Folks, I'm looking for a new 24" brass hinged ruler and am having ZERO luck. trying to replace a Lufkin 1085 but all I can find are "Antique" ones in the $60-$140 range.  what brand/model and where can I find a new one ?

 

   Todd

I'd be curious to know, too.  I've been on the lookout for one, but I don't need to to be some high-dollar antique.

Also curious for the same reasons. 

Do a search for 'FPD 24 Brass Folding Ruler.'

 

post edited by mods

The search for a *FPD 24 Brass Folding Ruler* turns up many hits including farrier supply sources. Cost is about $50.

Handy for hot work measuring is a push-and-pull brass rule. You can make one accurate enough for forging...it has a lug on one end which has a scale starting from the inside for when you hook it on the end of a bar...and one scale from the outside of the lug for when you push it up to a shoulder or similar.

Alan

Thanks for the search terms Glenn, the things are everywhere if you know what to ask for. I was in Sears yesterday, sad shade of it's former self, hunting for jig saw blades, they keep changing how they mount in the saw. Oh the connection to this thread, they had a very nice stainless steel rule for around $15.00 3/4" wide blade but thick enough to be reasonably rigid and marks you can feel easily down to 1/4" The obverse side was metric. It would make a good hot shop rule, easy to set dividers with and with just a little practice you could slide a punch or chisel right down the rule to mark projects.

For you who don't know that technique. For accurate marks hold the rule on edge, this allows you to set the pencil, scribe, punch, chisel, etc. by registering it in the mark on the scale. In other words simply and gently put the tip of the punch in the mark you need and then on the stock. remove the rule without moving the punch and strike with the hammer. Or mark with the pencil or scribe. Just don't beat up your rule!

Good thread, thanks for bringing it up, I'd like a brass or SS folding rule ad the sliding rule Alan mentions would be an excellent addition to my tool box. I tried searching with the terms "brass push pull ruler" but got nothing. Do you have good search terms?

  Frosty The Lucky.

If your interested in a straight metal hook ruler, please contact me pm in the next week or so.

Hook rulers index to the edge of an object and then read as a regular ruler. Inches only no metrics.

This disappeared first time around...

It is not a sliding rule...nothing moves. It is just a brass strip with a hook on the end...sort of a precursor with a similar function to the sliding hook on the end of a steel tape. The hook is in plane with the ruler rather than at right angles to it as per the steel tape.

I have only ever seen home made ones. Clifton Ralph shows one on his power hammer videos.

My sorry version is just a bit of 20mm (³/₄") angle with a tee piece welded on the end. I mark up the lengths required for the process with paint pen/white out/french chalk for an instant tell tale. Bit like the wood worker's tally stick / measuring pole made for each piece.

Alan

Ah, gotcha! I missunderstood "push pull".  I looked in the Kennedy top box Dad gave me and it has a hook scale amongst machinist's .instrumentation I'll never need though I do have a lathe. There are 2 pocket calipers reading 1/32" inside, outside or depth.

I don't know how many times I've sent blue fumes out the shop door measuring or marking projects and not thought of Dad's top box.  I'm off to the shop now, I want to kick myself in the butt a few times but it gets the dogs in the house too worked up.

Frosty The Lucky.

    Thanks Glen and Alan !  Though all I can't really visualize  "The hook is in plane with the ruler rather than at right angles to it as per the steel tape."  I guess the standard tape style end should work as well.

Thank you all for the tips

 

1 hour ago, desmato said:

    Thanks Glen and Alan !  Though all I can't really visualize  "The hook is in plane with the ruler rather than at right angles to it as per the steel tape."  I guess the standard tape style end should work as well....Snip

 

Alan

I use a 12" long framing square.  It can be used exactly like the push / pull rule and it has the added utility of a square.

I use a printing industry line gauge. stainless steel, pretty cheap, measures in inches, picas, and several other obsolete print measurements.

Now that looks like a handy rule John especially if a person is running into a lot of different stock sizes in a day.

I have several framing squares and wouldn't be without one. For larger work I have my sheet rock square and a number of carpenter's squares which are good for marking angles.

This is turning into a terrific thread.

Frosty The Lucky.

Back home, here is a picture of a commercial unit with no sales link. And a fancy one.

Alan, i get it now. thanks for the smack on the back of my head.... DOH.  (Nice artwork btw)

I agree Frosty, whoda think my simple need for a regular item would yield so much great info !  Currently I have a strap of 1" flat stock marked off with chisel marks in 1/4" increments that I lay across the face of my anvil for quick-n-dirty stuff.   It works, but....

The hook allows you to register the ruler quick-n-dirty when the metal is hot so the ruler itself does not get hot.

My angle iron version also gives a flange which has not been in contact with the heat to grab.

Chisel marks or paint pen marks are fine for most hot work scenarios. I find you are often wanting to make all components the same as the last one, rather than to any arbitrary dimension system.

Alan

Just a note to Alan's drawing. Good tape measures have the hook loose with longitudinal play equal to hook thickness. This way push and pull measures are both correct. Could perhaps be adapted also to  measuring rods.

 

1 hour ago, gote said:

Just a note to Alan's drawing. Good tape measures have the hook loose with longitudinal play equal to hook thickness. This way push and pull measures are both correct. Could perhaps be adapted also to  measuring rods.

 

Ahem...

On 9/17/2016 at 8:52 PM, Alan Evans said:

It is just a brass strip with a hook on the end...sort of a precursor with a similar function to the sliding hook on the end of a steel tape. 

Snip...

Alan

Sorry Alan. I am a fast reader which is just a kind of excuse for being prone to accidentally skip parts of what is written.

55 minutes ago, gote said:

Sorry Alan. I am a fast reader which is just a kind of excuse for being prone to accidentally skip parts of what is written.

You are forgiven!

The simplicity and robustness of the fixed hook on the push-pull ruler is well suited to dealing with hot work...no possibility of jamming in the wrong place with the heat, and being in one piece, rather than a number of small mass elements, conducts the heat away better. 

However the added point you made about adapting the principle for other tools reminded me of the removable spacing blocks I use with an end stop on the saws or press.

When I am punching in the press using an end stop...my small furnace gives me a repeatable 150mm (6") heat...I set the end stop 12mm over length and use a loose spacer which I slide the workpiece up against, lock the position and remove the spacer before the operation so the the end of the bar does not drag on the endstop.

On the saws using an end stop when cutting a series of pieces off. The spacer block is useful to prevent the cut piece from jamming between the blade and end stop or fence.

Alan

10 hours ago, gote said:

I am a fast reader which is just a kind of excuse for being prone to accidentally skip parts of what is written.

I forgot to say that I skip around 100% of the parts written when I am speed reading Swedish...

Alan