Rulers - my pet peeve

I carry two 6" flexible steel rules in my top pocket, one satin and one black. In most lighting conditions I find the black one with white markings easiest to read.

The problem I find is getting a replacement for the black one as it gets worn. I have a good one at present, but all it says on it apart from the graduations and the standard 20 C statement is 'Stainless' and 'Made In Taiwan'. I wish I could get another, because it's lasted far longer than the Products Engineering black version I had, which is the only black rule that seems to be generally available - that started to lose its finish and get shiny and spotted after I used it for the engineer's legitimate purpose of stirring me cuppa!

You'd think the designers had never factored that in to the spec...

Edited By Mick B1 on 02/04/2019 08:50:39

Hi, well these are my absolute favourite types of rules.

Regards Nick.

I had a nice red plastic with white markings 6in ruler with our company name on it. It was red because that is the company colour but it was convenient and easy to read. I must see if I can get PR people to do another run. It was a ruler not a rule but still useful for some things. The two halves are still around somewhere.

I'm 70 now and I still have the 6" and 12" rulers that I bought in my first year of engineering apprenticeship, they are inches on one side and metric on the other made by Rabone Chesterman. They are both shiny and well worn now and my eyesight is not what it was I could do with one graduated in 1/4 inches now Ha ha.

I would urge people to check their rules, particularly plastic and cheap ones, for accuracy against a known good one. You'd be surprised at some of the variance.

Maybe some enterprising chap with a CNC mill should read all the comments and start knocking out the perfect rule(r)

Chris,

I have a number, 6 I think it is, of 6 inch/150mm steel rule(r)s. Some were magazine mounts, some, the so-called flexible rules were bought, and one is a Rabone Chesterman No. 64R. Nice rule(r) to use, easy to read, but, compared to the other rule(r)s the metric scale is noticeably out by a small amount. So is it incorrect? Or is it that all the others are incorrect?I should point out that the other 5 appear to be identical.

Incidently, comparison was made by placing them side by side and comparing between say 10mm and 150mm thus avoiding any wear on the end.

It's a long time since I compared them, but I do think, especially as the 64R claims to be standard at 20 degrees C, that I would have checked them after leaving them overnight in a warm room to get them all to the same temperature.

Needless to say, the 64R isn't used for much other than drawing lines!

Peter G. Shaw

A link to black 6”

**LINK**

MSC in the UK do or at least did those thin black ones, I got mine from there, think they go by the name "Easyview"

Thanks for the link. Looks good. And good price at $8.95. But the $20 shipping from US to Australia kills it, for something that could be slipped in a standard envelope with a piece of card folded around it. Course, I could pay the $73 and get it priority shipped! The Yanks have just lost the plot on the shipping costs thing. I'll have to pick one up when I am next over there (Ruler that is, not a Yank.).

Actually I would not be that surprised these days. In fact, not surprised at all.

I still use my good old 6" Moore and Wright I was issued as an apprentice.

So would I...

Axminster sell one, but the design is appalling.

It's a 150mm ruler, but it's about 154mm long. Nothing wrong with that, except that all the graduations start at the same (hook) end, so if you don't want to use the hook you need another ruler - you can't just turn it around. Further, the graduations are metric. On all 4 edges.

They must have tried *really* hard to design it that badly...

I happen to like the Axminster hook rule for the same reason I mentioned the rule that kicked this thread off again, I feel that a rule with metric and imperial scales is just too much of a compromise and the chance of having the scale you want on the edge you need is going to be rare. John mentioned he had a substantial collection of rules that didn’t suit his needs but did eventually find a supplier of his dream rule. As with most things our personal preference is likely to be different from next mans, one thing is true and that is there is a wide choice of rules out there so you just have to find the ones that tick your selection boxes.

Mike

Spurry's rule rings a bell (some way back). I once had a hardwood rule with 'triangular' divisions, I think it was an NPL (National Physical Laboratory) design. A great rule but eventually was broken. I found it much easier to read than graduations of the same length (which I think are always too long). And I agree with all the previous comments about 1/2 mm graduations, but perhaps that's also the 'too long' problem..

Bill

Edited By Bill Davies 2 on 03/04/2019 21:48:49

My recommendation to check was earnest and highly recommended. It's one of those things everyone takes for granted. I was horrified how much some of them vary. My go to rule is my Japanese Fisher rule cross checked against a Mitutoyo vernier.

.... and if anyone's bought one of those tapered wedge shaped rules designed to measure the diameter of holes, I'd treat those with suspicion too. On mine, the metric size indicated too big and the imperial size indicated too small. It went in the bin.

I have in an idle moment, laid rules against each other and seen small discrepancies (smaller than the width of the engraved line). I think that if any of these rules (all of which are in regular use) had an error big enough to introduce errors in what I was making, then I would be disgusted with myself for having not noticed or investigated the cause of the errors.

It is possible to do extremely accurate work with rulers, scribers, magnifying glasses etc but I think one would then know very quickly if there were differences between them.

Ian P

Many years ago our chief engineer was visiting his sister in Denmark, and bought some cheap tape measures on the market. I then had a spate of making things which ddn't fir despite having measured up carefully. You've guessed , danish inches are different to British ones. I'd have been OK if I'd stuck to one tape, but you use the one which is to hand on rough and ready jobs.

Add to that, feeler gauges. I bought a new set, reputable mid-range brand (Kinchrome), but measuring them with a good micrometer (Mitutoyo) reveals they are all over the place. The 2, 3 and 4 thou feelers are all the same thickness.

Many of the others were supposed to be imperial sizes, as marked and as sold as a set of imperial feelers, but measurement revealed they were the nearest metric equivalent feeler simply stamped with a nominal imperial size. So many were quite a few thou out. Absolute rubbish.

Edited By Hopper on 04/04/2019 00:12:46

Interesting your perception of Kinchrome Hopper, until Bunnings took over the Homebase chain in theUK I had not encountered the Kinchrome brand so without experience it is difficult to get a feel for the quality, it seems to be gear that is probably Chinese sourced but that can mean very good to crap so I have been a bit reserved in buying until a bit of positive feedback filters through. Ozito is another unknown brand but I did risk buying a sander which seems ok on initial impressions but long term the jury is still out. Bunnings bailed out of Homebase and sold it for £1 but they still seem to have stock of Kinchrome gear, we will see what happens when the dust settles.

Mike