Show-and-tell: Mirock Wheel Ruler
This measuring tool has it all: It's nifty, it fills a need, and the maker is amazing.
Oct 24, 2022
We visit a lot of great woodworkers, and they have a lot of cool tools. Many of us on staff at Fine Woodworking also have bought a lot of cool tools. And I thought it might be cool to start doing some show-and-tells of the interesting tools we come across. Adam Savage, on his YouTube channel “Tested,” likes to do tool show-and-tells. Usually, he focuses on a tool that he recently picked up, but quite often it’s something just thinks is interesting or inspiring. Today’s show-and-tell is all of those things.
It might look like brass fidget spinner, but this Mirock wheel ruler is quite the contraption. The moment I saw the video of making it, I thought it was ingenious and knew I needed to buy one. I’ve been making a lot of ukuleles and most of the woodworking I do has few straight lines. This wheel ruler allows me to get reasonably accurate measurements of any surface, straight or curved. Sure, I could I could use a cloth tape measure to do the same thing, but it’s a lot less fun—and it’s certainly not as inspiring as using the Mirock wheel ruler.
Mirock is a tool maker in Ukraine who had to close his shop for a few months while he evacuated his family. As soon as he reopened his Etsy store, I vowed to buy a tool from him. Soon thereafter, he posted a video of the making of this on YouTube, and I knew I had to have one. I don’t often drop $150 on tools—without hesitation—but I think this is worth every penny. Not only is it a functional, inspiring tool that I use often, but it also allowed me to support a toolmaker I greatly admire. This is probably at the top of the list of nice tools that I’ve bought from people I thoroughly respect.
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3 Rules for WoodworkersMario Rodriguez surveys tools for making precise measurements. |
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Comments
I like this Ben. More of this.
Very nice looking tool Ben. Reminded me of a similar tool as seen in this video: https://youtu.be/QGByBJCFyIs?t=53
Looking forward to your tnext show and tell.
Cool Ben, you basically found a brass planimeter. Construction estimators, geographers, police and countless others use them to measurer all manner of things every day. You can get them at office, drafting and some tool suppliers in analog and digital that measure in fractions of inches, millimeters, to kilometers and miles and probably every other standard one could think of.
Reminds me of the tool used to measure roads on paper maps and they apparently are making digital versions that can even measure 1 inch to 1 inch.
Ya, same kind of thing. I used them in the 70's estimating construction projects and I think I remember my dad showing me one he used when he was a surveyor in the 30's and 40's. The ones we used would measurer to scale anywhere from 1 to 1 to maybe 100 or more to 1. I was usually working with 1/4" or 1/8" scale but my dad was working with maps.
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