Veritas Tape Tip Review
A Lee Valley tape measure accessory sold direct. What causes tape measure error, and the tape worth buying.
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The Veritas Tape Tip is a small accessory from Lee Valley — a fitting for the end of a tape measure. Lee Valley sells its Veritas range direct. It is not on Amazon.
Since you are here about tape measures, the more useful thing is the part of tape measure accuracy that almost nobody is told.
The hook is loose on purpose
Pull the hook on any tape measure and it slides back and forth by a millimetre or so. Most people assume it is worn or badly made.
It is deliberate, and the amount of play is exactly the thickness of the hook itself.
When you hook the tape over the end of a board and pull, the hook moves out by its own thickness, so the zero mark lands at the very end of the board. When you push the tape into an inside corner, the hook moves in by its own thickness, so zero lands at the face of the hook. The same tape reads correctly both ways.
If you crimp that play out — or if the rivets loosen and the play becomes larger than the hook thickness — your tape is now wrong, in one direction or the other, and it will stay wrong silently.
Check it occasionally: measure the same distance hooked and butted. They should agree.
The errors that actually get you
Two different tapes. Two tapes from different makers can disagree by a millimetre over a metre. Mark and cut a project with one tape only.
Reading the blade at an angle. A tape sitting proud of the work has its markings a few millimetres above the surface, and reading them from the side introduces parallax. Turn the blade on edge so the markings touch the timber.
Measuring at all. The most reliable joinery comes from transferring directly — hold the part against the opening and mark it. No tape means no tape error.
What to buy
The Stanley FatMax 25ft, linked below, is the workhorse in this category. Its blade coating is the practical advantage: the first foot of a tape takes all the abuse, and a coated blade keeps its markings long after a bare one has worn blank.
For fine bench work, a good steel rule beats any tape. Tapes are for spans, rules are for joinery.
What works
- Hook is riveted in a slot with deliberate play equal to its own thickness, so inside and outside measurements read the same
- Blade coating survives being dragged over concrete, which is where most tapes lose their first inch of markings
- Long standout means you can extend it across a room without a second person or a sagging blade
What doesn't
- The hook loosens with years of hard use, and a loose hook is a silent error until you check it