Thread: Wooden Try Squares

Never made one, but:

Did you use hard or soft wood etc?
Always use hardwood for jigs/tools etc as they won't dint when you look at them and they're more likely to be stable and resist warping. Euro Beech is great as it has even grain, works easily and is very stable. Jarrah, Blackbutt and most other hard Eucalypts are also a good choice. Give the finished product a coat of polish to seal it as well (but not too much or you risk losing accuracy due to small variations in the thickness of the polish)

are they accurate enough?
They'll be as accurate as your eye and the tools you make them with, but the best way to check is mathematically with Pythagoras' theorem - if the numbers add up it must be a true 90 degree by definition.

I made a large square, the long leg is about 600 long, I made it out of hardwood, might be spotty or LSG (not sure really) made using the 345 ratio triangle which gives 90°, it remains accurate, I can adjust it if I need to as it is bolted together at the corners


Pete

Cheers are you able to post a pic

Originally Posted by Arry

Cheers are you able to post a pic

I can do that, I just have to remember to do so, if I haven't done so in a few days remind me


Pete

Pics of square,, I remembered

I made it as a guide for the router to run across a panel, I made it RH only, which is ok but I should have made it to do RH and LH, didn't really occour to me at the time might make another one sometime......or modify this one

It's fairly simple, I just used m6 bolts at each corner, no glue so I can adjust it if I need to, to check it I accurately measure out a large 345 triangle and compare it to that,
a simple half lap at the top corner, and just overlapped at the base corners
Attachment 218960Attachment 218961Attachment 218959


Pete

I made an L-shaped set square out of mahogany and bolted it together with brass saw bolts.

The simplest and most reliable method of checking the accuracy of any square, I've found, is to place it against the straight edge of a sheet of MDF or similar and lightly draw a line down the blade onto the sheet. Next, flip the square over and compare the blade's edge to the previously drawn line.

cheers guys

I made a big square out of Jarah. I like it and i doubt I will ever buy a square again. What got me started was this video
Episode #33: The Wooden Square | Logan Cabinet Shoppe
There is an ad to get past but the video is good

Hi Arry

I just posted this here: https://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/there-square-157166/







Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek's square trumps my rather plain effort

Pete

Very very Nice )