The Original Scoreboard™

Scoreboard 2     ScoreStik        Mini ScoreStik        Home

Both the Scoreboard and the Scoreboard 2 are the finest cutting aids on the market. It is an indispensible tool for all glass crafters. Hot glass and mosaic artists love the ability it gives them to  cut small geometric shapes accurately, easily, and consistently. Because the cutting surface is flat, the small pieces are easy to work with since they will never fall into a "hole" as can happen with some other tools.

Everything is Included.

There are NO OPTIONS to buy.

We developed the Scoreboard because we wanted an easy, obvious way to cut geometric shapes with excellent accuracy. This doesn't just apply to "once in a while" shapes like pentagons and octagons but also to the really common shapes like squares and rectangles that can drive you crazy if they're not right.

The most elemental cut we do when cutting geometric shapes is "squaring up" a piece of glass. The problem is, how do we know we're going to make a piece of glass square? After all, how square does something have to be? Let's consider a couple of examples.

Suppose our "square" corner is off "just one degree."  To most people that doesn't sound like much since there are 360 of them in a circle. So how big can just one degree be? The truth is a one degree error is really quite large. If you scored a piece of glass at 91 degrees (or 89 degrees) instead of 90 degrees, in just 10 inches your score line would be off track by 0.175 inches (that's awfully close to 3/16 of an inch for you people who don't like to work with decimals). You can put a metal carpenter's square on your glass to help you out but it's sometimes rather awkward to hold everything in place and also make sure nothing slips while you're scoring the glass. In our little example of a one degree error, in just under 3-1/2 inches you'll be off 1/16 of an inch. That's an awful lot when you're trying to put a box or a frame together.

Unfortunately, the one degree error syndrome also holds true when we're cutting at 30, 45, or 60 degrees. No matter at what angle we're trying to cut the glass, a one degree error can be devastating.

There are other devices on the market to help you cut geometric shapes accurately. However, none can hold a candle to the accuracy and ease of use of the Scoreboard.

This is what you get with a Scoreboard.

The first thing you'll notice is the fixed stop at ninety degrees. That's the nylon button just to the left of the top of the vertical bar.  It's factory set with a body bound rivet (so it can't possibly move) and it is very accurate. When the cutter guide bar is set against the stop, the angle it makes with the base bar is dead square.

Next notice the full length "base bar" along the bottom edge of the board. That's the aluminum alloy bar that runs straight and true all the way from the left edge to the right edge. That means you can set your glass anywhere along the base bar and it won't change its orientation. 

The "cutter guide bar" is also made of alloy aluminum (for hardness and light weight) and is also dead straight. The nicest thing about this bar is the pivot point where it intersects the base bar. The bar pivots about a "zero clearance" nylon bushing and is cradled in tight fitting and sealed nylon pads top and bottom. You will appreciate the velvety smoothness when you rotate the bar and you will undoubtedly notice that there is absolutely not even a hint of a wiggle.

The "stabilizer bar" runs from the lower right corner of the board  up through a swivel at the top of the cutter guide bar. The stabilizer bar is made of a special grade of austenitic stainless steel. What that means is that it is very tough and it will never rust. To rotate the cutter guide bar to an angle other than ninety degrees, just loosen the clamp screw in the swivel assembly (at the top of the cutter guide bar), rotate the bar, and then re-tighten the lock screw. The guide bar is now locked at the new position and because of the structural integrity of the stabilizer bar, it absolutely won't wiggle.

The board itself is made of an air-entrained material that is lightweight, strong, and smooth but not hard so it won't damage your cutter wheel if you accidentally run your cutter into it. The board is a generous 24 inches long by 16 inches wide so it will accommodate many common glass sizes. One of the nicest features of the board is that you can write on it with a felt tip pen or a pencil. You can record and label any angle you want to save simply by drawing a line on the board along the edge marker guide located at the top right edge of the cutter guide bar. It always sits on the board and you use it like a little straightedge. Once you have recorded an angle, you can return to it anytime in just seconds simply by rotating the bar until the edge marker guide is at the left edge of the line you drew (and labeled). Tighten the lock screw and you're all set to repeat what you were doing before.

Not only is there a fixed stop at 90 degrees, but each board is also marked at 30, 60, and 90 degrees on both the left and right sides. These are the primary angles you'll use to cut common shapes. They are put on at the factory and are very accurate. You can set any of these angles in just seconds and be confident it is correct.

You can click on any picture to enlarge it, if you wish. The first picture above shows the Scoreboard with the cutter guide bar set to 60 degrees. The next picture shows a close up of the edge marker guide and the 60 degree mark on the board. Set the guide on the left edge of the 60 degree line and the angle of the bar will be exactly 60 degrees. (Think of it this way, that's where the bar had to be when the line was put on the board.) The third picture is a six piece "sunburst" made with diamonds made at the sixty degree setting. The fourth picture is a close up of the center of the sunburst.

There are two things to notice here. First, the assembly was made from  two different pieces of glass. Second, you can tell from the fit of the pieces (incidentally, none of them were ground in any way) that the angle of the diamond must be 60 degrees. If it were not, the pieces wouldn't fit together without a gap. By the way, these pieces are all loose. I have the stops for the strip width and the diamond setting marked on my stop bar. One of the demonstrations I do for customers is to set these pieces together and, using the stops, reproduce the diamond with another color of glass. Then I remove one piece and replace it with the one I just cut. It always fits perfectly.

The picture on the left just above, shows how you can tell easily if a piece of glass is square. Set one edge (a straight one) against the base bar and slide the right edge up to the cutter guide bar. It's a little hard to see in this picture, but the 3/4 inch aluminum angle is set against the left edge of the bar with one leg under the bar. If the glass contacts the angle along its whole length, the lower right corner is definitely square. If not, you'll have to cut off a little of the right edge to make it square.

The next picture is not something we did with mirrors. It is a left hand Scoreboard which is available at no extra cost. It does, however, require a special order.

The last picture in the row shows the protractor that comes with the Scoreboard. With it you can set any angle very accurately since the diameter of the protractor is actually 15 inches. Compare that with angle setting devices with a 3 inch or even less diameter protractor. The individual degree marks on our protractor are actually slightly more than 1/8 inch apart so you can set angles without guessing.

.   

The last two pictures here are close ups of my Scoreboard, the one I use all the time. The first shows the cutter guide bar set to a line labeled "2 X 4 diamond." When we teach a hinged box class we frequently use a box which incorporates a 2 X 4 diamond into the top cover. Since we furnish the glass for this class already cut (class emphasis is on box making - not cutting) I find myself frequently cutting glass at this angle. Once I marked the angle on the board, I never have to check to see if it's right. I just set the bar.

The last picture shows a close up of the stop bar on my board. Notice the mark at 2 inches. Once I had the stop bar set so the strip I was cutting was exactly 2 inches wide, I drew a line across the gap between the stop bar and the base bar and labeled it top and bottom. Now, when I want to cut a piece 2 inches wide, I simply line up the edges of both lines and my stop bar is within a few thousandths of an inch of where it was when I made the marks. This not only saves a lot of time but it also eliminates errors. Once the stop is set correctly, you never have to be concerned about measuring that dimension again. You just know it's right. Having the ability to record angles and horizontal stops is worth a lot to anyone who wants to make more than one of something.

Also included with every Scoreboard are two other items. The first is a 3/4 X 3/4 inch aluminum angle 8 inches long. It has many uses. You can position it against the guide bar and slide a piece of glass against it to see if the glass is square as in one of the pictures above. You can use it to project the direction of the guide bar down to the surface of the board to help you line up the bar with a pattern. You can also use it as a bumper. When you push the bar up against the edge of a piece of glass, the vertical edge of the angle sticks up well above the top of the glass. If we then put a pattern piece on the glass and push it against the angle, we know that the edge of the pattern is exactly flush with the edge of the glass. That's a very handy feature.

The second item is a small diameter tube we use as a "thin glass standoff." What does this do? When you score thin glass such as common mirror, front surface mirror, or even some stained glass, the glass is thinner than the base bar which it sits against. This means that the your cutter's wheel will bump into the base bar just before it rolls off the glass. This means that the score line will stop just short of the edge. Oftentimes when you break the glass you will then get a little flare at that end. By putting the "thin glass standoff" tube on the board in between the glass and the base bar, you allow the cutter wheel to roll completely off the glass and complete the score. This eliminates the little flares.

There are many things you can do with just about any cutting system. The things that sets the Scoreboard apart from any other system are:

   1) its inherent simplicity,

   2) ease of use,

   3) built in accuracy,

   4) structural (no wiggle) stability,

   5) the ability to record angles and horizontal stops, 

   6) the ability to return to any recorded angle or horizontal stop in just seconds, and

   7) everything you need is included, there are no options to buy.

 If you're using a system that requires you to be a rocket scientist, one where the procedures to do something are too complicated to remember, one where you have a real problem trying to repeat something you just did ten minutes ago, or one that doesn't give you consistent results; you might want to try a Scoreboard. You'll be glad you did.