Folding rule flip....

[froglips]

This may be common knowledge, but I felt like I reinvented the wheel, again!

I was measuring a long offcut 2x8 seeing if I could retask it for nefarious porpese.

It was well over 8' long, and my folding rule was a mere 6' fully unfolded.

So, laid out from one end, sure enough, I was some distance short of the full board length.

When, what to my wonderous eyes and mind did appear? A simple yet brilliant feature of the rule!

If you ever noticed, one side of the folding rule is marked in increasing increments, 1, 2, 3 etc. If you flip the rule over, why it was decreasing!?!? 72, 71, 70 etc.

In all these years, I just accepted that as some sort of, well, saw nib mystery.

But wait, here comes the good part. As you may recall, in my adventure of measuring, my 6' rule was shy of the ~8' board.

Well, I held my magic pointer finger at the 5' mark, I fliped the rule over, and slid it down to the other end of the board.

Suddenly, as if some wood sprite blessed me, I found out that I had a simple measure to the far end.

So, flipped over ,and slid down, I found that I now had 2' 5 3/8", added to my 5', bingo! Using math that I excel at, I now knew my board was 7' 5 3/8" long.

Ta. Da.

This might make sense, the first line is reading the rule left to right, the second shows it flipped over.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

This, depending on fonts and the magic of formatting, you might measure a total of 17 units.

Well, I hope I have entertained and enlightened at least myself with this tale. This will al be featured in my upcoming novel, "1001 Patently Obvious Tips and Tricks".

Jim

[Gotcha6]

Just goes to go ya that old skills and techniques often are forgotten on the young 'uns.... Folding rules and their utilization are almost and anachronism today. People buy carpenter's jeans and think the rule pocket is for their cell phone.
.......and you're the Site Programmer?

[Glennbear]

Originally Posted by Gotcha6

Just goes to go ya that old skills and techniques often are forgotten on the young 'uns.... Folding rules and their utilization are almost and anachronism today. People buy carpenter's jeans and think the rule pocket is for their cell phone.
.......and you're the Site Programmer?

Sad but true, although I use mine regularly.

[Mike Davis]

Originally Posted by Glennbear

Sad but true, although I use mine regularly.

Cell phone, carpenter's Jeans or site programmer?

[JackLeg]

Still use my old Lufkin. Got tired of tape measures with "movable ends" making no 2 parts the same!!

Good stuff lasts!!

[/B]

[Ken Massingale]

Couldn't work without my inside read folding rule, but I do find the outside read ones awkward.

[Glennbear]

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

Cell phone, carpenter's Jeans or site programmer?

Should have been more specific, my folding rule

[JackLeg]

Originally Posted by Glennbear

Should have been more specific, my folding rule

Glen, I'm shocked! You're usually MUCH more specific! LOL!

I've used Lufkins as a plumber, lineman, and now a wannabe woodworker. Some of the old things really are best!

[RandyJ]

Must be gettin' old....I have/use a folding rule that must be a hunnert years old!! Not really, but I've had it a loooooooong time. More accurate than a tape measure