After only 20 years I learned how to use a speed square

[dennis thompson]

I have been doing woodworking as a hobby for about 20 years. My woodworking has gone from making furniture for my wife, to making toys for my youngest grandson, to making wooden model cars for my self. My oldest grandson (27 years old) has lived with me for 25 of those years and is now getting his own apartment,:). He has asked me to make him a coffee table. Well yesterday I watched a you tube video about handy tools and one demonstrated was a Woodpecker Delve square. When I was trying to lay out the aprons and the legs for the table , it dawned on me how handy a speed square could be. I laid out the legs and aprons in only 5 minutes. So I guess I'm the definitive slow learner, but to be honest, even after 20 years, I learn something new almost every day.
I have a speed square , I'm tempted to get the Woodpecker Delve square, but the cost ($70) is tough for me to get past.

[Jim Becker]

I didn't even own one until recently when I "impulse bought" one at HFT. Handy to have. For folks doing construction work, they are a necessarily. Like anything, "really good quality" comes at a price and like any form of square, some are more square than others. :)

[Steve Eure]

I bought the Delve square on an impulse, and can honestly say that it is one of the few WP tools I use everyday. It is a handy little square. Of course when I bought it, it was only around $40. Igaging makes a square that is similar in I believe 4" and 7" versions that are handy too. I bought the 7" one and use it often. They are quite a bit less expensive than the WP's.

[Alex Zeller]

I looked at the HF ones and thought could you make one with less aluminum? I have a couple around and use them for more than they were intended. I have a larger one that I use for cutting shingles. But they are name brand. One even has a mark from a circular saw that was made by someone helping me. How, I don't know, but free help usually costs you more than you were expecting.

[johnny means]

I like to use them as single purpose tools. They're cheap enough and being aluminum or plastic are easy to modify.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I always have one in my pocket when framing, and there's one in the shop too. I buy the much cheaper Swanson squares. One of the main functions for carpentry is roof angles based off the x:12 slope system, so these make cutting all those angles possible. In the shop they get used for rough layout. $12 each makes them a bargain.

[Edwin Santos]

I have been doing woodworking as a hobby for about 20 years. My woodworking has gone from making furniture for my wife, to making toys for my youngest grandson, to making wooden model cars for my self. My oldest grandson (27 years old) has lived with me for 25 of those years and is now getting his own apartment,:). He has asked me to make him a coffee table. Well yesterday I watched a you tube video about handy tools and one demonstrated was a Woodpecker Delve square. When I was trying to lay out the aprons and the legs for the table , it dawned on me how handy a speed square could be. I laid out the legs and aprons in only 5 minutes. So I guess I'm the definitive slow learner, but to be honest, even after 20 years, I learn something new almost every day.
I have a speed square , I'm tempted to get the Woodpecker Delve square, but the cost ($70) is tough for me to get past.

I have the DelVe square and love it. If the cost is a turn-off, you can get Milwaukee's 4 1/2" answer to it for $11. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-4-1-2-in-Trim-Square-MLSQ040/310363529

Not quite all the functionality of the DelVe but much of it is there, and the red color is helpful because you can always quickly find it on a crowded bench.
Lee Valley makes a tiny (I mean tiny) version of their own.

[Stan Calow]

I looked up the DelVe and see it at $120 on Amazon! What is significantly different about it from the handful of cheap plastic or metal squares you can get just about anywhere? I helped a carpenter build a deck last year, and watched him use a square to guide a circular saw for cutting framing and realized it wasn't just for measuring and marking.

[Jim Becker]

I looked at the HF ones and thought could you make one with less aluminum? .


True!!! It's a bit chunky which makes using the various pencil openings more challenging. I wouldn't be happy with it for "serious" work for sure, but it's been handy for certain non-furniture/non-cabinetry tasks.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I still have my 6” and 12” Swanson squares although I rarely use them anymore. Nowadays even when doing projects around the house like cabinet fixtures I use a 109 year old framing square. Much more accurate than a tape measure, doesn’t need a battery and I’m old and experienced enough to know the scales and use them.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I recently learned how to use a speed square too via these awesome youtube clips.

https://youtu.be/QwQ34t9SLhg How to Use a Speed Square

https://youtu.be/y0IcTl8D91Q How to Make a Perfectly Straight Cut in Wood with a Circular Saw

These clips were so informative, I have started at the bottom (oldest) and I'm slowly working my way towards the newest and watching all of them! https://www.youtube.com/user/seejanedrill/videos

[Jim Becker]

Good speed square video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNH_BhjwhV8

[David Buchhauser]

This speed square tool looks very handy for some tasks. I ordered several from Amazon to check them out.
David

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CI4UBN6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CI4UBN6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008JF0TE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008JF0TE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

[Frederick Skelly]

.......you can get Milwaukee's 4 1/2" answer to it for $11. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-4-1-2-in-Trim-Square-MLSQ040/310363529

Not quite all the functionality of the DelVe but much of it is there, and the red color is helpful because you can always quickly find it on a crowded bench.
Lee Valley makes a tiny (I mean tiny) version of their own.

I have that small Milwaukee square and the slightly larger one. Also have that teeny tiny square from LV. I love all 3 of them.

[Tom M King]

I've built stuff for a living, for 48 years now, and have never owned one. Maybe I'm missing out, but I get by. I do use framing squares for what they will do, and keep a combination square in my tool belt, when I'm wearing one.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I've built stuff for a living, for 48 years now, and have never owned one. Maybe I'm missing out, but I get by. I do use framing squares for what they will do, and keep a combination square in my tool belt, when I'm wearing one.

Your not missing much Tom, and you can't beat the instant credibility when someone sees you using a framing square to properly to cut rafters. They both do that, but the framing square does look cooler.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Your not missing much Tom, and you can't beat the instant credibility when someone sees you using a framing square to properly to cut rafters. They both do that, but the framing square does look cooler.


Biggest thing about Speed Square is the little book. It's an absolute must for rafters. No figuring required. I'm old enough to remember when rafters were cut on a 16" Dewalt RAS, including the "bird mouth." Studs were also cut on the "DeWalt."

[Mike Kees]

Bought my first Swanson speed square about 34 years ago when I started framing with a new employer . Everyone on the new crew had one and after I used one for a day I purchased one also. I also shared my Japanese made cat's paw nail puller with my new found crew and they very shortly all had one of their own as well.

[John K Jordan]

I'd hate to try to survive without a speed square! I have a least 1/2 dozen. A couple are the big ones, 12" I think, SO handy when framing with larger boards. I use them for angles a lot too - quick and accurate. I like bright orange squares so I can't misplace one easily.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Biggest thing about Speed Square is the little book. It's an absolute must for rafters. No figuring required. I'm old enough to remember when rafters were cut on a 16" Dewalt RAS, including the "bird mouth." Studs were also cut on the "DeWalt."

I don't know if it's true today or not but use to a good framing square had all those tables and more stamped into the center field of the square.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Menards runs them on sale for low or no cost (rebate).
I pick up a bunch when they are on sale.
.

[Tom M King]

How does the speed square give you the length of a rafter? With gauges, and a framing square, no figuring, or measuring, or trial and error needed. You just step off the length with the framing square. I don't remember paying anything like this price, but I've had these for 47 years. Easy for hips, and valleys too. I haven't bought one lately, but mine do have all the charts on the square.

I can't imagine how you would do an accurate stair stringer with a speed square, but like I said, I don't know anything about them.

https://www.amazon.com/Starrett-50476-STARRETT-Stair-Fixtures/dp/B003L0TV3S/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=framing+square+gauge+starrett&qid=1627659531&sr=8-8

I like that design better than the hexagonal ones.

[Jim Becker]

A lot of contractors have moved to using a smartphone application to do the math. Input the the data accurately, and the lengths and angles require will be pretty much exact every time. It's then merely an exercise of not making human mistakes. :)

[Mike Kees]

Tom I have never tried using one for stairs. That is a framing square and gauges. I really like the looks of the Starrett ones that you posted, might have to pony up and get some of those.

[Tom M King]

They take out any error caused by the rounded edges of boards, like you can get with the smaller, hex ones. With those, and a sharp no. 4 pencil, I can lay out a rafter, or stair stringer dead on, first try. I use the combination square off the framing square for the last fraction of a foot mark, when something (almost always) is not an even number of feet.

My gauges are old enough that they have thumbscrews instead of those round knobs. I expect they changed them because too many people got too heavy handed with the extra leverage of the thumbscrews.

Need a hip rafter? Just change the 12 to 17 on the square.

The Chappell square has all sorts of other charts on it, useful for timber framing, but I haven't had the project come up where I needed one of them yet.
https://chappellsquare.com/

[Tom M King]

A couple of weeks ago, I built a little hip roof for a cupola. I used a framing square to mark the hip rafters, and a Wixey cube on the table saw blade to set the angled top cuts. I cobbled up a fence to cut the rafter cuts on the miter saw, just eyeballing the blade to the line, so they'd come out the same. Everything went together first try, easy, peasy.

edited to add: I almost didn't use that treated wood with all the knots, but it was leftover from another job, and had been milled to 2-1/4" thick over 15 years ago, so I figured it had done what moving it was going to do. I wanted more surface area than regular 2x lumber would have given me.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I tried to figure this one out once for unequal pitches, got it to work for a few, decided it was really too complicated to remember how. IF that ever comes up again, I'll learn it again I guess.

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[dennis thompson]

A lot of contractors have moved to using a smartphone application to do the math. Input the the data accurately, and the lengths and angles require will be pretty much exact every time. It's then merely an exercise of not making human mistakes. :)

Not only contractors use a smartphone to measure things. Yesterday my wife wanted to measure a desk we have. She went to get a tape measure but my eight year old grandson said " grandma you don't need a tape measure" and he proceeded to measure the desk using her iphone

[Jim Becker]

Not only contractors use a smartphone to measure things. Yesterday my wife wanted to measure a desk we have. She went to get a tape measure but my eight year old grandson said " grandma you don't need a tape measure" and he proceeded to measure the desk using her iphone
True, but I was speaking about applications that do the math for rise/run/angles, etc. There's some pretty handy ones available and they cut down a lot of work and time for folks who are working things that require the calculations.

[Bruce Wrenn]

How does the speed square give you the length of a rafter? With gauges, and a framing square, no figuring, or measuring, or trial and error needed. You just step off the length with the framing square. I don't remember paying anything like this price, but I've had these for 47 years. Easy for hips, and valleys too. I haven't bought one lately, but mine do have all the charts on the square.

I can't imagine how you would do an accurate stair stringer with a speed square, but like I said, I don't know anything about them.

https://www.amazon.com/Starrett-50476-STARRETT-Stair-Fixtures/dp/B003L0TV3S/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=framing+square+gauge+starrett&qid=1627659531&sr=8-8

I like that design better than the hexagonal ones.Re read my post about saving the book that comes with a Speed Square. Tables are in there, showing lengths for various pitches. Never cared for gauges clamped to framing square. Instead, use a of piece of 1 X material clamped to square to match rise and run. Have been known to use corner of a piece of plywood, instead of square.

[Derek Cohen]

I bought the Delve square on an impulse, and can honestly say that it is one of the few WP tools I use everyday. It is a handy little square. Of course when I bought it, it was only around $40. Igaging makes a square that is similar in I believe 4" and 7" versions that are handy too. I bought the 7" one and use it often. They are quite a bit less expensive than the WP's.

I like the idea of the drilled holes for laying out parallel lines but, outside of its use as a square, I do not feel that the remainder is accurate enough for cabinet work. I would rather use a dedicated protractor for setting angles. I prefer metric to imperial, and WP do not make these (anything?) in metric.

Lastly, WP missed an opportunity with the offset blade (one side is 1/4” and the other is 3/8”) - this is a great idea of theirs, but the other side could be 1” instead. Why? When marking a common 1/4” mortice or tenon, one should only mark from a reference edge and not (as they do in their video) mark from both sides if a 3/4” thick board. That is thinking like a machinist and not a woodworker.

I have a cheap aluminium 6”/150mm speed square, no doubt from China, nicely made but inaccurate. I took a little time to file it, and now it is spot on. Useful, but in a workshop I mostly grab a Starrett 150mm double square.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Edwin Santos]

Lastly, WP missed an opportunity with the offset blade (one side is 1/4” and the other is 3/8”) - this is a great idea of theirs, but the other side could be 1” instead. Why? When marking a common 1/4” mortice or tenon, one should only mark from a reference edge and not (as they do in their video) mark from both sides if a 3/4” thick board. That is thinking like a machinist and not a woodworker.


Regards from Perth

Derek

Hello Derek,
You have a good point about the advantages of working off a single reference surface.
But I don't understand why you would want the the other side of the foot to be 1" in your example. If you were marking a 1/4" mortice on a 3/4" workpiece, wouldn't you want one side of the foot to be 1/4" and the other side to be 1/2"? Or am I missing something?

[Derek Cohen]

Edwin, the 1" other side should read 1/2".

Mark 1/4" from the reference side (the height of the one leg). Flip the square and mark 1/2" from the other leg. Difference equals 1/4" mortice/tenon.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jason Roehl]

One of the handiest uses of a speed square is to hold it on a 2x4 as a saw guide when making a cut with a worm-drive circular saw. There is a huge difference in the stability of a house’s framing between those with studs that were cut to a line, and those with studs cut with a guide.

[Jim Becker]

One of the handiest uses of a speed square is to hold it on a 2x4 as a saw guide when making a cut with a worm-drive circular saw. There is a huge difference in the stability of a house’s framing between those with studs that were cut to a line, and those with studs cut with a guide.

Funny you should mention that...I'm doing repairs on the shed in our backyard and I made significant use of my speed square yesterday for exactly this purpose. The speed square plus a stick and a couple of clamps were the necessary tools for the job; the latter because I don't have power out there and had no desire to use a very long extension cord that would have been needed for my "fancy" tools. :)