how to square up try-square?

[Randy Swaty]

Hi folks,
I have a nice old wooden handled try square with brass fittings at the corner. It's lovely, but not square! I know how to square up a metal framing square by hitting the appropriate place, but what do I do with this type of try square?

Any thoughts appreciated!
Randy

[Chuck Nickerson]

Wood is easily worked with a chisel and brass is easily worked with a file. I have trued them up that way.

I've read that those joined with three rivets can be adjusted by tapping the right rivets to spread them. That I have NOT done.

[Jim Koepke]

Randy,

Welcome to the Creek. Your location is not in your profile, you may live close to one of us who would be willing to work with you one on one. If you live in the Portland, Oregon area let me know.

How bad is your square out of square?

I have used a file to adjust a square. It is not always the best since there are two sides to the blade that need correcting. Other times I have used the impact method to correct out of square tri squares.

Often they become out of square because they were dropped. The goal is to administer a force opposite to the force that put it out of square in the first place.

jtk

[john brenton]

After reading an article by Adam Cherubini (who hasn't posted here in a long time) about wooden squares, I don't even worry about it for woodworking anymore...but then again, I'm not building highboys over here. I do have a machinist square that is in fact square, and I'll use that occasionally for metal stuff. The last time I used it was making a shooting board, where I really wanted it to be accurate.

[Zach Dillinger]

Amen John. There is "square", and "square enough for woodworking". I love my shopmade wooden squares. The only change I would make to them is to make the tongue slightly thinner (I used 1/4"). 3/16 or maybe even 1/8 might be better, as long as the material is carefully chosen.

[Bill Houghton]

What I'm about to say is kind of scary, but it's worked for me a couple of times. Hold the wooden stock in your hand, with the square vertical (that is, so the handle is pointing up or down, depending), and whap the beam (the metal "rule") on your workbench, in the direction that will bring it back toward square. Then test again.

[Jim Koepke]

What I'm about to say is kind of scary, but it's worked for me a couple of times. Hold the wooden stock in your hand, with the square vertical (that is, so the handle is pointing up or down, depending), and whap the beam (the metal "rule") on your workbench, in the direction that will bring it back toward square. Then test again.

Actually Bill that is about how mine are done.

My only difference is to place a piece of scrap wood on the bench to keep it from getting marked in the process.

jtk

[Adam Woznicki]

Hi Randy. I agree with Bill and Jim on giving it a whack. Below is a pic of a try-square so you can see how it's made. I don't know if they're all like this. This one is a stanley sweetheart.
219517
Hitting the blade stretches or compresses (sometimes bends) the thin, diagonal part of the frame. Or if you're unlucky it breaks the solder joint.


Just a couple notes, make sure you use the mark, flip, mark method to check for square, not just matching it to another square. Otherwise you may just be copying an error.


Also these old squares are often thicker on one end of the blade than the other. The result is the inside will be square but the outside will be off, or vise versa.


Good luck.

[Mark Dorman]

Adam thanks for the exploded view.

[Randy Swaty]

Hi folks,
Thanks for the welcomes and the ideas. The things is out pretty bad, say 3/16 over the length (~8"?) so I'm liking the "whack impact method". I'll report back. Right now it's nice to hold, but serves no function!

I'll report back soon,
Randy