter, describes how he developed the prototype along with a design team from Ox Tools for the Speedframe, an extendable measuring level that solves the problems of taking long vertical measurements for professional carpenters, masons, and glaziers.
In modern construction, lasers are often used to take measurements over distances that are too long for traditional measuring tapes to be used successfully, but have the problem of being slow. Professionals using the Speedframe can often take the measurements they need up to eight times faster than laser measuring tools, which is a huge advantage.
The good news is this Kickstarter project is already fully funded. The Speedframe extended measuring level will make it to the marketplace, which they're aiming to do in July 2025.
Labels: technology
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