This is a simple and quickly made tool using yard sticks to measure inside spaces between 36 and about 60 inches. The nuts were also changed to wing nuts for ease of use.
Back View.jpg
The markings are Metric on one side and Inch on the other. I learned that the bolts should be before the first foot of the non-slotted yard stick. This is so a 2' level can sit on top of the yard stick and not be hampered by the bolts.
It was made with the use of a router plane. The yard stick being cut is clamped to the bench and the edge of the bench is being used to guide the fence on the router. Before starting with the router, a marking gauge was used to score the area to be removed to help prevent splintering.
Making the Slide Stick.jpg
Most of the time I advance the blade by watching the knurling on the adjusting nut. This picture shows some lines on the top of the nut that were drawn at 1/8th intervals around the nut. I usually advance about half an increment for each pass.
Lines on Adjuster.jpg
This is a Sargent router and the adjuster is likely different for different makers. This one has 18 threads per inch. That works out to 0.055" per full turn. A 16th turn works out to be about 0.0035". That is a pretty good rate of stock removal.
An expandable story stick could be made the same way. Often a story stick of mine that is not needed for future use gets a pass or two with a plane to be cleaned for another use.
jtk