That old framer who showed me a trick with a speed square

I was working a roof job in Austin about 5 years ago, this 68 year old framer named Hank walked over while I was struggling with rafter angles. He took my speed square, flipped it around, and showed me how to find the pitch without any math in about 10 seconds. Just a little pivot and a mark on the corner... changed how I lay out cuts forever. Has anyone else had a random encounter like that where an older carpenter dropped a simple trick you still use?

2 comments

2 Comments

smith.ray2d ago

Did you ever notice how speed squares have those little marks on the corner that nobody talks about? I had a similar thing happen with a roofer in Colorado maybe 8 years ago, he showed me how to use the square to scribe a straight line down a rafter tail just by rocking it on the pivot point. It's funny, I still use that trick to this day even though I'm not even a framer, just a guy who builds stuff in his garage. That old guy Hank probably saved you hours of math, those little shortcuts are gold.

hugo_nelson1d ago

Yeah the little diamond mark at 30 degrees on the edge is for hip and valley rafters, most guys never even look at it. I use that trick with the pivot point all the time for cutting birdsmouths, just set the square on the rafter, rock it until the lip hits the right pitch number, and scribe. Saves so much time compared to pulling out a framing square and doing math. The layout bar on the side is another one nobody talks about, you can use it to mark parallel lines for soffit returns without measuring every time.