yard sale

[Paul Saffold]

A craftsman rule w/ protractor head. Very worn. Many of the degree markings are gone.

A Mitutoyo 12" rule w/ combination head & center finder head. Rule made in USA, the 2 heads made in Japan. Very nice quality.

Total cost: $ 7.00 :D

[Russ Massery]

Still a great deal.

[Bill Houghton]

the really thick washer arrangement they have on their clamp bolt is, as far as I'm concerned, dead even with Starrett for silky movement of the rule, when you're adjusting for length.

Protractors don't exactly grow on trees, but they do show up in the wild - and, for some reason, often appear alone, without the rule. They come in two flavors: non-reversible (the "angle" part is on one side of the rule only) and reversible (the "angle" part is on both sides). There are some tradeoffs - with a reversible protractor, you can do direct layout of parts on which the angled line sometimes leans left, sometimes right; but it can be awkward with acute angles. The non-reversible works fine if the lines lean in one direction, and you can use it to take an angle off with a sliding bevel, to get your reversibility; you can also use it to set things like a table saw miter gauge directly, not that anyone on this forum would ever care about that...