Tag: Small Rulers and Protractors

Prelude to Protractors

I was flipping through my smaller notebook and remembered I’d already posted about a credit card sized design for a protractor and ruler.  I decided to connect this to my recent other design and turn it into a short series.  This design predates the one I most recently made and shared on this site, thus the title.

While I posted a writeup to Instagram, for some reason I didn’t put anything here?!  Other websites go away over time and even if mine doesn’t last forever, well, at least it’s still mine.  Thus, here’s the photos:

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And, just in case1 Instagram completely evaporates, here’s the writeup I posted:

A DIY protractor / ruler / template card.

I needed a quick and convenient way to make straight (ish) lines and angles that I could keep in my small notebook.

The little card is about the size of a playing card and acts like a 5mm increment ruler, 10 degree protractor, and can make it easy to draw a grid.

This all started because I was working on an electronics project, needed some resistors and haven’t memorized the color chart, decided to draw a color chart in my notebook, needed a grid / ruler, decided to design my own after seeing a neat metal one on Kickstarter.

OpenSCAD -> Inkscape -> Print -> tape to card -> craft knife -> drawing

Now I have a little template measuring tool that will let me draw circles, angles, lines, grids, and dots. I’m very happy with this. :)

I may try to lasercut one from a thin sheet of plastic

Enjoy!

Small Rulers and Protractors
  1. Inkscape Protractor and Rulers
  2. Prelude to Protractors
  1. God willing [↩]

Inkscape Protractor and Rulers

Over the last week I’d tried making a set of small rulers and straight edges I could keep in notebooks of various sizes.  I’ve got a big heavy sketchbook, a thin college rule composition notebook with several DIY augments, and a very small sketchbook about 4″ square.

Just four notebooks
Just four notebooks

My idea was to make small credit card / ID card sized rulers, print them on paper, and then laminate them to keep in one or more notebooks.  My first attempt a few days ago was serviceable1 – but lacking in aesthetics and functionality. (I’ll show some pictures below…)

This morning I saw a Mastodon post by @concretedog234 demonstrating his use of a homebrew lasercut protractor.

@concretedog's lasercut protractor
@concretedog’s lasercut protractor

Inspired by @concretedog’s work, I embarked upon building my own in Inkscape, using some printable ruler I found online.  A few design progress pics:

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The basic process I used was:

  • A few concentric circles for the overall protractor outline and semi-circle cutouts
  • A longer 10 degree increment rotated 18 times (since it was a line at the top and bottom), a medium 5 degree increment rotated 36 times, and a short 1 degree increment rotated 180 times
    • Edit -> Clone -> Create Tiled Clones
      • Symmetry:  P1: simple translation
      • Shift:  make sure the exponent is “0”
      • Rotation:
        • Angle row/column:  0, 5 degrees
        • Rows/columns:  1 x 18
  • Then added the rulers minus the numbers (just looked cleaner)
  • Three clones of the result, printed on paper, cut one out, cut out the semi-circle windows and center, laminated, then cut out the semi-circle windows and center again, ran it through the laminator for good luck

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In an ideal world, I would also have created the ruler marks using @concretedog’s guide … I just hadn’t seen it until I got around to finishing this project. :)

Small Rulers and Protractors
  1. Inkscape Protractor and Rulers
  2. Prelude to Protractors
  1. built from PrintableRulers.net [↩]
  2. Someone I’ve been following for years and have come to think of as a parasocial friend [↩]
  3. Is following a fellow maker a parasocial relationship if you interact with them? [↩]
  4. Parasocial could be pre-friendship? [↩]