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Russ Mozier · Joined: 19 Dec 2003 Posts: 69 Location: Glassboro, NJ

I mentioned this in the "Tools" thread buried in a reply. I'm also putting it here so maybe more kitebuilders will see it.

My cutting surface is a 36" x 78" glass sliding patio door. The glass is in a metal frame and sits on a 36" x 72" banquet table. To use it as a light table I raise the glass on 6" blocks and put lights underneath.

In the space beneath the glass about 4" from the edge towards me I put a 36" metal straightedge with inch and metric markings. This is great when cutting pocket tabs, pockets, short lengths of line, checking the size of small pieces of Ripstop, edge binding, etc. It's not 100% accurate because of the offset from the glass to the ruler but in a lot of cases it's close enough. There are other ways you can do this, you can use a cloth dressmakers tape or a piece of a broken tape measure refill and clear tape it to the back of the glass. Stores like Home Depot sell tape measures that you put on the fence of radial saws, you can use them too. On my "portable" glass, a 28" x 32" storm window, I have a 24" ruler near the edge and at the 0" point I have a 12" length of 1/4" chart tape applied to the back of the glass perpendicular to the ruler. This is great for rough cutting and as an end point for measuring.

kiterpete · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:16 am Post subject:

I believe I may have metioned this before - if you you have an IKEA in your area they still have the 4' X 6' Tempered Glass work table (they have started calling it a hobby table) on sale for 99 bucks down from 399. Excellent for hot cutting/tacking and when I want to use it as a 'light box' I place one of those under the counter strip lights on the metal rack and it works great.

Kiterpete
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Pete Rich

rbojarski · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:56 pm Post subject:

Here's a link to mat board cutting straight edges that a photo supply company named Light Impressions sells.

http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.com/servlet/OnlineShopping?Dsp=20200&PCR=30000:230000:239000:239100

I use a similar 24" ruler made by Logan. The ruler I currently use has rubber beads on the bottom which prevents the ruler from slipping on the rip stop. I'm seriously thinking or ordering the 36" ruler (unless I get on for Christmas).

The large flat edge make a nice guide for rolling cutters. This type of ruler works great for me for cutting straight lines on Ripstop.

Ray Bojarski