quiltingcotton

I've been having issues with my older acrylic rulers getting brittle and chipping if hit wrong with the rotary cutter or just slightly moving it against another acrylic ruler or dropping it ever so slightly. You can only work with so many chips, the chipped spot catching, or being sharp, or changing the cutting edge. Plus it is easier for the rotary cutter to ride up over the chipped area toward fingers.

As an added note in case anyone is wondering about how do I measure/how much to cut with the straight rulers, I have really good cutting mats across my cutting station/table with 1/2 measurements blocks, and smaller scoring marks. My mats were a little pricy, but well worth it as they are extremely accurate with the measurement lines on them.

So my tip is:
With my squaring off rulers, and straight rulers, once I get an acrylic one that is no longer usable, I replace it with an aluminum or stainless steel ruler. I have gotten multiple lengths of the straight edge aluminum/stainless steel rulers as well. It's nice that they have hanging holes in them. I just pull the size off the hook that I need.

The framing and carpenter squares work great for squaring off two sides of a block and then turning the block to do the other two sides.

I even use the aluminum triangles now as well. I also was able to get aluminum centering rulers. (0 in the center with measuring marks going off of both the left and right sides. Nice for centering designs.

Honestly, if I had known what I know now, I would have started off with the metal rulers. A whole lot cheaper too in the long run. My rotary cutter also works great with them, with no worries of it riding up over a chipped acrylic edge anymore!

Just a note: that if you go this way (metal rulers), that you watch that the one you buy don't have sharp edges. Just make sure you buy good brands of woodworking/carpenter rulers, so the edges of the rulers aren't razor sharp. Just read the reviews and stay away from those brands that reviewers say have sharp edges.