First I will say this happened by some good luck on my part and I am not meaning to brag, but I won one a store championship and earned myself a cool acrylic range ruler. But it is off by about a mm. One of my friends pointed out that since I eventually was given it by FFG that is should count and my real prize for winning the tournament is that all my stuff now shoots 1 extra mm. Unfortunate I don't think that will fly.

What I really want to do is trim down that one end and then it will be acurate. I heard something about all the range rulers being off, so I can't be alone in this. Has anyone else been successful in fixing their range ruler? What is the best way to fix it? It needs to be exact. I am worried that my hack saw isn't going to do the trick.

I wouldn't do anything to it. It's an official range ruler. You say it needs to be 'exact,' but what is exact? Two people can buy core sets, pull out their brand new cardboard range rulers, and have them not be the exact same size. I'd leave it as-is. If I played someone that had a range ruler that volunteered the information that it was an extra millimeter long, the only thing I would think about it would be 'Hmmm, that's cool.'

12 minutes ago, EYEL1NER said:

I wouldn't do anything to it. It's an official range ruler. You say it needs to be 'exact,' but what is exact? Two people can buy core sets, pull out their brand new cardboard range rulers, and have them not be the exact same size. I'd leave it as-is. If I played someone that had a range ruler that volunteered the information that it was an extra millimeter long, the only thing I would think about it would be 'Hmmm, that's cool.'

Yeah, another option would be to agree to use the same ruler. That way, even if it is too long or too short, it doesn't give an advantage to one player or the other.

30 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Yeah, another option would be to agree to use the same ruler. That way, even if it is too long or too short, it doesn't give an advantage to one player or the other.

Yep, someone can request to use the same tools and dice even in competitive events. I've never seen it done in Armada or X-Wing (fairly limited experience with 'formal' store champ or higher events in both games though) and I personally would more than likely not bother to request to use someone else's ruler, but the option does exist.

2 hours ago, Hrathen said:

First I will say this happened by some good luck on my part and I am not meaning to brag, but I won one a store championship and earned myself a cool acrylic range ruler. But it is off by about a mm. One of my friends pointed out that since I eventually was given it by FFG that is should count and my real prize for winning the tournament is that all my stuff now shoots 1 extra mm. Unfortunate I don't think that will fly.

What I really want to do is trim down that one end and then it will be acurate. I heard something about all the range rulers being off, so I can't be alone in this. Has anyone else been successful in fixing their range ruler? What is the best way to fix it? It needs to be exact. I am worried that my hack saw isn't going to do the trick.

If you think this is bad, you should compare cardboard range rulers from the core set.

That's a joke.

Please don't.

If you're really concerned about the measuring ranges of your distance and range rulers, agree to use only one/one set, and share yours with your opponents.

Here is a list of all the range rulers (that i know):

From top to bottom:
Core Box
Nationals 2015
Store 2016
Worlds 2016
Nationals 2016
Euros 2017

There was only one, that was to long so far. And this was the one from the Euros (and maybe was or will be from GenCon?).
If you had another one, that was to long, it might be the Store 2016 one. But it can only be way under a millimeter. The two short ones are ~1 millimeter to short.
The euro one is 5! millimeter (about 0,2'') to long. This is far out of any tolerance that i would accept for a ruler.

Normally i would agree, that it is fine, as long as both player use the same Set. But you all know, that will not happen really often. And with 5 millimeter difference, you can pull some really nasty stuff. Do not forget, your squadrons flying further, your attack range is bigger. 5 millimeter does not sound much, but in games, where you are not sure if something is in range (and this happens really often), these 5 millimeter make a difference.

The second compare are the range and distance rulers. The fitting Store 2016 one against the Set from the Euro 2017.

.

@Tokra those Euros 2017 rulers are like a long range upgrade card!

I am shocked that it is this bad. Is it really that hard to get the lengths the same on every ruler the produce.....

Well obviously it is very difficult....

For FFG at least

Wow, thanks for the posts everyone. I still feel bad about using a ruler that is a mm to long, but not nearly as bad as before.

I think I will just inform my opponent of its length before the match and offer to let him use mine if he wants.

2 hours ago, Rune Taq said:

I am shocked that it is this bad. Is it really that hard to get the lengths the same on every ruler the produce.....

Well obviously it is very difficult....

For FFG at least

Unless all Rulers are produced either:

1) All at the same time and in the same place from Materials produced at the same time in the same place.

or

2) In a completely temperature-and-pressure controlled environment where all primary and secondary materials are produced...

You will get variances. Those Variances will vary based on materials involved, but there will be humidity and pressure variances at the very least.

3 hours ago, Rune Taq said:

I am shocked that it is this bad. Is it really that hard to get the lengths the same on every ruler the produce.....

Well obviously it is very difficult....

For FFG at least

Even in situations that CALL for precise machining you can get variations from production batch to production batch, and this is not one of those situations. These are just toys , after all.

If someone's range ruler is longer than yours by a fraction of an inch, then use their ruler.

17 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Unless all Rulers are produced either:

1) All at the same time and in the same place from Materials produced at the same time in the same place.

or

2) In a completely temperature-and-pressure controlled environment where all primary and secondary materials are produced...

You will get variances. Those Variances will vary based on materials involved, but there will be humidity and pressure variances at the very least.

minimal differences. Yes. But not 5 millimeters (0,2'')!

7 minutes ago, Tokra said:

minimal differences. Yes. But not 5 millimeters (0,2'')!

Easily 5mm.

I mean, for one - I get 5-6mm difference out of my cardboard ruler based on wether its Snowing outside, or Hot+Humid like it is now in summer - judged against a Steel Rule.

Acrylic can be much the same - especially if its cheap acrylic

Its a big problem I'm having locally with producing more of my Merchandise... Acrylic, Resin and MDF are all especially heat and humidity intolerant when it comes to reproduction standards, it seems... I'm really struggling.

I mean, for example - I measured out and made a Ship Tray that had a 2% shrinkage, with a 4% shrinkage margin, and basically... I could only cast it twice before my tests found out that it had shrunk more than anticipated and in doing so, wouldn't fit sleeved cards (only unsleeved ones).

22 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Unless all Rulers are produced either:

1) All at the same time and in the same place from Materials produced at the same time in the same place.

or

2) In a completely temperature-and-pressure controlled environment where all primary and secondary materials are produced...

You will get variances. Those Variances will vary based on materials involved, but there will be humidity and pressure variances at the very least.

That's true. I mean Im a civil engineer and we run static load tests on deep foundations. The heat from direct sunlight can ruin the entire test if it's on the reference beam that all the gages are attached to. Basically that beam is the zero point. It cannot move or all your measurements are off.

So yeah I see the lagitamacy of your point but then why not have systems in place to keep things within a set tolerance.

2 minutes ago, Rune Taq said:

That's true. I mean Im a civil engineer and we run static load tests on deep foundations. The heat from direct sunlight can ruin the entire test if it's on the reference beam that all the gages are attached to. Basically that beam is the zero point. It cannot move or all your measurements are off.

So yeah I see the lagitamacy of your point but then why not have systems in place to keep things within a set tolerance.

Because those systems are usually expensive.

OP In particular is a Negative Profit Product. It costs FFG money, and doens't necessarily make money based on what is involved... But its a carrier/pusher for you to purchase the actual product.

They cut as many production corners on it as possible (that's why the cards are produced in-house and lack the nice lamination of the non-kit cards)... It keeps their negative profit down as much as possible.

Ensuring systems are in place are just flat out expensive once you get beyond the basics of climate control - especially when you need to then be sourcing identical products from that point on.

9 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Easily 5mm.

I mean, for one - I get 5-6mm difference out of my cardboard ruler based on wether its Snowing outside, or Hot+Humid like it is now in summer - judged against a Steel Rule.

Acrylic can be much the same - especially if its cheap acrylic

This is not an issue IMO because theoretically at a given day and time both yours range rule and there's are subject to the same conditions changing the length of both of your rules.

*Assuming the same material*

2 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Because those systems are usually expensive.

So are there models.... Haha

Just now, Rune Taq said:

So are there models.... Haha

Check the rest of my edit in

Expensive is Relative.

Their Models are also subject to a hefty degree of differences, as well...

4 minutes ago, Rune Taq said:

This is not an issue IMO because theoretically at a given day and time both yours range rule and there's are subject to the same conditions changing the length of both of your rules.

*Assuming the same material*

Unless of course, they were subject to different conditions at production , so their "Resting" values are different.;

It was a demonstration of how one material could vary in the distances involved... And thus provides an assumption that if such a thing were to happen at production, then you could have two items identically produced, but under vastly different measurements, because the base material has essentially been 'compromised'.

As another example - I die-cut two MDF punches within 20 mnutes of each other, from 2 different MDF sheets...

Three days later, after full drying systems have happened - one is visibly smaller than the other - it was a newer, fresher sheet of MDF compared to the spares I had in my basement... Sucks.

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

Check the rest of my edit in

Expensive is Relative.

Their Models are also subject to a hefty degree of differences, as well...

Yup. I have a gladiator from the first print (I think), and two from the second (I think). One is much lighter colored than the other two. Not an issue but it shows that it changed from print to reprint.

3 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Unless of course, they were subject to different conditions at production , so their "Resting" values are different.;

It was a demonstration of how one material could vary in the distances involved... And thus provides an assumption that if such a thing were to happen at production, then you could have two items identically produced, but under vastly different measurements, because the base material has essentially been 'compromised'.

Correct. I'm assuming the materials and production are identical. Therefore any change due to weather should be the same.

11 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

Easily 5mm.

I mean, for one - I get 5-6mm difference out of my cardboard ruler based on wether its Snowing outside, or Hot+Humid like it is now in summer - judged against a Steel Rule.

Acrylic can be much the same - especially if its cheap acrylic

Acryl has a thermal expansion of what? 0,09 millimeter per meter and Kelvin? So to get a difference of 1 millimeter you need a temperature difference of 36K.

On the other hand, i have seen tons of range ruler for X-Wing. From all possible producer and in different quality of the acryl. But all are still similar enough to be legal. They are all less than 1 mm.

It must have been a really poor quality control, if something like this (the euro ruler) went thought.

And one more about these: The Euro X-Wing rulers are NOT this much different from the original.
It was not about the quality of the material, it was pure on the quality control and the measurements specifications they have made. I can really see no other reason for this insane difference.
Or it must be the company they gave it to make them. Maybe they are "cheap".

Cardboard can change in size do to humidity. Acrylic doesn't really change all that much. The sizing problem is probably based on FFG sending out different suppliers cardboard rules and those rulers being different in size at the time of casting. The molds themselves can be off depending on how well they are made. I think the one step that can go horribly wrong is the printing.

The reality is these things can be made with high precision when required. FFG clearly doesn't require it. It is an official range ruler made by FFG. If you want a truly fair game, use the same range rulers and dice for both players.

I got some Acrylic ranger finders online (for $45) and they were 2mm too long.

I found a shop that deals with laser cutting, guy was super nice and gave me a deal to recut them for $15. Now they are very "slightly" shorted. But I prefer them to be shorted because then I absolutely know they are in range if they reach cardboard to cardboard.

Of course I inform my Event organizer or opponents of this and ensure I lay them out for them to compare. (have not had an issue from anybody over the course of 20 games.)

5 hours ago, Rune Taq said:

Correct. I'm assuming the materials and production are identical. Therefore any change due to weather should be the same.

You arent doing our industry proud with that comment!

Cutting impliments will be steel, which have vastly different thermal properties than plastic. So whilst the measured distance for cutting is based on steel, the resting distance is based on plastic.

This is the main issue with using carbon fibre or GRP in construction. Concrete and steel have such wonderfully similiar thermal properties.

With that all said. The movements we talk about on bridges under thermal expansion are miniscule, so this seems a bit of a ridiculous explanation.