u/East-Bike4808 — reddlx

A spotless Versalog!

Slide rule 3 of 5 of my birthday treat to myself is a great Versalog I. Absolutely by far the best leather case I've personally come across... it's like-new, still soft (but I cleaned/conditioned it all the same).

The rule itself was almost-flawless upon arrival and cleaned up great. Bamboo is so nice as a slide material. Good scales on the Versalog w/o going nuts with it. The cursors in these are particularly not-awful to take apart because of the bushings in these screw-wells. Hard to insert them crooked.

The next two are Fabers! Then I'm done lol.

From Indiana with love!

u/East-Bike4808 — 1 day ago

▲ 63 r/Sliderules

A gorgeous Deci-Lon

My birthday is tomorrow and I did a treat-yourself to all the slide rules I’ve wanted. First was the Flying Fish 1003. Coming up is a Versalog and a Faber-Castell 2/83N.

Today the Deci–Lon arrived! I splurged and bought a more expensive specimen, and glad I did! The rule itself and the case are both in great condition. Didn’t have to clean this slide rule much at all—little bit of schmutz from the slide track is all—but I included a couple pics to show off how wonderful the cursor came out (and my improved cursor-alignment skillz lol: those 3s on the C scale are dead-on and I vertically aligned the one I removed with 2-4 on the square scale across the face of it).

Edit: lol now that I look I did put the cursor on reversed: should be red cursor with the side where the slide has red ends and vice versa… but it’s so straight I’ll leave it for now.

u/East-Bike4808 — 5 days ago

▲ 66 r/Sliderules

Flying Fish 1003!

Got this fresh from China today. Wonderful slide rule! One of the lesser-known lots-of-scales slide rules that were made. It’s some sort of plastic, engraved markings. And it’s in very good shape! I have a yellowish lamp: it’s as white as it’s supposed to be. Good set of scales, full log-log, dual sq scales and triple cube scales, sinh scales, etc. I also like that most of the scales spill past the index on the end.

Shoutout to Lu Tiankuang, lxt20100805@sina.com. Was referred to him from an eBay purchase my friend did with him, and he‘s a good guy. I think he’s got some more of these… Flying Fish also made a variety of other models.

u/East-Bike4808 — 7 days ago

▲ 6 r/Sliderules

Ideas of how to un-bend a Pickett slide rule?

I picked up an N4 in decent shape… one side I think I’m looking at more aluminum-oxide than black enamel, but it’s readable.

Only problem is the entire slide rule has a slight curve looking down the length of it from the top. It’s pretty slight but enough that the cursor noticeably rubs more on the concave side and there’s a squeaking noise as the slide rounds the gentle curve of it.

Anyone got any clever ideas for gently (it’s not a strong curve: the slide rule is totally usable) coaxing it straight again? If I anchor it in the middle and just deflect it on the sides (press not-very-hard) a degree or so it’s straight again. It’s almost straight.

EDIT: ended up leaving it. It really is a slight bend. Don’t think I can fix it better than it’s warped already.

reddit.com

u/East-Bike4808 — 11 days ago

▲ 6 r/Sliderules

Pickett N3: calculate log(x) with ln-based LL scales

I have a N3 and N4… the N4 notably has log10-based LL scales instead of the more-common ln-based ones. But the N4 gives you these nifty CF/M and DF/M scales folded on the conversion factor so you can pop out ln results with by just looking up the solution on a different scale.

The N3 has the normal ln-based LL scale, but no DFM (the reciprocally-folded version of DF/M that would convert the other way).

I know the ln(x)/(ln(10)) = log10(x) trick to get the desired result via the ln-base LL scales… but does the N3 offer a slicker way to do it?

I’m asking because Gemini is convinced the L/Ln scales can be involved to more easily convert between the two, but despite scrutinizing one in real life and grilling the AI I can’t make sense of what it (thinks) it’s talking about.

I suspect there is NOT some fancy trick, and this is what you’ve got. But I thought I’d check with the collective sage wisdom here to confirm.

reddit.com

u/East-Bike4808 — 11 days ago

▲ 18 r/Sliderules

I finally figured out how (most) of the scales work. AMA lol.

I was particularly surprised that C/D (and their CI/CF/CIF flavors) are pretty much the only ones you actually slide the slide rule for!!! The rest of the scales are basically conversion tables in the form of scales calibrated to C/D.

reddit.com

u/East-Bike4808 — 1 month ago

▲ 99 r/Sliderules

Lovely Picket N3-ES

Nabbed this off eBay (thanks Al!). Little soap, little picking at the tracks with a toothpick, tiny bit-o-Teflon, and tightening all around (I love that these are serviceable with a screwdriver), and it is buttery smooth, firm, and as good as the day it was made in 1960.

Oh no... I spelled Pickett incorrectly :-(

u/East-Bike4808 — 1 month ago