After a Budget square that’s accurate

[johnnyb]

I'll put this out there that squareness becomes less of an obsession as you make more and more. you just develop a feel for square. a corner to corner is more useful. I use a square just to confirm what's out usually. tenon shoulders are to small to have a real influence.

 

[andrew_2]

Nobody's (?) mentioned using a file to true up the square - I have an old 12 in Marples rosewood and brass square as my normal weapon of choice. The tin blade was out by a mil or so, both inside and outside, when I acquired it, so by using the flip-over method, you can carefully file both of the edges back to as near as dammit square quite easily. Not engineer standard, I suppose, but.

 

[niall Y]

You can also file the channel on the stock of a combination square to return it to square if needed.

 

[Fergie 307]

The Record one I got 20 years ago is still accurate despite having been dropped a few times. I test it regularly. Got a set of 3 Parkside ones a couple of years back. Not used much but I think they might be slightly better than the Record (so far)

I have a set of the Parkside ones, bang on compared with a M&W engineers one. Only thing I don't like is the blades are very thin and whippy, ok on the smallest one but a bit annoying on the bigger ones.

 

[andrew_2]

One thing that might not be immediately obvious (to me at the time anyway) is to check that the reference edge on the square is actually flat. I was filing away, cursing my lack of ability when I suddenly noticed that the actual brass edge wasn't even flat, so it was rocking and I had just spent an hour filing what was probably OK to start with.

 

[Thingybob]

I accidentally left my square on the window cill the other day and when I picked it up a bit later it was red hot surely expansion /contraction has an an effect also on the timber as well

 

[thikone]

I like Bridge City squares a lot. They are traditional squares (without a lip, thank you very much Woodpecker) and also do not cost much (60-80 USD for one).

I have all three sizes: TS-1v2, TS-1.5v2, TS-2v2. Perfect for squaring the edges when hand planing.

Also bought a middle sized 45 degree one.

Tried some machinist squares for metal but had bad luck with those... inner angle might be 90 degree but the rest of construction is sloppy (base is not 6S).