Try Squares Are Hazardous to Your Well Being

[jackellis]

Just for the heck of it, I started checking various face frames and drawers around the house for square. I've been frustrated by the small errors in my own work and wondered whether any of the folks who built various bits in our house did better.

This isn't at all scientific or comprehensive but it's still interesting. Several of the dovetailed drawers in my desk, a second-hand 72" executive model with solid wood drawer sides and mostly engineered material for the top and carcase, were out of square by as much as a 16th of an inch (10" try square). Face frames on the kitchen cabinets and the kitchen drawers I tested were similarly out of square, sometimes by sizable amounts. Drawers in our office, which are part of the wet bar we think was installed after the house was built, are perfect but some of the face frames are not perfectly square.

Of course, it's entirely possible some of the built-ins have gotten a bit twisted due to earthquakes and foundation movement (we have mostly clay soil here). But it does make me wonder...

[cabinetman]

Some time ago, I took my nose apart to see what made it run. My wife always tells me there are things in life I'd be better off not knowing. We attribute life's little discrepancies being due to curvature of the Earth, or hot air rising.
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[BobSch]

I've been frustrated by the small errors in my own work and wondered whether any of the folks who built various bits in our house did better.

Have you checked to make sure you're square is square? Lay your square against a straightedge and draw a vertical line from A to B. Then reverse the square (Pos 2) and draw a second line. Any gap at point B shows your square isn't. (The gap is twice the actual error.) I went through three carpenter's squares and several drafting triangles and didn't find ONE that was square! Finally found one and marked it so that's the one I always use.



Click on the graphic to open.

[goslin23]

I've been frustrated by the small errors in my own work and wondered whether any of the folks who built various bits in our house did better.

Have you checked to make sure you're square is square? Lay your square against a straightedge and draw a vertical line from A to B. Then reverse the square (Pos 2) and draw a second line. Any gap at point B shows your square isn't. (The gap is twice the actual error.) I went through three carpenter's squares and several drafting triangles and didn't find ONE that was square! Finally found one and marked it so that's the one I always use.



Click on the graphic to open.

But, are you sure your straight edge was actually straight?

[leehljp]

I hope my wife doesn't see this. It will give her a heart attack. She thinks all corners are square; every joint in the house is air tight; all baseboard molding is perfect, . . . . and that cock roaches come in through the door that I leave open to bring in groceries that take two trips from the car.

Honestly, she thinks roaches and bugs come in through open doors - not cracks/joints in the walls and corners.

[cabinetman]

I hope my wife doesn't see this. It will give her a heart attack. She thinks all corners are square; every joint in the house is air tight; all baseboard molding is perfect, . . . . and that cock roaches come in through the door that I leave open to bring in groceries that take two trips from the car.

Honestly, she thinks roaches and bugs come in through open doors - not cracks/joints in the walls and corners.

There is a very easy way to stop cockroaches inside your house. The usual method of controlling them is to kill them when they are inside. A much better method is to hire many cockroaches (and you have to reward them well) to stand guard outside and not let any in.
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[jackellis]

Have you checked to make sure you're square is square?

I've checked. Several times. Several of my squares aren't, but this one is.

My wife always tells me there are things in life I'd be better off not knowing. We attribute life's little discrepancies being due to curvature of the Earth, or hot air rising.

Now you tell me

[niki]

Don't be so frustrated, believe me that all the cabinets that I made are not exactly square.

But, I learnt from an old carpenter here that told me...
"It's not the measuring tool, it's what the eye sees...if the eye sees it square...it is square...

niki

[charliex]

Our home in Hopkins was built in 1906, the people that built it did not own: squares, plumb lines, levels or rulers. I often wondered why everyone who visited seemed to be walking around leaning one way or the other.

[newood2]

Now you know why God made the earth round, a perfect square is like the bridge from Texas to Hawaii. Remember the Harley-Davidson joke?

[dlminehart]

Actually, the earth is an oblate spheroid, fatter at the equator due to spin. So even God threw up her hands and winged it!

[BobSch]

Our home in Hopkins was built in 1906, the people that built it did not own: squares, plumb lines, levels or rulers. I often wondered why everyone who visited seemed to be walking around leaning one way or the other.

Must be the same twit who built ours. The basement door frame is out in all three dimentions! It's wider at the bottom, the frame isn't sqare to the wall and the bottom of the frame is kicked out a bit so when the door closes the top hits almost an inch before the bottom.

[chopnhack]

There is a very easy way to stop cockroaches inside your house. The usual method of controlling them is to kill them when they are inside. A much better method is to hire many cockroaches (and you have to reward them well) to stand guard outside and not let any in.
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Thats so funny, the comedian Carlos Mencia mention's the same thing for border security and a solution to the immigration problem!

[Bruce Cohen]

Right angles only exist in plans and in the dreams of very highly paid cabinetmakers.

How's that for a really "deep thought".

Bruce

[cabinetman]

Right angles only exist in plans and in the dreams of very highly paid cabinetmakers.

How's that for a really "deep thought".

Bruce

Let's not get obtuse about this. But I must say you're acutely correct.
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