Shopsmith Forums

I just found this 'tool' by accident. It's a calculator called Tapulator Pro. It's an app for an iphone, ipad or ipod or whatever that family of products includes.

Basically it a calculator that shows the results on a screen tape measure. It works in metric or imperial (inches and feet) measure and handles fractions to 1/16" (or 1 millimeter). For me and others who might be math challenged or in a hurry this is a handy tool.

I just used it on a project. I had a space in a cabinet 22 5/8 that I wanted to divide into 5 equal sections. It was so easy. The result of the calculation is shown on the screen tape measure, not simply a number. (The tape is in 1/16th inch divisions so in this case it showed it was just over 4 1/2 so when I layed out my cut I used 4 17/32.) And I can see how handy this will be when I need subtract 8 15/16 from 32 1/8 or convert a metric measure to imperial.

Here's a link to the Apple Store if you want to see screen captures. Cost $.99 http://itunes.apple.com/app/tapeulator- ... 50233?mt=8

Finally for those conspiracy theorists present I am not (nor are any members of my family) now or ever have been an employee of Apple of MFG Productions. I am not being paid directly or in-directly for this review.

Thanks for the link. This is a neat app and I'll save time in the shop so I can spend more time building and less time "figurin'".

That's neat!

I prefer decimals.

Bet your cuts were not as accurate.(within 0.006)

My son-in-law, a computer nerd, once asked me if I had a calculator. I said "sure", and handed him a slide rule.

8iowa wrote:My son-in-law, a computer nerd, once asked me if I had a calculator. I said "sure", and handed him a slide rule.

What did he do with it?:D

I enjoyed the expression on our ten year old granddaughters face when she was helping her grandmother unpack after our move and she plucked a slide rule from a box. She actually did some research to learn what it was all about. Fjimp

fjimp wrote:I enjoyed the expression on our ten year old granddaughters face when she was helping her grandmother unpack after our move and she plucked a slide rule from a box. She actually did some research to learn what it was all about. Fjimp

I was always amused by the 'joke' re solving a personal elimination problem that inferred mathematicians used logs and engineers used a slide rule.


'Funny' part was they are the same.

Do you have a belt scabbard for yours? As we used to say - for the quick draw contest - "Draw you to the cube root of 83.75"

When carrying a scabbard hung rule, How many times were you challenged to a quick draw contest for the cube root of some number? The guy with the longest rule usually won.

Never did play that game in the Army! There we had round "slide" rules. About 24" circumference.

I don't have a cell phone but it was interesting when I was at my Son's place converting a formal living room in to a office I needed a level, didn't have one so he brings over his phone and opens a level app. Looks like a level even and it worked fine for the leveling we needed to do. Would never of thought that was possible.

The discussion about logarithms brought me back to the old "CRC Standard Mathematical Tables" book I still have from advanced math class in high school. I just dug it up the other day, I really have no reason to keep it other then the memories from those days. And for those that are wondering, I did wear a pocket protector. Got a slide rule for my 14th birthday, drafting tools and board for my 13th. Still got that stuff tucked away for some reason...

Anyway thanks for mentioning the new app but I guess I'm just to old fashioned to want to go that way, but it is fun to here about.

Ed