$100 Mistake

[Rick]

Working with the kick shear this morning and accidently bumped my trusty Mitutoyo 24" scale under the blade. Of course the 0 zero end was cut off, wouldn't have it any other way. Its like losing an old friend, I purchased that scale when I first started working in the early 80's.

PXL_20230211_160855911.MP_2.jpg (115.22 KiB) Viewed 1483 times

[Bill Shields]

You have a 1" scale...

[Charles T. McCullough]

How accurate is that 45° angle?

[mklotz]

Cut the rest of it into bite-sized pieces, add a handle, and, voila, you have a ruler tool that will fit into locations where the ordinary machinist's rule won't fit.

My version...

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/rul ... #post69970

used bits of a plastic rule but, clearly, metal would be better.

[Rick]

How accurate is that 45° angle?

Charles,.
Not that close 51.5 degrees

[Bill Shields]

You could find someone with a grinder and measure back from the other end and zero it off at 2".

Or just purchase another...

Dumb question - did you damage the cutting blade?

That would be insult to injury

[liveaboard]

Ouch; that hurts.

[Charles T. McCullough]

How accurate is that 45° angle?

Charles,.
Not that close 51.5 degrees

Well, I guess you will have to start building miniatures that feature lots of 51.4 degree angles! A bit steep for a stairway, but quite close to 1/7th of a circle... good enough if you wanted to make a 7 sided window frame with mitered corners!

I think most of us are trying to find some way to salvage that scale. I think we have all had that moment when something is lost due to a moments inattention (my Simpson 250 meter with the now "?" shaped needle comes to mind here).

[Steggy]

Working with the kick shear this morning and accidently bumped my trusty Mitutoyo 24" scale under the blade...

I’ve done that with tape measures. A lot of times, I would hook the end of the tape on the shear’s lower blade and use it to position the piece to be cut. Once in a great while, I’d forget to remove the tape before cycling the machine. Of course, by the time I realized what I’d done, the tape would already be fully retracted into the case, creating a scrap tape measure.

[Rick]

You could find someone with a grinder and measure back from the other end and zero it off at 2".

Or just purchase another...

Dumb question - did you damage the cutting blade?

That would be insult to injury

Hey Bill,

I will probably grind the point off and just use it from the other end. Now that I am retired I don't use it as much in my home shop as I did at work. It was just nice because you didn't have to worry if you dropped it plus it was easier to maneuver than a rigid scale.

Shear blades are just fine, this was a Mitutoyo flex scale only 0.015 thick. Didn't even feel it when I cut it.
I also have a Starrett rigid 24" scale, now that would have most likely done some damage to the blades

[mcostello]

He also has a 22 and 9/10ths scale.

[tornitore45]

viewtopic.php?t=112371#:~:text=My%20ver ... 3post69970

Kind of Johansson blocks on a slimming diet.