It is true, you have to be careful with the tab at the end. Check them when you get them, then at regular intervals and EVERY time you drop it. When I worked in a professional cabinet shop we all had our own tapes, and we had to check them every monday against a 1 1/4" square reference block and adjust if we needed to. We kept the block in with the hand tools and whenever we dropped a tape we checked it.

Like Bill said, I usually do finer work and don't use the tab at the end. I use a spot on the tape and measure from there. My favorite tape rule is a flat "cabinetmaker's" rule that has a story pole-type blank space on one side so you can mark your lengths on that to match exactly. It's also very cool that it has a pencil sharpener built in! I hate losing pencils. I usually carry 6-8 of them in my work pants, because I'm always losing them or breaking the leads, but it got so I was having a pocket full of pencils that needed to be sharpened. So... Now I don't... When I can find my favorite tape rule... http://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/fastcap-pssp-flat16?cm_mmc=Google-_-PRODUCTFEED-_-FASTCAP-_-PSSP-FLAT16&CAWELAID=600009240000550171&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=600009240000746600&cadevice=c&gclid=CJTU3Z_frMoCFQMJaQodtH0LPQ

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