> Last night I looked around ebay and the rest of the web a bit. I had
> thought that slide rules were pretty much all the same. I'm a little
> over whelmed now. :-)
>
> Is it possible to just get a normal all around use slide rule, plastic
> is fine as long as it's not too cheap, for maybe $10 to $15? Were not
> Any pointers or help with what to look and look out for very much
> appreciated.
> Chris Meisenzahl

Chris

I've bought several (ok about a dozen) nice mahagany K&E slide rules
on ebay and never paid more than $20 with shipping on any of them.
Most came to me delivered for about $15. What you are looking for is
one of the more popular models that they made a lot of. Often these
will have had the cursor replaced more than 50 years ago so they are
not "truely original" and not desirable to serious collectors. Always
email the seller and ask these questions. Is the cursor glass
unbroken? Are the plastic side sliders on the cursor free of cracks?
and is the spring that holds the cursor snug to the edges of the rule
still there and functioning? May I suggest looking for the following
models:

K&E N4053-3 a basic Mannheim rule with trig on the back of the slider
these were made for decades.

K&E 4070-3 or 4071-3 a basic duplex rule with folding scales and trig
on the back. This is my favorite as I used a late model 681497 of this
type in college back in the dark ages.

K&E 4081-3 this is a full blown log log rule and was not cheap in its
day however they made and sold a lot of them as many engineering
schools recommeded this model.

The generation of engineers before me is passing away and many nice
slide rules are being sold in estate sales and subsequently are listed
on ebay. Be patient - look carefuly - ask questions - and make a bid
you can afford and leave it at that. Another will come along.

Many other makes are just as good as K&E - I'm just partial to them as
I own and still use K&E survey equipment on my personal jobs.

regards Basil