Got any recommendations for squares?

[Jacob]

Ever seen a 1200mm/4ft folding builders square, Jacob?:
......

No I haven't!
My excuse is that I've always worked in old buildings, where nothing is square to start with.

 

[JobandKnock]

My excuse is that I've always worked in old buildings, where nothing is square to start with.

No excuse for putting in new stud walls at oddbal angles, though!

 

[Jacob]

No excuse for putting in new stud walls at oddbal angles, though!

Used to use a long plumb rule but never got around to a plumb square, though I did have an old nicely made hardwood example kicking around in the shed. plumb rule or a plumb square
The string is vertical however misshapen the bob but it needs room to move. If desperate you could knock one up from a few bits and bobs. Spot the coincidence?
They used plumb lines for sky scrapers apparently. Just needed a long enough piece of string in the lift shaft with something, anything, tied on the end.

 

[pidgeonpost]

well, I couldn't get a picture of the alvin, as it's see through and you can't tell that it's against the square of how large the gap.

The two aforementioned lufkin squares - I think in each case, it took me about a week in the US to wait for an auction to close at a reasonable price.
Important thing if you follow this advice is to find a relatively rust free square that shows no evidence of the rule being switched out.
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The giant starrett square is a luxury to find at $25, and not something I'd buy if it were expensive (people can be pretty proud of them selling used). The blade of the square is relatively high hardness so it doesn't distort or ding easily. I think starrett would reset a square for you if you had one that needed it, but it wouldn't be $25.

When looking for combination squares, it's not necessary to find a listing that says the head is hardened, just find one with a picture of the head itself with "hardened" written on it. The listings are unreliable, anyway, as all or nearly all of the rules are hardened and sellers will type anything they can find in the heading. Lots of listings that say "hardened" with beat up unhardened heads. The corners of the hardened heads generally look nice and crisp like this one.

Having a good hardened accurate combination square for $35 isn't exactly a waste of money. If you strike a line with one of these squares and then cut to it (or set up a machine fence, etc), no part of the work you do will be wrong at the fault of the mark or setup. It was given to me by an elderly neighbour who worked on Typhoon fighters in WW2. The fact that the interchangeable heads still have 99% of their original paint suggests that maybe he didn't use it much either.


I think I spent about $6000 on steel and wood in the last year, so this kind of purchase here or there seems pretty trivial.

I had to do a double-take when I saw your photo as I thought 'That's the same as mine', which it isn't, quite. Mine has no maker's name, just says 'Made in England'.

 

[D_W]

I had to do a double-take when I saw your photo as I thought 'That's the same as mine', which it isn't, quite. Mine has no maker's name, just says 'Made in England'.
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That pattern is pretty close!!

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

No I haven't!
My excuse is that I've always worked in old buildings, where nothing is square to start with.

Many, many years ago, I did the same. I was an apprentice and was taught “make it pleasing to the eye”.

 

[D_W]

Many, many years ago, I did the same. I was an apprentice and was taught “make it pleasing to the eye”.

My closest foray into that (because I was never a site guy) was that I built my kitchen cabinets without ever checking square in the kitchen (house from the 1950s). I had my dad (who was about 70 at the time) come out as a pair of hands (he's able bodied, though, and was raised on a farm and still fit - he'd outwork a lot of people in their 30s now).

Dad has a friend who was a physics teacher but refers to physics PH.D's as his "colleagues" and then I have to be careful to not laugh out loud .. "well, you'll have a problem when you go out to Pittsburgh to put a kitchen in because what your son doesn't know is that old houses aren't square".

I doubt this guy ever lifted a hammer in his life.

I said "tell ___ I said up yours, it'll never be a problem because none of the cabinets are square in the first place - I made some of them entirely by hand, the rest at least partially".

All of the face frames and solid bits are plane to fit each other as they're being hung (they each had a quarter extra on the sides, way more than they'd need). We fit everything together and I planed cross supports for the countertops instead of shims (just mark each and if one is 3/8" thinner at the back than front then so be it, and my dad said "the fitters spent 10 times as long as that trying to shim the countertops on when we had them installed".

I said "maybe they should be educators about cabinet installation instead of installers like ___ is a high school physics teacher because being a physicist is out of reach".

 

[Jacob]

Make your own set square.
Just spotted this on Ebay. About 12 x 7"
Nice piece of hardwood with a spline across the grain to keep it straight.
Decorative curly bits probably make it handy for holding, as well as identifying it as a thing not to be thrown away, or it could look like a random off-cut.
Hole in the end for hanging it on the wall.
I might make one for my planer fence and it'd look cool hanging on the wall!

 

[JobandKnock]

Many, many years ago, I did the same. I was an apprentice and was taught “make it pleasing to the eye”.

Doesn't work that well when you are forming new bathrooms which have to accommodate pre-cast shower trays, though! Different jobs require different standards

 

[NewbieRaf]

I’ll blog about it soon because it’s an important subject but just do not do what I did when I was first starting out. I went to Lidl and got a set of squares.

long story short, I was making shaker style kitchen cabinet doors, took me ages to figure out why things didn’t fit perfectly. I was so fusterated I went straight to @Peter Sefton shop and got myself a woodpeckers square which I trust.

there are much cheaper options out there I just couldn’t be bothered looking around.

lesson very well learned

 

[Peter Sefton]

Thanks @NewbieRaf the Woodpeckers are our best selling squares, I think it's fair to say wether you choose a top of the line Woodpecker or one of our £20 Fisher squares you can be guaranteed accuracy and in the unlikely event you have any issue we will replace it without question.

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/woodpeckers-carpenters-square-6/
https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/fisher-precision-engineers-square-150mm-6/
Thanks for supporting our shop!

Cheers

Peter

 

[Jacob]

Thanks @NewbieRaf the Woodpeckers are our best selling squares, I think it's fair to say wether you choose a top of the line Woodpecker or one of our £20 Fisher squares you can be guaranteed accuracy and in the unlikely event you have any issue we will replace it without question.

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/woodpeckers-carpenters-square-6/

Astronomically expensive! I thought it said £9.95 which looks reasonable but it's actually £99.95!

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/fisher-precision-engineers-square-150mm-6/

Better price but it's an engineers square, good for setting up your fences etc. Woodworkers also need woodworkers' squares. The Woodpecker triangular shape, often called a "roofing" or "rafter" square is better for marking up but there are many more cheaper brands. I doubt there'd be many more expensive brands!

 

[Distinterior]

I have a few Woodpeckers tools....all are top quality, reliable and although not cheap imports from the Far East, worth the money.

Personally, I dont see the point of cutting up sections of wood and relying on them to stay "Square" when you can buy a square that's guaranteed to stay square.
I've said it before,.....this is 2021, not 1921!!

 

[Jacob]

I have a few Woodpeckers tools....all are top quality, reliable and although not cheap imports from the Far East, worth the money.

Personally, I dont see the point of cutting up sections of wood and relying on them to stay "Square" when you can buy a square that's guaranteed to stay square.
I've said it before,.....this is 2021, not 1921!!

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!

 

[Adam W.]

Make your own set square.
Just spotted this on Ebay. About 12 x 7"
Nice piece of hardwood with a spline across the grain to keep it straight.
Decorative curly bits probably make it handy for holding, as well as identifying it as a thing not to be thrown away, or it could look like a random off-cut.
Hole in the end for hanging it on the wall.
I might make one for my planer fence and it'd look cool hanging on the wall!

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Lovely!

I'm just wondering of the decorative curly bits are actualy a curve templet.

 

[Jacob]

Lovely!

I'm just wondering of the decorative curly bits are actualy a curve templet.

Well yes - french curves from the good old days when everything was curvaceous!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_curve

 

[Doug71]

Lovely!

I'm just wondering of the decorative curly bits are actualy a curve templet.

A template for the decorative bits under the treads of a cut string staircase was the first thing I thought of.

 

[Jacob]

A template for the decorative bits under the treads of a cut string staircase was the first thing I thought of.

Maybe it is just a template and not intended as a square.

 

[Adam W.]

The plot thickens.

 

[Jacob]

Perhaps it's just a bit of open tread staircase decoration which dropped off?
I think I'll make one anyway, just in case.