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Squaring a square question?

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Squaring a square question?

#1

Squaring a square question?

Barry Irby

>Has anyone tried to square a framing square?

I have a Stainless Steel framing square I bought new thirty years ago. It ahs been one of my treasures until yesterday. I was trying to use it to be sure some panels I was cutting were square and discovered it is no longer square.

First: Don�t you check them by using a wide piece of say MDF with a straight edge and drawing a line across with the long leg of the square to the left and then checking to see if it reads square with the leg flipped to the right? That is, reverse the square and see if it reads true both ways?

Mine reads slightly �closed�. That is, slightly less than 90 degrees. I have another steel square and it reads slightly open.

So, what else do I need to know about testing them for square and ahs anyone tried to correct one? I saw an article somewhere about �peening� them on an anvil with a ball peen hammer or a punch.

Re: Squaring a square question?

#2

Ellis Walentine

Yes and yes

Ellis Walentine

>Your method of checking your square is the accepted way, and peening [the inside of the corner, in this case] is the traditional way of expanding that metal slightly to compensate for the error. You can also use a center punch to expand the metal as needed, but that leaves punch marks.

Ellis

Re: Squaring a square question?

#3

Re: Squaring a square question?

Dave Mount, -27 F this morning

>Morning again Barry--

If you surf on over to Sawmill Creek and their handtools board, Harry Strasil recently posted a link to an article of his on doing this. The procedure is what Ellis said, Harry's article just has a few more details.

Best,

Dave

Re: Squaring a square question?

#4

Re: Squaring a square question?

Jesse in New Mexico

>What Ellis said on the way to fix it. Also, if you don't trust the squareness of the mdf, here's another test.

Find a board with a good straight edge. Use a thin leaded pencil to draw a line with your square. Flip the square over and try to draw the same line. When you can get a single thin line after flipping - you have a square square.

BTW, don't have real high expectations for a framing square. Its very difficult to get anything that long perfectly square.

Re: Squaring a square question?

#5

Re: Squaring a square question?

Bart Leetch

>Set one of your squares to read square on the inside & the other to read square on the outside & mark them so you'll know which is which.

It is rather rare to find a framing square that is square on both the inside & the outside to finish standards.

Re: Squaring a square question?

#6

Re: What I do

Jay St. Peter - Southern, MD

>I find that after a few years of (ab)use, my framing squares can get out of whack. Not to mention they get dinged edges that can affect their use in more exacting situations. So, I go to the borg armed with a fine point mechanical pencil and drag a few framing squares over to the MDF pile and start checking them out. I've always managed to find one that is good inside and outside within 5 tries. IIRC, the last one I got was <$10. I make that one my golden framing square and treat it as well as I can.

I have fixed squares using peening, but find that inside vs. outside are usually off by a little after that. So I relegate the fixed ones to construction duty and use them for less exact things without fear of them getting banged up.

If you haven't tried the Veritas square fence, I recommend it.

Jay St. Peter

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