Square recommendations

[Ian Haywood]

I could use some recommendations for a largish square that is truly square. I bought an 18x24 Stanley carpenter's square and it fails the flip test.. you know... draw a line, flip the square and redraw a line on top of the first one. I suppose it would be fine for rough carpentry.

The crosscut sled I built for the 4100 appears near perfect.. but then I figure out that what I'm using to build it by and judge what "square" is, isn't.

Sorry for the newb question... but have you ever searched for "square" here?

thanks,
Ian

[Peter Quadarella]

It may seem expensive, but if you don't buy a 12" Starrett combination square you will want one forever. I finally gave in 2 weeks ago and it is truly a fine tool.

[Chris Padilla]

Yep, Starrett. Only bring it out when you either:

A) Make your own
B) Measure up one at the store to find the squarest
C) Want to impress your friends

[Dave Novak]

I'm a big fan of all the measurement and layout tools from Woodpeckers. Go to woodpeck.com and click on the link titled "measuring and Layout". For the money, these can't be beat: http://www.woodpeck.com/incraprot.html

[John Schreiber]

I had a cheap one like that and I made it square by pounding on the corner. It was too wide, meaning over 90°. I set it on top of my metal vise's "anvil" surface and pounded pretty hard quite a few times on the outside corner. That got it to a perfect square using the flip test like you describe.

The problem is that the edge is not now straight. I filed off the bumps I made, but can't really use that part as a straight edge. It's far more useful than it was before though.

The trick is to pound some and test frequently so you don't over shoot. (DAMHIKT)

[Mark Singer]

Starrett ! The 4" or 6 " double square is super handy too. Its with me most of the time, except when I can't find it

[John Browne]

I'm with you on this one. I have two framing squares--one from Woodcraft and one from HD and neither one is square.

I wound up making a rectangle of plywood about 12" on a side and made sure the diagonals were exactly even--well within a frog's hair anyway. Then I labeled it with a sharpie so it wouldn't get tossed. It was primarily to set my Festool MFT fence square to the guide rail, but could be used for other stuff. I also have a 4' sheetrock T-square, which as far as I can tell is pretty close to square.

Try as I might I can't find a large (ie over 12" long) engineer's square. Jerry Work uses one--I asked him where he got it and he couldn't remember

[Dan Barr]

if your square fails (carpenters square)

(peen: hit with the round part of a ball peen hammer. this will spread the metal slightly and expand that spot.)

(peen where the tongue and blade intersect)

- peen the inside corner if it the inside is less than 90 degrees. this will open up the inside a little.

- peen the outside corner if the inside is more than 90 degrees. this will close up the inside a little.

test as you go. pound pound pound, test. repeat.

hope this helps,

dan

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Starrett. You'll be glad you did.

[Dan Barr]

but,

for fixing your carpenters square, you'll need to peen it.

ive got both. starrett for all my handy and small work and a carpenters square for framing and checking carcases.

v/r

dan

[Richard Dooling]

Dan is right, you can square a square with a ball peen hammer, or use a center punch but.......Starrett. I use squares that are "square enough" most of the time but at some point you want reference squares and straight edges to work from. I put off getting the Starrett combo for too long. Expensive but worth it.

[Kurt Bird]

Ian,
The old time carpenters would buy a new square, and test it as you did: draw a square line, flip the square over, and draw a second line to see if they match. If the lines crossed each other, they would take a metal punch (kind of like a nail set but with a shallow point on it) and they would place it on the square about 1/4" in from the inside corner, and tap it with a hammer. Recheck drawing the lines. Repeat the steps until square. If the original set of lines went apart from each other, use the punch about 1/4" in from the outside corner of the square. This should work fairly easily, but another recommendation is to buy the steel version of a framing square, it will hold up better. If this process doesn't do the job for you, throw out the square and buy a Starrett.
Kurt Bird

[Gordon Harner]

I use another approach. I even checked my Starrett this way. Use a drafting square. They are dead accurate and available in many sizes.

[Gary Keedwell]

Yup...My Starrett is my go to that I keep safely in it'special place in my tool box. It is my "standard" that I use to check my other squares.

Gary

[Ian Haywood]

Thanks, I'll try peening this thing. Either I'll fix it or I'll chuck it.

Ian