Nice cutting straight edge and ruler

[cteno4]

Just got this from Amazon. I've been slowly replacing a lot of my cheapo rulers and tape measures in the shop with high quality ones. When we were cutting out layout 3.0 modules we used a tape measure whose end had slipped about 3/64"... I knew better, always check a tape measure now and then, especially when starting a big project and better, use a ruler when ever you can easily!

 

My shop rulers were cheapo ones with just painted markings and a bit fat on marker lines and most 1/8" min as well. So looking around at rulers and came across this one.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083SGRP8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

It's got laser etched fine markings at 1/6" all the way and flush measured on both ends! The great feature is the raised finger guard on one side for slicing with knives! The guard rail is also super handy to grab and move the ruler with as a flat ruler is always a pain to grab fast when flat and moving requires finger tips carefully placed on the ruler edges. Last cool feature is they have a ressesed slot over the length for a strip of grip pad to fit into. Without pressure the ruler rests on the grip pad, but with pressure the aluminum edges come down on the surface and it does not slip around! Really well thought through ruler/cutting edge! For $10 a great deal for a 24" ruler with all these features. Uber handy and none of the features seem to get in the way of others. They also have 36", 48", 72" and even 96" versions.

 

The guard is very handy as when slicing longer pieces as on a straight edge your knife hand has a hard time keeping the blade perfectly perpendicular to the material and tilting or rotating the blade into the straight edge a little can easily lead to it catching the straight edge (any little ding or ruler mark can cause this) and lead to the knife going over your finger tips holding the straight edge down. Believe me I did tens of thousands of cuts in chipboard, matte board, corrugated cardboard, etc when younger doing exhibit models and a few times this happened and got good finger gashes (and nice scars to this day to boot). After my second one I had a 50" bar of aluminum stock milled with just a raised portion about 1/4" back from one side to protect the phalange tips! Weight helps hold it steady on longer cuts as well. Worked great. You can buy these premodern but they are bloody expensive and I Luckily got a 4' one a few years back at a art store closing sale for $20 (was $175), but no markings and is very big and heavy. Great for the big cuts, but not for shop use or small stuff.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff