Tested: Everyone has some kind of 90-degree angle square in their shop, but Adam advocates for a specific kind of square: the 4” machinist’s square. They allow for fine and delicate layout on small parts, something a big honking 12” square will have trouble with. Adam has them in multiple sizes going down to 3/4” long (super tiny!) but if you had to have only one, get the 4”!
2 comments:
While it doesn't surprise me that squares as small as 3/4" exist, I haven't ever had a truely concrete reason to buy small squares. I've always wanted to, mainly because sets of tools are very satisfying to see together, especially when they nest, but it's never been a need. I surprisingly wasn't aware that dropping a square could make it not square. It's fairly intuitive that if you drop something it may no longer be in alignment but I tend to incorrectly see metal stuck to metal as indestructible or at least fairly sturdy. Encountering a square is like using a T-square to make parallel lines for the first time and never being able to look at a ruler the same way. There's just something so beautiful in the simplicity of not having to figure out perpendiculars that you can't go back to before you found out about them. I didn't know Adam Savage had a website and as a fan of Mythbusters, this is 100% something I'm about to bookmark and look at later.
I am always a big fan of anything machining related due to the high tolerances and overall superior quality. It doesn't surprise me that Adam Savage has dozens of these squares as someone who does both detailed design work and precision engineering at times. I will say, the relationship between the machinists square to a carpenters square does bring up the whole concept of tolerance and squareness itself. In our world of "eh to the closest 1/16 oughta do it", we really don't think about tolerancing and the enormous impact it can have if we aren't considerate when designing. There is a great video about squaring stock that really goes to show how precise we can get things, but also at the cost of time. In fact, in that video, a machinists square makes an appearance! So, when thinking about how we could incorporate this into our workflow more often, I think we first need to start thinking about our tolerances and what that means. After all, it doesn't matter how perfectly perpendicular something is if it is an inch off its mark, or if it needs to be that square in the first place.
Machining Link: https://youtu.be/tW8HNAlUXxU?t=801
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