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My grandfather’s workbench had an adhesive rule stuck to its front edge, which was extremely useful when woodworking. You could check part dimensions without pulling out a tape measure or steel rule.
The only problem was that it was fixed to that one spot.
Now a Georgia entrepreneur has made a cool product that allows you to put a rule almost anywhere, then remove it without hurting the surface below. Called “Red Tape,” it is exactly as its name implies. It’s a 55′-long roll of clear adhesive tape with a continuous ruler printed on it in red.
The tape can be stuck to your workbench then removed if you please. You can stick it to the curved arm bow of a Windsor chair and use it to lay out the spacing of the spindles. Or you can even stick it to your computer monitor to pull dimensions from a photo or use it to size object in CAD or a photo-editing program.
Shown below is how I used Red Tape on my monitor to pull dimensions off a photograph of a Shaker hanging cupboard. It was very handy and easier than holding a ruler up to the screen or even working from a print-out.
The tape is marked in 1/16ths, repeats every 12″ and does not stretch, as far as we could tell. The printing job was quite accurate.
– Christopher Schwarz
