Recommend a decent square?

[andypa]

I've been lurking here for a while and this is my first post

Anyway........ I'm looking to buy a combination square or try square. I've lost/broken all of my squares that I had any faith in (used the last one as a hammer (hammer) oops). I bought a cheap combination square last week but it's 1mm out over 300mm. Thought I might be able to use the pin to repair a Rabone one but it didn't work.

So could anyone recommend a something decent at an affordable price? I'm not looking for Mitutoyo!

Cheers

Andy

 

[Jacob]

These are supposed to be good.
http://www.tooled-up.com/product/bahco- ... mm/168788/
They come in different sizes.
Stanley are good too.

 

[Richard S]

I have a couple of the Bahco squares as recommended by Jacob, a 6" and a 16" and they are both more than good enough for woodworking, much better than the couple of yellow Stanley's I also have. Shop around you can find them cheaper.

 

[deserter]

I just made 4 new squares yesterday, rosewood stocks and beech blades. Very easy to make, and if they go out of square I just plane them true again, should last me a good while.

My old one was oak and beech, still perfectly square just gets lost on the bench too often.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[jaywhoopee]

I recently got this combination square.

After having several sloppy and inaccurate ones from other places in the past it's a breath of fresh air!

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/moore-...ation-square-set-moore-wright-520-series.html

 

[marcros]

this one looked pretty good value to me, but is out of stock at the moment.

http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/Moo ... e_set.html

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That's the one in the post above. Anything with M&W on it's OK.

 

[Muswell]

I have a 300mm engineer's square which I use occasionally and a 6" Starrett combination which I use most of the time. The small square is so useful I can't imagine how I managed before with a small try square. The Starrett can be got for about £30 which is a lot more than £7 for a Bahco but I was buying a few tools at the same time and the Starrett was lying on the counter saying " buy me, buy me". It's very well made and works perfectly. I'm sure it's better than I need but I get pleasure every time I use it and the extra cost is about the same as going out for a curry, the pleasure of which only lasts for a short time.

 

[mickthetree]

I have an empire 6" square which I have been very happy with. Solid and very accurate (as checked with my moore and wright engineers square).

I had a Fisco combination square which I sent back, floppy, flimsy piece of rubbish.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A 6" engineers square is probably the most dependable.

 

[bugbear]

I've been lurking here for a while and this is my first post

Anyway........ I'm looking to buy a combination square or try square. I've lost/broken all of my squares that I had any faith in (used the last one as a hammer (hammer) oops). I bought a cheap combination square last week but it's 1mm out over 300mm. Thought I might be able to use the pin to repair a Rabone one but it didn't work.

So could anyone recommend a something decent at an affordable price? I'm not looking for Mitutoyo!

It depends if you want it for marking out woodwork, or checking machine setup.

For the former, a large, easy to handle ("ergonomic") combo square is best, and the accuracy needn't be too good (or expensive).

For the latter, a smaller, fixed engineer's square is best, with high accuracy.

It is possible, but very expensive, to get an accurate enough combination square to cover both tasks, but to preserve the accuracy, you'd have to treat it with kid gloves.

BugBear

 

[Muswell]

It depends if you want it for marking out woodwork, or checking machine setup.

For the former, a large, easy to handle ("ergonomic") combo square is best, and the accuracy needn't be too good (or expensive).

For the latter, a smaller, fixed engineer's square is best, with high accuracy.

It is possible, but very expensive, to get an accurate enough combination square to cover both tasks, but to preserve the accuracy, you'd have to treat it with kid gloves.

BugBear

This is true, but I find the small combination square very useful because it is more convenient to handle than a big square and covers most situations for me. I wouldn't be without a combination square because I can set it so the projection is small and I can set it to a precise length to use for repetitive marking out.

 

[riclepp]

I have several sizes of the M&W engineers squares and a richard Knell diddy one (Available at WSH). Just got an axi Combination set, not tried it yet so can't comment on it yet but the others are fantastic well worth the cash and acurate too.

 

[marcros]

i bought one of these a couple of weeks ago http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-precision ... 20caac4a94

I think I paid a couple of quid less from the same seller, but still. It received favourable reviews in a fine woodworking test (best value model, against the starrett which was best overall) and I agree from the limited times I have used it so far. Very handly little thing, although probably not suited to every task that you need to do in a workshop.

 

[andypa]

Plenty of food for thought there.Cheers everyone.

I'll probably get one of those 6" Bahco squares for everyday use. But I like the look of M&W stuff - not too pricey. I could use that without fear of dropping on the concrete floor.

 

[Muswell]

Next job? Cover the floor in ply....takes a lot of the stress out of dropping tools. All you have to worry about is getting your foot out of the way