Friday, November 03, 2017
Skill Builder: Using a Combination Square
makezine.com: Several years we did a popular skill builder on the speed square, a triangular measuring tool created for roofing carpenters that has been more widely adopted as a convenient and versatile measuring and marking tool. Perhaps even more universally useful is the combination square, a sliding ruler and angle-measuring (45/90) tool (which frequently includes a level).
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I totally did not realize how useful and versatile a combination square is. Although I have extensive experience working in wood shops, I have never taken a formal wood shop class, and at my high school, the tools present were not always used for the purposes they were created for and a lot of things were finagled with intuition, a jig saw, and wood glue. I always wondering why there were so many combination squares sitting in the tool cabinet (there were around 20), because the tool did not seem so useful. Now that I know this measuring device can be used for more than just measuring little dimensions, I will definitely make sure to keep one around when working in any wood shop. I will also send this article to my friends who still build scenery at my high school so they too can perhaps put to good use the 20 combination squares sitting in the tool cabinet.
I tend to find combination squares pretty useful, though I almost always go for a speed square or framing square when I just need to check if something is square or square an edge. The main thing I find useful about the combination square is being able to draw a line a known distance from the edge. Also, I’d never thought of using a combination square as a depth gage before, but seeing that makes a lot of sense.
On a separate note, this is the first time I’ve seen a tool review/ tool explanation video made by a woman (the Beauty and the Bolt video). That isn’t to say those videos don’t exist, but I don’t tend to go looking for tool videos and most of the videos I’ve seen have been ones linked to on this blog. Her video also felt pretty different from the general tone and feel of the standard “dude talking about a tool” video, which I think was most due to the higher production quality and the fact she was assuming the audience was completely unfamiliar with the tool. I went to her youtube channel and she doesn’t have much posted yet, but her tutorials are really clear and I’d definitely recommend them to someone who is new to carpentry. Hopefully tool tutorial and review videos made by women will start being more widely viewed and linked to in articles.
I remember when I first learned how to use a combination square and boy was that an exciting day. I have personally applied most of these methods in my own carpentry practice, however the one I have not seen is the special holder that allows you to mark the center of dowels and other circular objects, and that is a pretty cool function. I honestly don’t like using a combination square for setting and adjusting angles on saws, but I do like it for line marking and depth checking. Another function I like to use for combination squares is the one to set router bit depth, as this helps greatly when you need a very specific dado cut into a board or sheet good. I love these tool videos because if you kind of already know what they’re talking about, it’s really just an enjoyable watch that sometimes throws you a nice little surprise or idea.
This reminds of the first day of carpentry stagecraft freshmen year. DR was showing us several of the cool combination square tricks and our class was freaking out. It seemed so insane to us that we had been using combo squares for years without truly understanding their power. This video goes even further than DR’s lesson. I didn’t realize all of the circle tricks a combo square is helpful for, especially finding the center of a circle. I also really appreciated that this article linked a video with how to check if your combo square is actually square and how to fix it. I feel like we’ve all been in the position where we are using a tool that is supposed to be square inly to find halfway through a project that it isn’t and everything up to that point could be wrong. This article was very interesting and I’m going to be sure to read some of these other ‘Skill Builder’ articles.
First off, a Ryobi drill in the back of a Starrett shop? That seems odd to me since Starrett is top of the line for accuracy and Ryobi doesn’t have the best reputation for quality. Besides that, this is a great video and little article. Although there was not much in this video that I did not know, this is a great introductory video for people who are just starting out using this magnificent measuring tool we call a combination square. For such a simple tool it really can do a lot. The one thing they don’t talk about is measuring the offset of things you can’t see. I use a combo square most frequently to measure the setback of framing under plywood lid and transferring a line to the top of the lid. Also, we don’t ever use a combination square for the combination thing. Often you can buy one with a center finder and angle measure but I don’t usually see that in scene shops.
As someone who has been using a combination square for years, there was very little in this article that I didn’t know. The most useful part for me was the video on finding and adjusting the square on a combination square. The biggest issue I have with using combination squares is that people often take them apart and don’t put them back together or lose the pieces. Also, working in a scene shop – particularly in education, these tools often get glue or paint on them or get dropped which can often take them out of square. The other thing that I haven’t seen before is the use of the center head to find the center of a circle. This would be a great addition to our tool room, but I fear that as with most other things these would go missing or get broken and then one wouldn’t be able to find them when they needed them.
The uses of a combination square are so interesting to me, mainly because I was so oblivious to them for so long. In high school, I was really only taught that they had one use, to make perpendicular lines on a piece of wood, and even then I rarely used it because I more than likely would already have a speed square on hand. Last mini, I completed the stagecraft course on carpentry and there I learned more skills and tricks in regards to the combination square, but this article and these videos in some ways seems to go even further than DR’s lessons. I had never thought of a combination square as being a useful in finding the center of a circle, though I do feel there are other more practical tools for doing that same job. Also I was very interested in it’s usage for dado cuts, probably because that was not a form of woodworking that I had considered using until recently. I am definitely interested by this article and the ways that it showcased the capabilities of a combination square, and will be on the lookout for similar articles discussing different tools.
Combination squares when I first was learning to use them never made that much of sense to me. It wasn't until someone taught me much in the same way as the video the only albeit I didn't really think about the dowel or circle measurement capabilities which having seen are pretty cool. But to say that when I'm working in the shop that a combination square is one of my favorite and most useful tools would honestly be an understatement. I probably use a combination square as much as I use most of the saws in the shop. Mostly cause there are so many ways in which it can be used.most of what I use it for are Marking straight lines perpendicular to a factory or true edge of a workpiece, Drawing parallel lines along a workpiece, Laying out an accurate rectangle on a workpiece. But I really do like the idea of using it to set router bits. All in all combination squares are awesome.
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