Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire who can read a framing square?

i use to believe i could.

but now not so sure i can.

the housing thread triggered this thread.

the idea of do it yourself helps Loews, Home Depot, Ace and others?

wish i could properly lay blocks and stones. that's a true art & craft right there.

I can’t, but my buddy can. He showed me one day it’s just about blew my mind he said no one uses them anymore everything is electronic. He said give most framers a framing square they would know what to do with it.

I can. I can even read a tape measure Gus.
I was at Home Depot last week and looked at a new tapes out of curiosity. They come now marked with 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, etc. so that when you call out a dimension to a Millennial, they can find it instead of just looking at you with a blank stare.
I still don't ask them to count change.

Last time I used a framing square I layed out the stair risers for my lake house. That was 1975. Knew how to do it then. I’d have to study up on it now.

Yes, still use one on occasion. Not sure how else you build stairs.

yep. there might be some majic in a manual framing square.

it'll do more than most folks can imagine.

i've forgotten most of it.

to "hammer" the intersection of a square will work to "square" it up.

we humans have come a long way in our construction technologies.

You lost me there Gus

I use one. But I'm not building homes. Stuff I build is very wonky and tough to square so I use a variety of things to plum and drill straight. I have jigs for placing levels and squares on stuff to drill true on my press. You do what you can and by any means necessary to do it right in craft. God bless the real carpenters and builders, that's real skill.

He said to use a framing square to its full potential it’s a little complicated, but he could utilize the full use of a framing square , But he is a mathematical whiz, I was lost i use it as a 90° straight edge :-)

I was taught by one those vanishing master carpenters. Roofs, stairs, framing and finish. I make no such claims for myself today, but yeah, I can still use a square.

Being a street racer & car builder in the 60-70’s I could look at a bolt/nut & know what size it was. I was well into adulthood before it occurred to me that the graduations on a rule matched the socket/wrench sizes.

lol. we're beginning to wander off the rez.

my uncle, long gone, taught me everything about construction.

that is, all that's i'd likely ever need to know, at least more or less.

he learnt his stuff at ft. bliss, texas back in the day. way back in the day.

if a framing square "get's out of whack" use a hammer to tap the top & bottom.

that is the junction of the short leg and long leg is where the "square resides" mostly.

tapping it with a hammer can help to re-calibrate the square to a more usable or valuable angle.

the key is to keep the 90 degree angle intact. or at least within acceptable bounds. what is acceptable?

I just installed a new garage door opener and used the 3,4 &5 triangle (actually it was 6,8 & 10) to get the rail dead nuts perpendicular with the garage header.

A framing square should be a piece of cake if you know what rise (and angle) you want to use.

Depends on how square you want things 😬

a steel square (ss) will get rusted pretty quick if allowed to get moisture on it.

an aluminum square can get out of whack pretty quick if not babied.

i have cut some really good birdmouths, and some others too.

My GF was a contractor back in the day, no power tools. He was very particular about his tools, sharpened his own saws. The amount of “set” was as important as the sharpness. My Dad said he was told to not force the saw, let it do the work. I have a couple of his saws, top notch, one is Swedish steel.

My Dad told a story of his Dad building a house for a cousin. The 2x6 rafter lumber was delivered first. Grandpa set up his saw horses, started cutting lumber, using his square and a pencil, throwing cut pieces in a pile. His cuz was concerned about him cutting up all that expensive lumber. Grandpa’s favorite word was “l golly”, told his cuz, I golly, I’ll pay for any that’s not right.

Later the sills and studs arrived, and the construction began. Once walls were up, the roof was next. It was a hipped roof with jack rafters, every piece fit perfectly. And with that kinda roof, there are multiple length rafters, with compound cuts, angle and bevel.

Siding was tongue and groove lumber at a 45 angle, tying plate to sill. Dad said Grandpa would say, “Boys, she may roll, she won’t tear up”. Roof decking was tongue and groove lumber.

Yeah, he built tough houses, many from back in the ‘40’s still here.

I grew up in one of those. And, it’s still here.

Reading a square like that was and is an art, as was that level of craftsmanship.

DF

I think Gus is talking about the tables found on some squares. Gives you multipliers to use to figure lengths of raters, jack rafters, hip rafters, valley rafters etc.. per foot of run for a given roof pitch (slope) I use a roof framers Bible Instead as a reference guide. Good explanation of the tables here.https://inspectapedia.com/roof/Framing_Square_Table_Use.php

there's probably different levels of adeptness related to reading carpenter's squares.

at the base, or bottom is the square itself. 90 degrees.

beyond that, one can figure a lot.

the tables are very good.

thanks for the posts.

Not "base" it's called the heel Blade and Tongue are the two "arms" of a square.

fair enough.

a good sawman is hard to replace.

pls carry-on. i'd like to learn more, as would others.