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By avtur3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1847568
I'm looking to find a couple of metal rulers, a 150mm and a 300mmm if possible, but I'm looking for them to be yellow with black markings.

Now every extending tape measure I have ever used has always been coloured yellow with black markings, I believe that the contrast of black on yellow is one of the best you can have, so it makes sense that tape measures would use this combination, and they do.

However, for some reason , this choice of colours does not follow trough on to metal rulers. I use a 150mm stainless ruler extensively in my daily work, but the standard metal ruler is always stainless with black markings. This combination may look nice but I find it very difficult to read because of the reflections off the bright stainless surface. So I'd like to find a metal 150mm ruler which is black on yellow.

I have found this combination available in plastic, which is what I'm using at present, but the life span is just a couple of weeks because the black markings wear off under heavy workshop use. I buy the plastic ones ten at a time to allow for frequent replacement.

I've searched extensively on the www but haven't been able to find metal, yellow main colour with black markings, has anyone ever seen such a beast.

The black/yellow contrast issue is obviously recognised as that is the standard for tape measures, I'm at a loss as to why it isn't replicated on rulers.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1847570
Screwfix do a 1000mm 4-fold ABS plastic metric ruler black on yellow:
Must be pretty tough as hinges are brass........... :wink:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/hultafors-xf ... lsrc=aw.ds

Green any good?
https://gbr.grandado.com/products/deli- ... TI5NDA2NTc

I get a lot of my stuff from RSOnline: They're pretty quick but not cheap

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/rulers/2489203/

Peter
Last edited by PeteSpencer on Mon May 17, 2021 7:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
#1847573
Police crime-scene markers (rulers) seem to have obvious inch/cm markings in yellow & black for crime scene photographic purposes. If you have a local friendly Constable in your vicinity, ask him/her.

If they're not friendly, run like hell; they're armed.
#1847574
No idea, but I have noticed that tradesmen in Italy carry, it seems to me as a badge of honour, a folding wooden ruler with fabulous brass hinges as might have been used by our forebears, rather than the ubiquitous flexible things we now use in the UK.
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By nallen
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1847576
Have you tried these people: https://www.whittamprecisionrules.co.uk/, who do some brass ones.

Or how about white on black? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metal-Midong-12inch-Etched-Conversion/dp/B07RZPW8WS
By avtur3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1847613
Many thanks for the suggestion so far ... in order to help me in my work I am being 'really' picky ... I need the slimness of a typical stainless type ruler, but I want mm graduations, but no smaller, anything smaller just confuses the issue, there is only so much detail that a 65 year old pair of human eyes can resolve. :lol:

The extending, or hinging type are not really suitable because of their thickness, most of my measuring is in the range of 0 to 50mm in 1mm increments, but 150mm is a good size to handle, but it is very close in, most of the extending/folding type rulers are quite thick.

This is all in the cause of my employment producing 'Tudor Webasto' car sun roofs (as they produced in the 60's and 70's). I'm sure that name will resonate with readers of a certain age. In the course of producing these units there is a great deal of close in measuring, cutting and finishing etc ... I'm just trying to make my life a little easier ... :D
#1847732
Will the stainless steel “accept” that yellow anodising stuff ?
A manager at my last place of work could not deal with normal black ink on white paper and had to have all printed material, yellow paper, black print. It was a sort of dyslexic thing I think.
#1847914
avtur3 wrote:... but I want mm graduations, but no smaller, anything smaller just confuses the issue,

Funny that, I have always found 1mm graduations easier to read than those with 1/2mm lines.
I find I can easily estimate to the nearest 0.1mm on a 1mm scale rather than use the 1/2mm lines to get more accuracy. If I have both scales on a rule I always ignore the 1/2mm side.