Today’s must-have tool comes from Larry Haun – longtime Fine Homebuilding contributor, ringleader of A Carpenter’s View blog, and author of the new book, out this Fall, A Carpenter’s Life – My Story as Told By Houses”

“Back in the early 50s, when we went from building one house at a time to building a tract of 500 homes or more, we quickly found that it took too much time, using a combination square and tape measure, to transfer the location of anchor bolts in a slab onto the bottom plate of a wall. Homemade bolt-hole markers were the solution, and the first I saw was a simple device made from a piece of wood lath. A notch was cut in the end of the lath to fit around a ½ in. bolt. Then an 8d nail was driven partially through the lath 3½ in. back from the center of the notch. Once the wall line was snapped on the slab, we laid the 2×4 plate directly on the line, put the marker tool against the bolt, and tapped the nail to mark where to drill each hole in the plate.

For many years, framers used this same tool made from a metal plate strap until it was produced commercially. One such commercially available version comes from Big Foot Tools. With this tool you can easily mark the location (on 2×4 and 2×6 plates) of bolts ranging from ½ in. to 1¼ in. The marking pin in the stand-up model is spring-loaded so it retracts each time you mark a bolt location”

Thanks, Larry! The standup version of the tool is available online from DHC Supplies for $33. I wasn’t able to find the handheld version for sale online (if others can, please post a link), but Big Foot Tools does have a list of distributors for those who are interested.

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