Square not so square
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- This topic has 43 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by Tony Corey.
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28 August 2015 at 5:02 pm #129844
Wow! I inherited an old rabone combo square from my dad…. it’s totally accurate and hasn’t failed in fifty years of daily use but I never realised how much they can cost new! I might just make a glass cabinet for mine now and use it sparingly haha!
28 August 2015 at 5:10 pm #129845I’ve thrown away the box and hung the square in my tool cabinet and will use it everyday for the rest of my life. As long as I don’t abuse it there is no reason for me not use it in my everyday woodworking which is what it was intended for. My hand planes are cost more than my square amd I uae that everyday. I’m saying this because I dont understand why people stash their prized tools away and use it only sparingly. Don’t be afraid to use your tools.
29 August 2015 at 10:50 am #129848I couldn’t agree more. I maintain all my tools rigidly and I always take it as a massive compliment when people say my tools look well used. Because they are!!
They don’t have an Australian Amazon? They have them. I wouldn’t worry to much about cast iron verses forged as they are made for industrial use in a machine shop. I have seen cast iron ones that people have owned for 30 years. Used in a machine shop. They are still as accurate as ever. The real practical difference in the two is impact resistance. If you are in the habit of dropping your tools on a concrete floor, get the forged one. If not, the cast iron one will last you the rest of your life. In any case, if you do manage to screw it up, send it back to Starrett and they will fix it. My oldest Starrett tools were made in the twenties. I’m the third owner and the tools were used in a machine shop by the three of us. Still in perfect shape. Not bad for 90+ year old tools.
9 September 2015 at 10:37 am #130238I’ll say !!!! not bad at all. I do have a bad habit of dropping things, unfortunately I’m developing a shake in my left hand, it’s not severe but it happens and sometimes right out of the bloo my hand will jolt throwing whatever I have in it into the air. I am afraid of this happening just when I’m holding my most bloody expensive starrett. Once I nearly through my 5 1/2 but luckily the weight and sheer determination let’s call it love for my tool kept it tight gripped.
30 October 2015 at 10:41 am #131902So, following up on this thread, I’m interested to know how your square has survived the past 6 weeks. It would seem that TBT have expanded their range since you got yours, and I am considering a purchase after today. Seems like you can also purchase the blades separately, so I am wondering, are they interchangeable? I’d quite like to have metric and imperial in a few different sizes.
Went and patronized a local small business, and they had an older Irwin try square on markdown. I thought, well surely it can’t be that bad, and picked it up. Taking it home, it’s just under 0.1 degrees out of square. I could probably correct it, but I am really tired of having to do that with tools.
Which brings me to my main question. Just how square is square enough? I mean, fairly obviously it depends on the distance you’re trying to be square across, but at what point does one accept one’s square as “near enough”? How many decimal 0s do you need before that degree sign?
PS. I forgot TBT wasn’t Australian. What did shipping work out to?
30 October 2015 at 7:25 pm #131906To me square means when i draw a line on a sheet of paper and then flip that square and draw another line directly over it. If the lines dont deviate then its square and good enough. I know there is no 100% accuracy in any square in existence today but that method I described above is good enough for me. I trust starrett because they live up to their reputation, I dony trust Stanley, Irwin and many others because they ride on their reputation but dont live up to it. Its as simple as that. It would be like a very reputable woodworker known for quality work then once he becomes big enough his work dimishes and those mortise and tenons are replaced by dowels or biscuits but still he claims to do quality work. Its just not good enough anymore to claim your the best you must be the best to make that claim. Go for starrett if you find an old one cheap enough test it before you buy it if you can afford a new one well thats always a better option. Owning a tool 100years old does not make you a better woodworker i hope my 2 cents worth makes sense.
30 October 2015 at 7:40 pm #131908Just check it and you’ll see whether it is or isn’t. Dropping it can put it out of square so check it.
4 November 2015 at 11:10 pm #132037Salko,
Are you familiar with Vesper Tools? They are in Somerville, Victoria and make really high end accurate squares. Like Starrett, they are expensive but they are Australian!
Their tools get good reviews from Chris Schwarz who wrote a profile for Popular Woodworking Magazine. Here is a link: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/tools-from-down-under
Cheers,
TonyC
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