Thread: Engineers Square - reasonable quality

You're right Ian I should have posted this in another thread, maybe "Table saws". Can our benevolent dictator move it? I'm still keen on people who are sold on the 5 cut method, as I was, to try this. The 5 cut method is not necessarily the definitive way to square a fence. I'll get off the soap box now!

Jim Davey from Sydney has a great range of american combination squares with extremely tight tolerances or the groz squares fro carbatec are good or a plastic set square may suit .

I can't see why a good carpenters square would not do everything you desire I've had mine since apprentice days building buses & coaches many jobs away from that in steel and wood its been dropped from heights, sat in roaring 40C+ sun used in 10C cold.
Mine is 500x350 I recently scored a 2nd hand one smaller

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Level-.../dp/B00004YYFD

I need a smooth thick square so the dial indicator can ride against it without blemishes. My current framing square is "reasonably" square and it does the job (just) but as I move the mitre gauge, the indicator jumps all over the place because of its roughness and there isn't a decent enough purchase with the indicator. A plastic set square might be spot on but it also doesn't have a solid surface for the dial indicator to touch evenly. The square also needs to have a good rated tolerance. If I drop it then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it but that is not a good enough reason to not buy a good square. I only paid $69 plus postage. I don't consider that an exorbitant purchase for what I'm trying to achieve. It would be nice to have a square that I can trust and use it for many checks on the table saw and other equipment.

Sounds like you need one made to suit a piece of 6mm x 25mm x 300 for the T and a length of flat 3mm x 50mm x 500mmL for the tongue.

You must realise thrust of the blade will deflect and cranky grain will cause deflection as well as feed rate and side pressure. I am amazed to the accuracy you are expecting.

Not taking into account the cast table edge maybe rough and due to machining not true to right angles to the blade. Then runners of the fence and guide out by thou also.

OMG! Why do I have to continue to justify wanting an accurate square. All I wanted from this thread was the availability and location of a good square. Yes I know about blade deflection and feed rates and other errors. So again, I've used the 5 cut method, as many on this forum do, in the past for squaring fences but I have found an equally accurate and simpler way using a good square and a dial indicator. The accuracy I'm expecting from my new method is exactly the same as the 5 cut method that I've used in the past. I'm positive the square will have other uses.

I'm with you on this. Having an accurate square is very useful for all sorts of reasons. I've used the method you're going to use (dial indicator, square) and found it works well. It's true that other things can affect the outcome, but you have to start somewhere, and a good square is a great place.

cheers,

ajw

Originally Posted by barri

You're right Ian I should have posted this in another thread, maybe "Table saws". Can our benevolent dictator move it? I'm still keen on people who are sold on the 5 cut method, as I was, to try this. The 5 cut method is not necessarily the definitive way to square a fence. I'll get off the soap box now!

barri; 300mm is not an overly common length to come across from better known manufacturers, and within the cost constraint you have outlined. A quick search the internet revealed a Try Square manufactured by BAHCO with a tolerance of 0.1/100mm accuracy.

That represents an overall accuracy of 0.3mm across its full 300mm length. Hope its of some help. Bahco 9048-300 Aluminium Block & Steel Try Square 300mm - BAH9048300

regards Stewie;

Thanks for that Stewie it looks good but the one I ordered has an inside and outside tolerance (C&Ls web site) of around 47/50 μm for the 300mm model


That's about 0.05mm . I don't know if this is real and I don't know if Accud is a good/reliable manufacturer. I did check their main USA web site but not many reviews. I'll report back when I've got it. Apart from the accuracy and probably the one you showed is OK I also wanted the edges but to be a bit thicker than normal and fairly smooth.

Sounds good barri. Hopefully the Accud will meet your needs.

regards Stewie;

barri wasn't asking you to justify anything nor had I read anyone else comments to see if they had brought up the things I did.

Can you post a photo of the Table Saw please. My reason being that most have a mitre slot machined in them. If a device was made up using that and a bar or rod and the DTI attached would that not give you what you are after?

I just located this never seen it before but look a neat idea although simpler methods could be thought of and far less cheaper.

Barri

for machine set-up perhaps look at one of these Japanese style squares Japanese-Style Layout Squares - Lee Valley Tools

Originally Posted by wheelinround

barri wasn't asking you to justify anything nor had I read anyone else comments to see if they had brought up the things I did.

Can you post a photo of the Table Saw please. My reason being that most have a mitre slot machined in them. If a device was made up using that and a bar or rod and the DTI attached would that not give you what you are after?

I just located this never seen it before but look a neat idea although simpler methods could be thought of and far less cheaper.

Its a Laguna fusion. Here's a link .... https://www.gregmach.com/product/lag...n-10-tablesaw/ but I've already aligned the blade with the slots and the table saw fence with the slots. I think you're confused as to what I'm trying to achieve. What I'm doing now is squaring the fence of my incra mitre gauge and the fence of my sleds with those slots using an alternative but equally accurate method to the 5 cut method. If you haven't done the 5 cut method I can understand why you're not sure what I'm doing.