Oh What a Tape Measure Can Do: Best Tool Tip Ever?

I’ve used them to fish wires with a couple of modifications. First, roll the hooked tip back over about six inches or so and tape the hook off so it won’t catch on anything. 

You now know how far you are when fishing.

You can then tape your beaded chain on the end, so that a magnet can pull it through a hole with wire attached. 

With care, you can then use the automatic rewind mechanism to pull the wire back to you. 

If you’re not sure where to drill your hole for the beaded chain, attach your toner positive lead to the tape blade, the negative lead to a ground, and then use the probe to determine where your chain lives.

The nifty part about the Stanley tapes is that you can take it off of the housing and pull the tape all the way through if you have to.

And for shorter runs ...