Got any recommendations for squares?

[Sporky McGuffin]

Woodpecker squares:
"The handles are milled from solid bar stock and fastened to the body with high strength socket screws. Separating the handles from the blade ensures they can be recalibrated to the blade if knocked out of position."
They obviously don't expect them to stay square. You don't get much for your £100!

Or they know that someone will grab it and use it as an impromptu hammer (having refused to spend £20 on a nice Estwing because "that's a rip-off; you can just do that with a rock").

 

[JobandKnock]

Or they know that someone will grab it and use it as an impromptu hammer (having refused to spend £20 on a nice Estwing because "that's a rip-off; you can just do that with a rock").

£20? Estwings have gone up a lot since you last bought one! Just think how many rocks you can get for £40. Wonder if there's a rock out there with a ripping claw?

I think there are a lot of tools around these days which are priced for the "carriage trade".

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

£20? Estwings have gone up a lot since you last bought one!

I meant the non-artisanal ones!

https://estwingtools.co.uk/estwing-...d-claw-hammer-20oz-hickory-surestrike-emrw20c
Though I'll happily admit to having one of the leather-disc-handled ones because I needed a hammer and it was so darned pretty. I do actually use it for hitting things though, and it is very good for that.

 

[TomGW]

Coming from a drawing office background I have plenty of drafting set squares and a full size ‘T’ square. Perspex set squares are readily available in lots of sizes, cheap, 100% accurate and totally unaffected by temperature or humidity. I also have a fairly large Starrett which is excellent.

 

[JobandKnock]

Though I'll happily admit to having one of the leather-disc-handled ones because I needed a hammer and it was so darned pretty. I do actually use it for hitting things though, and it is very good for that.

You wouldn't like my "artisinal hammer" at all - titanium head, hickory shaft and makes any Estwing look cheap! Even better, though, it does a lot less damage to my aging muscles and shoulder

 

[Adam W.]

I have one of these Peddinghaus lægtehammers. I don't think I'll ever wear it out.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

You wouldn't like my "artisinal hammer" at all - titanium head, hickory shaft and makes any Estwing look cheap!

Anything with titanium is good. Titanium is like the metal version of being-a-laser or being-a-subwoofer. Everything is better with lasers, subwoofers, and titanium.

 

[D_W]

Square 3 as mentioned previously arrived via the postal service this morning. Browne and Sharpe and a little older, but nearly unused.

Dead square to the giant starrett try square, just as the others and very smooth.

I beat the drum one more time - I have no clue unless something is really cheap why people buy unhardened combination squares. Just take a piece of mild steel bar or whatever you have that's unhardened and put a screwdriver on a corner and tap with a mallet and then do the same thing with hardened.

The hardened stuff won't really move, and it wears far slower if it does.

 

[JobandKnock]

It just doesn't like being dropped onto concrete, Sorry, real world concern both in workshops and on site

 

[Inspector]

Hmm.... Guess I'm the only one with Starrett, Shinwa, and an assortment of other squares plus a cylinder square and a granite plate to verify them with.

Pete

 

[Adam W.]

Probably.

 

[D_W]

It just doesn't like being dropped onto concrete, Sorry, real world concern both in workshops and on site

I'm not sure which post this was addressed to, but if you're on a site with concrete - which is going to be near zero of the folks here asking what square to buy, then a beater is a good idea. I have a "Breakdown" square from home depot - $14 or something for an empire combination square with a long rule - great for breaking down boards initially - not very accurate, but if you drop it, no big deal, and if you have something like that on a site, it has no "ebay steal value" (nobody will take it and flip it).

Same with hammers. Being a woodworker, I've gotten half a dozen framing hammers as gifts (because what do people give woodworkers - hardware store chisel sets and framing hammers). The contract who came and did my back room out to a permanent room asked if I had a hammer to pull the porch bits that were there apart and look underneath. He came the next time with his hammer - it had been used 500 times as much as my framers put together and looked like it was worn out three decades ago.

And he did the neatest work I've ever seen. As much as he loved that beat up hammer, though, I don't think he'd have tolerated seeing someone drop it.

 

[Peter Sefton]

If I am doing first fix site work I would use my old Rabone Chesterman combination square, it's good enough but not very accurate, for second fix I use my iGaging combination square, more accurate and ideal for square or mitre work. If setting out walls or big stuff I use a roofing square, large piece of ply or 3-4-5 dimensions.

In the workshop I use my Fisher 50mm for small dovetail work, 150mm for general marking out and 300mm for larger testing or gang marking. My Shinwa 45/90 gets used on veneer work as it lays veneers flat but use my Woodpecker TS 600 for panel and layout work.

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/woodpeckers-woodworking-t-square-600mm-model-t-600/
I keep my rosewood carpenters square to remind me of grandad.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Jacob]

If I am doing first fix site work I would use my old Rabone Chesterman combination square, it's good enough but not very accurate, for second fix I use my iGaging combination square, more accurate and ideal for square or mitre work. If setting out walls or big stuff I use a roofing square, large piece of ply or 3-4-5 dimensions.

In the workshop I use my Fisher 50mm for small dovetail work, 150mm for general marking out and 300mm for larger testing or gang marking. My Shinwa 45/90 gets used on veneer work as it lays veneers flat but use my Woodpecker TS 600 for panel and layout work.

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/woodpeckers-woodworking-t-square-600mm-model-t-600/
I keep my rosewood carpenters square to remind me of grandad.

Cheers

Peter

I think you are over-thinking things. You'd easily get by with a lot less kit even if it was all grandads.
Nobody needs a rafter square which costs £100. You wouldn't dare go anywhere near a roof for starters! Not least because if you dropped it it could go out of square. The one piece design without detachable handles is obviously more practical

 

[Spectric]

With all these MFT tables out there and systems to make them why not use these tools to make some fancy but cheaper squares, use 20mm dogs as the corner pins so it can fold up, I am sure there are plenty of good ideas out there waiting to be unleashed.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I think you are over-thinking things. You'd easily get by with a lot less kit even if it was all grandads.
Nobody needs a rafter square which costs £100. You wouldn't dare go anywhere near a roof for starters! Not least because if you dropped it it could go out of square. The one piece design without detachable handles is obviously more practical

Sorry, if I am roofing I use a pair of sliding bevels and my Rabone just like grandad did, or the chop saw pre set for ridge cuts.

 

[Jacob]

... I am sure there are plenty of good ideas out there waiting to be unleashed.

I'm going to make one of these.

Not sure if there are any new ideas to be had.
I thought the £100 Woodfit roofing square was clever though - it has detachable handles, which means that if they become loose they can be re-adjusted ! Smart thinking! (in case you missed it - if the handles were not detachable they would never need re-adjusting - or "calibrating" as they term it).
You'd have to use a normal square with fixed handles for the re-calibration, but luckily they are a lot cheaper and more reliable.
What will they think of next?

 

[D_W]

I think you are over-thinking things. You'd easily get by with a lot less kit even if it was all grandads.
Nobody needs a rafter square which costs £100. You wouldn't dare go anywhere near a roof for starters! Not least because if you dropped it it could go out of square. The one piece design without detachable handles is obviously more practical

I think your tendency to bend the topics toward house work that you typically did isn't helpful when someone asks a question like:

>>wardrobe build<<

I read the forums early on in my trials, rarely did anything in a house but saw constant comments from "pros" on knots about doing all kinds of paid work with minimal tools.

What they didn't do was ever have the consideration to talk about what I was making (either cabinets at the time or starting to get into tools).

How we get on a thread building wood stuff in a shop to what you would do if you dropped squares from rafters, and the constant desire to make your kit all that anyone needs...it's really got to be a comedy act.

 

[Adam W.]

If I'm roofing, I use a framing square and the Carpenters Roofing Ready Reckoner just like most carpenters before me.

 

[Peter Sefton]

If I'm roofing, I use a framing square and the Carpenters Roofing Ready Reckoner just like most carpenters before me.

I am sure my grandad did the same, I know my dads site carpenter did, I was just given the stack of rafters and told to let the saw do the work