Silverline Carpenter's Squares – Avoid Them!
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- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by Steve Giles.
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18 August 2016 at 1:33 pm #139465
I recently bought two Silverline carpenter’s squares of different sizes off ebay because they looked well made. The first has a problem where the handle joins the blade, but at least it is (more or less) square. The second is nowhere near square.
You’d think that a healthy respect for the concept of the right angle would be a pre-requisite for manufacturer’s of carpenter’s squares, but apparently not!
I made a video showing the problem:
Silverline carpenter’s squares – best to avoid them I think.
18 August 2016 at 1:47 pm #139466Thanks for the heads up.
I like the feel of carpenter’s squares but I’ve only found one that was actually square. And I’ve never found a way to true them up either. On the other hand I’ve never found a combination square I couldn’t bring into square.
John
18 August 2016 at 3:46 pm #139468It’s not like I’m a demanding user. If it’s pretty close to square (like the first one in my video) then that’s good enough for me. The second one is way off though.
I do have to wonder if some of the problems that people encounter in marking up for mortises etc are due to squares that aren’t square.
In this CNC age, surely making a square that is square shouldn’t be an insurmountable problem?
18 August 2016 at 8:23 pm #139482Should have no problem returning them I would think under the trades description act a square has to be square
18 August 2016 at 8:50 pm #139483The ebay vendor was excellent. They have issued a refund for the out-of-square item, and sent a replacement for the other one. They are aceparts_uk BTW. I wish all ebay vendors’ customer service was this good.
23 August 2016 at 10:32 am #139609My combination square arrived yesterday and guess what – it isn’t square either.
What is it with the manufacturers of these things? Don’t they realise that a square is useless unless it’s square? Do they have a religious aversion to right angles or something?
Hi Steve
What brand was the combination square?
I’m afraid that the if it was anything from the new tool studs of the big box hardware shops then functionality and accuracy in a tool is almost an optional extra.
Stick to the Starrets or Mitutoyu’s, or the secondhand Brown and Sharpe’s or “Moore and Wrights” (only the old ones – I wouldn’t trust the new M&W’s ones unless I was able to confirm squareness before handing over the money). These were tools that toolmakers used when western societies had manufacturing industries and accuracy and brand reputation were actually worth something – not some marketers gimmick.I know that the quality measuring tool brands will cost serious money, but this is really one tool that you need to be able to rely upon constantly and no marketing puff can ever substitute for tool build accuracy.
Cheers
Mark28 August 2016 at 4:38 pm #139743Hi Mark,
The combination square was the cheapest-of-the-cheap shipped direct from China type. It cost me £2.55 with free shipping, and after bitching to the vendor I got a £1 refund! So, next to nothing spent and I found a YouTube video showing how to square it up. After following the instructions given in the video, I now have a square that is actually square (within the tolerances I work to, anyway).
The carpenter’s square (the first one in my video) is also square, and although the handle is not assembled correctly, it is not loose so that one is usable too.
So all in all I’m not unhappy with the outcome. Thanks to John Purser for mentioning that the combination square was fixable.
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