Yesterday I was thinking about scissors. Most people would agree that they’re rather mundane, simple tools whose work is cut out for them.
Then of course, put an extra blade in the middle and you have a pair and a half of scissors that can cut through two separate pieces of paper or fabric at one time (oops, halfbaked already).
Instead, rotate one blade 90 degrees on its longitudinal axis, add a ball joint and you have a pair where blade A can cut on the x-axis against the side of blade B or blade B can slice on the y-axis against the side of blade A - three dimensionally-accommodating shears, surely.
Then again join a pair of pairs at the points with hinges and you have scissors that can two-handedly cut out angles, obtuse to acute.
Or why not add handles to the business ends and you have scissors with four cutting surfaces and two directions of travel - great for the ambidextrous or fickle.
I settled on a more practical variant, one scissor blade connected to a 3 mm thick steel ruler. The blade’s mount slides on the ruler (like the window on a slide rule) and allows the scissor to shear against any part of its edge. This enables cutting in perfectly straight lines of exact length.
By adding an angled extension to the back of the ruler, it becomes an L-shaped ‘square’ to always give the right angle. Making the extension adjustable allows straight slicing along the ruler at predetermined angles from the edge or an earlier cut.-- FarmerJohn, Jun 20 2004 drawing http://www.geocitie...nie/halfapair.html?ruler-scissors and others [FarmerJohn]Rotatrim http://www.rotatrim.com/home.htmWhat I think is the bset trimmer/cutter out there. So good you can make tiny sliver shaves perfectly. [FarmerJohn, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Rotatrim http://www.rotatrim.com/home.htmWhat I think is the bset trimmer/cutter out there. So good you can make tiny sliver shaves perfectly. [bristolz, Oct 05 2004] dp qb http://www.deepwoods.org/fonts_icons.htmlThe "good mark" of the Phantom [dpsyplc, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Baked, we had them at school, they were rather morbidly called guillotines. Sorry.-- harderthanjesus, Jun 20 2004 Oh those, the finger choppers. Well, this would be the portable, safety model.-- FarmerJohn, Jun 20 2004 Ours were pretty safe, they had some with a kind of pizza cutter arrangement. True, they weren't very portable.-- harderthanjesus, Jun 20 2004 Oh, I remember those! I used to make shorts outta long-pants using thos blasted things. Snazzy illustrations, FJ!-- Letsbuildafort, Jun 20 2004 Thanx.-- FarmerJohn, Jun 20 2004 It seems like your invention has advantages over a Rotatrim. Your invention could cut items that are too large to fit in a Rotatrim. A Rotatrim large enough to cut blueprints would have to be pretty expensive.
Your invention also has advantages over the hand-held rotary cutters that quilters use. Quilters press the rotary cutter against a straight edge as they cut. The rotary cutter method has problems - The ruler or the cutter can easily slip as you're cutting, spoiling the work or cutting the worker. Your invention has the benefit that, the blade never loses contact with the straight edge. Another disadvantage of a rotary cutter is, it requires a large specialized mat underneath, which your invention does not.
The ruler part of your invention could be like a quilter's ruler - clear plastic with grid marks on it, with the metal straight edge/cutting edge attached to that. The clear plastic allows the quilter to see exactly where she's cutting.-- robinism, Jun 22 2004 Do you take garden furniture in exchange for a pair of Scissors on a Ruler ? [+]-- skinflaps, Jun 22 2004 One of your artsy bits looks like the *Phantom's "Good Mark" symbol, [FarmerJohn] *link-- dpsyplc, Jun 22 2004 random, halfbakery