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I use a framing square a lot, especially now that I’m getting onto staircases.
Look for an older book, “The Steel Square”.
Probably out of print, I found a copy at a local library. It was a photo-reduced copy, so when I photo-copied it off for my use, I blew it up using the “enlarge” function on the copier.
HEY BUZ, what is the name of the 4-vol. set on Rafter Squares? Can you post it?
Oh, and using a square as a boomerang:
1) you gotta bend the egdes to the right angles
2) If you manage to get the thing to return, do you REALLY want to be standing there?
Replies
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being an up and coming wanna be master carpenter who was and still is apprenticing under some great carpenters, i have found that an appreciation for a tool that is the simplest and most functional for the job is a trait that can be taught!!!! start teaching someone or the framing square will be in one of those retro fine homebuilding museum peice stories!!!
*Hell I thought I was the only carpenter using this fine prehistoric calculator. Got 3 of them stashed in the rear window of my extended cab ford. No body lays a hand on my squares, especially the one old stanley "eagle" square purchased in 1939 by my grandfather. Sort of an anal thing of mine to imagine he's still staring over my shoulder grinnin' with levi-garret juice leakin' out of the corner of his mouth. The summer of my freshman year of highschool was the time I started to learn to cut rafters, and I still use it even on the multiple pitch bastard hips/valleys. Tried the calculators, and "Bibles", but thats like shootin' a trophy buck with a surface to air missile. Plus geometry is not one the the strong points of an alabama education. Ha! Cherish the tradition boys, the old timers are gone, we've replaced them. Scary thought HuH!
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I wouldn't hire a carpenter who didn't have at least one.
Ed. Williams
*Crap Jon. Why'd you go and mention that you drive a F*rd?
*If you have an aluminum framing square, try spray painting your color of choice, orange or pink upside-down paint always seems to be around,and wipe with a clean rag before it drys. The paint stays in the depressions and makes it easier to read. Some of us do know how to use them. It's an essential member of a "carpenter's" tool collection.
*Frank,Thanks for the tip, that sounds like a really good idea. But I ...well... sometimes mis-use mine. It makes a handy spatula for job site cookouts.Chase
*Well Jim, I hope you aren't paying these guys more than minimum wage because "they ain't carpenters".I too would like to find out the name/author/publisher of that 4-volume set. I, like the rest of you, couldn't make it a whole day without needing my framing square several times! I actually worked with a carpenter recently who still "stepped off" his rafters with a framing square!!! I mean, "come on guys!" That's what a calculater is for! I've even used a carpenters pencil and a piece of 2X6 and did all that long division 'n stuff when I didn't have a calculater handy. (Thank you Mrs. Martin for making me hate you by drilling all that nasty math stuff into my head way back in grade school!!!) Who'da thought I would actually ever use the stuff?I only have two framing squares, one for most everything, and one solely for stair stringer layout, Those screws on the square dogs mar up the square and make it kinda hard to read after a while.
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I don't know if it's the same book, but I have one called:
i Practical Uses of the Steel Square, vol.1 (of two)
by Fred T. Hodgson, Frederick J. Drake & Co., Chicago, 1903.
I picked it up years ago in a second-hand shop, and learn something every time I open it. I keep meaning to talk to a publisher to see if anyone wants to reprint it.
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Heres a better way for stairs Mark. Just grab a corner of plywood, and mark the rise and run of your stairs. Draw a line through the two points. Drive a nail half way through on the line.
You now have a perfect template.
It's faster than chasing to the truck and just as accuarate.
blue
*Blue,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*Joe F that is a rhetorical question i suspect. I think i know the answer and i think you do too.
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I just went to alibris.com and found many copies of the Hodgson book for sale (both volumes). I ordered a copy of Volume II (1903) for myself, so I'll have the complete set. I would really recommend it to anyone who's interested in the history lore, and use of the framing square.
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Err, yes Joe, I suppose I would. I'll also use my square to mark the dimesions, and draw the line between the points too. Lets see one of those speedie square proponents do that!
I think that makes me a framing square phreek!!!!!
speedsquarelessly yours,
blue
*Blue,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*Sorry Joe, i'm not giving up my hard earned doggie bones.Stingy Blue
*Blue,
View Image © 1999-2000
*ya don't ask.... ya dont get....
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I was just thinking that of the 25 or so guys I hired in the last 1 1/2 years not one of them owned a framing square.
they are pretty darn useful.You can do a whole lot more than just squre 2x10 with them,and they make a great back scratcher for those moments of deep thought.
just wondering jim
*Hey Jim,Actually I do. I also have kept the blue print that I got with my first stanley. I got it over 15 years ago in high school. The print shows how to use all the tables, etc.I must say though I am a little rusty in some areas. The most common uses I have had are rafter and stair layout.I realy should go look at the print again.Dave
*lousy as a boomerang, unless Mark has figured it out down under.Works well as a straight edge saw guide for those longer than speed square cuts.
*Yahoo!!!!I'm not the only one, the rafter tables are priceless.works great for repetitive blocking cuts when the chopsaw is not available, measure and square all at once, anything under a 2 foot block.With a set of stair gauges(nuts,buttons,etc)excellent layout for purlins,that go on dropped top hip trusses.jim
*Hey, I like my speed square and laser level, but a framing square is one of the most fundamental carpenter's tools. My head carpenter and I still lay out rafters and stairs with them, not to mention 100 other things every day. I must confess that I am not totally proficient with the jack rafter tables or any of the more advanced roof framing stuff that you can do with them, but then again I am not framing complex roofs every day.A framing square is one of the first ten tools any wanna-be carpenter should buy, IMHO.
*..........great ice scraper for the staging planks..stair layout ,,, rafter stepping, tail details....cabinet work..... rafter layout...b what color is your's painted ?????
*Also great for cutting shingles. Mine's painted the color of roofing tar.M
*One black anodized aluminumOne no paint of any kind but sort of a light brown color - it's been around for a long time.One rust colored (yes, REAL rust) misplaced on job site, found a month later.One junior sizeNone ever used as a paint stick.
*One black anodized. Markings recolored in with a yellow lumber crayon.One Stainless steel. A pesent from my wife. Damn hard to read so I painted it with Orange marking paint then wiped the surface clean leaving just the marks orange.And my first is a smooth hand oil and rust stained brown.
*It's all in the stance and the way you hold your mouth.
*....my rusty steel sq. is my shingle cutter / ice scraper...my lender is bright yellow so it finds its way home......my layout is alum with blue paint applied and wiped off so I can read the digits and markings
*Mine's aluminum and I can't leave the shop without it in my tool box. I'd be lost without it. I agree with Nick Pitz, it's right up there with hammer, tape measure and nail bags.
*I hope that doesn't mean you got roof work lined up this summer...'cause if it ain't trussed your gonna be dissapointed!!!! (honey)
*Can't imagine not having a rafter square - can there be a better all around tool.A buddy of mine has a set of books (four volume set) that is dedicated solely to the uses of the rafter/framing square. Anyone familiar with that set of books would be light years ahead of me - fascinating the myriad uses of that tool.Mine are both tarnished severely - so I got a shiny new one.Buz
*When i was supervising the construction of homes i had to drag the framer back because the stair horses were not plumb, level and square. The stair guy could not cover the horses with oak treads and risers the way they were built. The framer put his square on his work to illustrate that they were cut square. The stair guy picked up the aluminum square that the framer used and showed us the huge crack on the inside corner that allowed it to flex several degrees in any direction.Result, the stairs were torn out and recut by the stair guy and all future horses for hardwood treads and risers were cut by the stair guy not the framer.Moral of the story, a square is a square only if it's square.Incidently the stair guy was the smartest carpenter/tradesman i ever worked with. I've often expected him to show up here as a poster since he showed me my first issue of FH over 11 years ago. I suspect he left the trades and does something else now. So what's the story Bruce W. you still swinging a hammer?joe d
*Great tool! I'm still using my Dad's, purchased in the early 1930's. I just wish I could understand and use it as well as he did. That's OK, I'm going to pass it on soon and take better care of the joints.
*There is no handier tool than a framing square. I get kick oout of the newfangled breed that thinks their "speed" square makes them faster. The speed square is faster at one job: marking square lines on small boards. They get their ass kicked on a hundred other jobs. If I have to mark a ton of rafters, and think I need a "speed" square, I just cut one out of a piece of 3/8" plywood and stuff it in my pouch. But that's a rarity.I also always cut my stair stringers using a plywood template cut from 3/8" plywood.But my framing square is the tool of choice for most of the other stuff.I usually work with three of them at all times. That way, I don't lose them too easily.My guys are required to have, and use them.Blue
*I use a framing square a lot, especially now that I'm getting onto staircases.Look for an older book, "The Steel Square".Probably out of print, I found a copy at a local library. It was a photo-reduced copy, so when I photo-copied it off for my use, I blew it up using the "enlarge" function on the copier.HEY BUZ, what is the name of the 4-vol. set on Rafter Squares? Can you post it?Oh, and using a square as a boomerang:1) you gotta bend the egdes to the right angles2) If you manage to get the thing to return, do you REALLY want to be standing there?
*It's amazing to me that most carpenters, self included, never use this tool to it's full capacity. I've been makig a concerted effort to improve my knowledge of it this year. I would also be interested in the title of that four volume set. I suspect that it will share the same fate as the hand saw. Relegated to the bottom of the tool box and not utilized because someone thinkks they have a better tool. And has anyone tried to have a handsaw sharpened properly lately? I keep getting mine back damn near ruined by someone who doesn't appreciate this equally handy tool. Skip
*If my memory is right, I believe FHB did an article about a year or so ago on various usage and calculations that can be performed with a framing square. Lots of good info there.In reply to Skip, Sure am glad to here there are others that recognize the practicality of a good hand saw, and yes, it is difficult to locate someone that can sharpen one properly, H'mmm, come to think of it, it's hard to find someone that'll sharpen anything properly. I recently picked up a panel raising shaper cutter from a sharpener and found it cut better before I had it sharpened. Oh well, add that one to the list.