OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

264690 Claudio DeLorenzi <claudio@d...> 2018‑01‑10 Re: When Good Squares Go Bad
I'm going to be the contrarian here- I assume we are we talking rosewood,
brass,  and blued spring steel type squares?  Squares are one of the
measurement tools that are self proving, so you can test it against itself
to make sure it's good- you don't need any precision metrology stuff to
test it.
I have had issues with those old rosewood ones- the ones where the wood has
a wonderful patina on it and is rounded off from decades of use,  typically
with the diamond shaped brass washers and peened steel pins.  These can
look solid, until you stress them a little bit and see that there is a few
thousandths of movement between the stock and the blade (sometimes the
holes in the steel blade have enlarged because of rust and abnormal wear
from abnormal movement).
  Peening the steel over a bit tighter over the brass washer doesn't seem
to work if the hole is enlarged, out of round, or whatever- the tension is
only going to be a temporary fix.  Using some slow set epoxy resin - the
kind with steel particles in it- in the holes in the steel blade,  and
going through all the hassles of fixing these when they are really bad
isn't a really good return on your investment, since you could probably
make a new, better one in about the same amount of time.  So if it is just
a matter of peening the pins in a bit then go for it, but if it is moving
alot (meaning that the holes are wallowed out through the wood, or the
steel, or both) then it's probably not worth the effort- there are so many
good ones around it doesn't make sense to fix the bad ones.  Put it up on
the wall (after marking it as a bad square), and look for a good one.

Claudio

On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 9:11 AM, Maddex, Peter 
wrote:

Recent Bios FAQ