Appreciation post: The day I stopped using my combo square as a pry bar

For about 5 years I used my 12-inch combo square for everything but measuring. I'd hammer it, pry with it, even scrape glue off my table saw with it. Then last spring I dropped $60 on a proper Starrett square and realized my old one was bent by like 3/32 of an inch. I was wondering why my face frames always had tiny gaps in the corners. Now I treat my squares like they're made of glass, and my joinery has never been tighter. Anyone else have a tool they abused for way too long before seeing the light?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylorb942d agoProlific Poster

I heard a guy on a woodworking podcast say he once found a contractors combo square that had been run over by a truck and it was still more accurate than the one he had been using for years. That story made me go check all my own squares and sure enough my Empire one was way off. It's wild how we get used to fighting with bad tools and just assume it's our own skill thats the problem. Three thirty-seconds is a lot of slop to be dealing with, no wonder your face frames were acting up.

noahhall2d ago

Cringe every time I see someone using a combo square as a hammer.

robertb302d ago

That "fighting with bad tools" part really sticks with me. I get what you're saying, but I think people sometimes go overboard with this stuff. A lot of us grew up using a tape measure and a pencil, and we made things work just fine. A square being off by a hair isn't always the end of the world. My first framing square was a cheap one from a hardware store, and I bet it's not perfect. But I built a whole shed with it and nothing fell down. I'm not saying accuracy doesn't matter, just that maybe we sometimes blame the tool for problems that have more to do with technique or just plain bad luck.

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