Why did I struggle these many years with our horrible and outdated measurement system, here in the States, without knowing about the soul saving power of the construction calculator. Trying to add an awkward series of measurements in feet, inches and fractions? A construction calculator can help you with that.

Best of all, you can get a construction calculator in the form of a free app for your tracking device, errrr, I mean “phone.” I downloaded the free DeWalt Mobile Pro Construction Calculator, available for both iPhone and Android devices. You can purchase carpentry, masonry and electrical work add-ons but the free version is good enough for most simple, homesteady projects. In addition to handling those pesky fractions, the basic version also does metric conversion. It will also help you calculate your sheet good needs. I added the carpentry module since I’ve found myself doing a lot of incompetent carpentry these past few months.

I’m old enough to remember the failed attempt to convert the U.S. to the metric system in the 1970s which would have made most of the features of the DeWalt Mobile Pro Construction Calculator unnecessary. But we can’t have nice things here. My attempt to use metric measurement around the house, several years ago, proved futile since it made trips to the hardware store extra confusing and could lead to the sort of conversion errors that nearly brought down an airliner and contributed to the loss of a Mars orbiter.

Counterintuitively, when doing any kind of carpentry or woodworking you should actually try to avoid measurements as much as possible. Instead, hold up parts, use full size plans, cut things to fit or use story sticks. But for estimating materials, you’ll still need to measure and do the sorts of calculations a construction calculator facilitates.

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