Combination Squares

[MarkDennehy]

Yup, they're loverlee aren't they! Just as a matter of interest, where (country) was yours made?

I'm not sure, there's no country of origin marked on it. I mean, I'd assumed the US because I thought Starrett was an American company but I guess these days that doesn't really follow.

Frankly, I am astonished that someone with a seemingly well equipped workshop doesn't already have this indispensable tool.

A few engineering try squares, a double square from Moore&Wright, a framing square for large rough work and a speed square for work in the timber yard. Plus not being a professional helps enormously. I'd say I was getting by, but I think it'd be more fair to say I was muddling through - and when you can't cut to a line, if that line's at 89.9 degrees it's not the worst of your problems

Also, dropping a large chunk of change on a tool when you need some experience to see what it is that the money is paying for is... well, remarkably painful as a bar to overcome when you're starting out. You wind up finding ways round things, then those workarounds become habits and then bad habits and then ruts and... well, it takes effort to break out of those

If you can find a square that is 90 degrees and costs 99p, then buy that.

Well, obviously, but that's an If. And on this side of the Irish sea, you don't really have second hand sales that include tools, for various historical reasons (mainly relating to the cabinetmaking industry either dying out here in the 19th century or being quite small). I mean, I've seen the odd wooden plane, but it's usually been remade into a flower pot twenty years ago, and I've never been able to find a chisel yet.

To be honest, that thing looks cheap for what I would expect from Starret. I would have expected a nicely engraved logo, ...not a sticker. The rule looks good, but the body looks like something from a cheap hardware store

I think that's more the photo to be fair, it doesn't look cheap in the hand. It's forged steel rather than cast iron, so it's got a smoother finish to it which I'm not used to myself, but the thing is just so very, very solid.

And yes, the sticker is quite annoying. It's not even properly adhered, it's off by a degree or so which is ironic.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Looks good, I thought wonky labels were traditional on all best tools, like the old wonky Clifton plane iron stamps !

My combination square is a franken-square - the rule was a decent steel rule, but came with a horrible cheap stock with some sort of cast alloy screws. The screw is a brass one from a cheap all ali square from Screwfix. The stock is the only good bit, an old one that was lacking all the other bits. To my great surprise they all went together - a genuine "combination" square !

But now the OP has made his purchase, perhaps it is OK for me to risk diverting the thread a bit ...

This type of protractor uses a magnified vernier scale that's accurate to slightly better than a tenth of a degree,


Astonishing though it sounds, sometimes even that isn't quite good enough. You can still sometimes see a cigarette paper sized gap at one end of a really wide mitre. Ideally I'd like a tool setting device that measures to about half that, but I've never found anything remotely affordable.

How do you get wood stable enough not to open up a cigarette paper wide gap in a wide mitre ? (I don't know how wide, I suppose). It seems to me a flaw of big mitres, they are only 45 degrees at one humidity level. In damp conditions the wood swells perpendicular to the grain and a gap opens at the outside of the mitre. In dry conditions, the gap is at the inside of the mitre. I can see this clearly on some (bought) picture frames at home, admittedly they are on the mantle piece over the woodburner ...