My grandfather's 1962 slide rule beat my $180 calculator on a real job last month

Zara Moore · 2026-09-25T17:55:05.892971+00:00

I collect and actually use old slide rules, and last month on a job in Boise I left my calculator in the truck on purpose to prove a point to my foreman. He bet me $50 I couldn't do the rafter layout without it, so I pulled out a 1962 K&E I picked up at an estate sale for $15 and ran the numbers on rise and run. I was off by less than a sixteenth on every cut, and he paid up without a word. People call this hobby weird, but a slide rule forces you to understand the math instead of trusting a screen. That said, mine are all wood and bamboo, so has anyone here used the metal Pickett models and are they actually worth hunting down?

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My grandfather's 1962 slide rule beat my $180 calculator on a real job last month | Ask a Weird Expert - Pinecone Attack