I’m not good with any of the above, so for this, I used my Cricut Joy machine to cut a vinyl stencil. You can cut out your own stencils from paper or vinyl, purchase premade stencils, or, if you’re good at freehand, you can simply hand paint the lines and numbers. Step 3: Cut and Apply Life Size Ruler Stencilįor the stencil, there are a ton of options. If you want to stain or paint the board, it’s best to go ahead and do that before painting/applying vinyl.Īllow finish to cure at least 24 hours before applying a sticky vinyl to it. I could have waited and polyed after the fact, but I thought sealing it before would help prevent bleed through and allow for a more even paint job. So, to prep the wood, I gave it a few coats of poly beforehand. RELATED: How to apply edge banding to plywood Step 2: Pre-Finish the Giant Ruler Boardįor the ruler marks, I was going to use a stencil and paint them on. I cut this with a miter saw, but any saw that can cut wood would work fine for this.īecause I was using ¾″ plywood, I edge banded the sides, but if you’re using a solid board or you don’t mind seeing the edges, this step is totally optional. You can make yours any size you want, but I chose to make mine about 78″ long (which is 6 ½ feet). Step 1: Cut Ruler Board to Lengthįirst, I cut my board to the length I wanted my ruler to be. I felt that paint may be a little “longer lasting.” But honestly, either method would probably be fine for this. My concern with using the actual vinyl stickers was that with excessive handling, over time, they might peel off. However, if you want to, you can do the opposite and remove everything from the vinyl stencil EXCEPT the lines and numbers and actually just stick these vinyl pieces on instead of painting. I used a Cricut Joy machine to cut a vinyl stencil, removed the line marks and numbers, and transferred this “blank” to the board so that I could paint these on. You can make this however tall you want, but I made mine about 78” or 6 ½ feet long. I used a strip of ¾” plywood that was about 7” wide. Some Notes About this Life Size Ruler Project: Ruler Sizeįor this project, all you need is a single board…it can be scrap plywood a 1×6, 1×8, whatever.

Transfer tape (to transfer the vinyl to the board).

Vinyl for cutting stencil (I used Cricut Smart Vinyl with my Cricut Joy Machine).

or a scrap strip of ¾″ plywood however long you want your ruler to be

After you've found out your measurement and compared it with the scale, convert your units of measurement into the most convenient units for you (i.e., convert 63,360 inches to 1 mile or 600,000 cm to 6 km, and so on).

Finally, you'll lay the paper on the map between your two points to determine the real-life distance between them. Then label the marks as to what they mean, in real distance. To use paper, you'll place the edge of the sheet next to the scale and make marks where it shows distances, thus transferring the scale to the paper. You can either take your ruler measurement of the distance between your two points and place that on the scale to determine real distance, or you can use scratch paper and go from the scale to the map. With a graphic scale, you'll need to measure the graphic, for example, white and black bars, to determine how much ruler distance equates to distance in reality.For example, if you see 1:63,360, that means 1 inch on the map represents 63,360 inches on the ground, which is 1 mile.

If the scale is a ratio (and looks like 1:100,000), you'll multiply the map units by the number following the colon.For example, if the map fraction is 1/100,000, the scale says inches, and your points are 6 inches apart, in real life they'll be 6x100,000 so 600,000 centimeters or 6 kilometers apart. The units will be listed on the map, such as 1 inch or 1 centimeter. If the scale is a representative fraction (and looks like 1/100,000), multiply the distance of the ruler by the denominator (100,000 in this case), which denotes distance in the ruler units.If your measurement on the map is 3 5/8 inches, that would be 3.63 miles on the ground. '1 inch equals 1 mile'), determine the distance by simply measuring it with a ruler. For example, if the scale says 1 inch = 1 mile, then for every inch between the two points on the map, the real distance on the ground is that number in miles. If the scale is a verbal statement (i.e.It might be pictorial-a ruler bar scale, or a written scale-in words or numbers. They are typically located in one of the corners of the map. Find the scale for the map you're going to use.If the line that you're trying to measure is quite curved, use a string to determine the distance, and then measure the string. Use a ruler to measure the distance between the two places.

Life size conmputer ruler