Tool Talk

What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: wrenchguy on December 09, 2011, 11:45:39 AM

Title: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: wrenchguy on December 09, 2011, 11:45:39 AM
A uncommon 24"x18" PS&W framing square with notches every 1/4". I wish I had the other part to this outfit. WHAT IS IT?? and why the notches?  24"x18" squares were the norm a 100 years ago with the advent of balloon framing.  Alot of old squares are cut down to 16" and its easy to tell.
Thanks & Good luck.
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n210/wrenchguy49/PC081134.jpg)
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n210/wrenchguy49/PC081133.jpg)
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: KeepinOldBolts on December 09, 2011, 12:07:18 PM
Run quick! It's a square for crafting. Before you know it, you'll be doing cross stitches, and quilting.

Just Friday humor for ya!
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: Branson on December 09, 2011, 03:18:41 PM
I've got notches on the Hights Union Combination Square, too.  One of the steel square books will probably give the answer, but they probably provide a pivot point for some geometrical construction.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: keykeeper on December 09, 2011, 07:00:37 PM
Was there any kind of a cross bar that would attach to both beams, and slide/lock up and down the notched beam making a pitch calculating gizmo of sorts?

Just my WAG......I have next to NO carpentry skills!!
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: rusty on December 09, 2011, 07:28:20 PM

Put your pencil in the slot.
Slide the square down the edge of the plank.
Get a nice straight line parallel to the edge of the plank....

With a fixed square, you only get to do multiples of 1/4
With an adjustable square, you use the dimple in the end of the rule and do any
width you want....
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: wrenchguy on December 09, 2011, 07:38:26 PM
Great guess's and humor. Not 4 crafts, nor pivot points but IS missing a gizmo.  The gizmo wasn't connected to the body or blade. (this is probably why the gizmo is missing).
 Rustys comments are somewhat in line with what one would do with my missing gizmo.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: Branson on December 10, 2011, 07:25:42 AM
Was there any kind of a cross bar that would attach to both beams, and slide/lock up and down the notched beam making a pitch calculating gizmo of sorts?

Starrett made the No. 110 Stair Gage or "Fence" (see photo) but it doesn't use the notches.  It's simply an improvement on the buttons that clamp to the legs of the square for things like marking the cutouts for stair treads and risers.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: Branson on December 10, 2011, 08:15:12 AM
One way of drawing circles with a framing square:

http://www.woodsmith.com/magazine/extras/174/layout-tricks-with-a-framing-square/
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: keykeeper on December 10, 2011, 10:39:54 AM
Great guess's and humor. Not 4 crafts, nor pivot points but IS missing a gizmo.  The gizmo wasn't connected to the body or blade. (this is probably why the gizmo is missing).
 Rustys comments are somewhat in line with what one would do with my missing gizmo.
Thanks.

I wasn't trying to be humorous in my use of "gizmo". Please excuse me if I offended you with my  hillbilly vernacular.

Just trying to work out in my head what this tool was used for, and in the absence of any other word to use for an unknown, un-named type of tool, all I could come up with was "gizmo".

Pardon my ignorance.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: wrenchguy on December 10, 2011, 12:16:34 PM
Great guess's and humor. Not 4 crafts, nor pivot points but IS missing a gizmo.  The gizmo wasn't connected to the body or blade. (this is probably why the gizmo is missing).
 Rustys comments are somewhat in line with what one would do with my missing gizmo.
Thanks.

I wasn't trying to be humorous in my use of "gizmo". Please excuse me if I offended you with my  hillbilly vernacular.

Just trying to work out in my head what this tool was used for, and in the absence of any other word to use for an unknown, un-named type of tool, all I could come up with was "gizmo".

Pardon my ignorance.

Never any offense taken, I love gizmo, flamshooter and rollscanhardly as some of the descriptive words used by engineers of the backyard.  I'm proud tobe a oversize elevated member of the nw indiana chapter.  The humor i recognized was something about crafts? which i didn't get....
Thanks for ur postings, Happy holidays and good luck.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: rusty on December 10, 2011, 02:04:45 PM
>something about crafts? which i didn't get....

Remember those little square frames for weaving potholders out of circular elastic cloth bands? (I swear they were recycling pantyhose cutoffs by convincing everyone their kids would be amused for endless hours making an unlimited supply of potholders for poor mom...)
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: Branson on December 11, 2011, 08:55:05 AM
It wasn't a gizmo.  It's a doofry.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: wrenchguy on December 11, 2011, 03:30:25 PM
Here's a link to the patent about the above square. I'm missing the scribes/awl.  I imagine its for timber framers. Oh and i'm not remembering anything about knitting potholders. thanks.
http://www.google.de/patents?id=GqFLAAAAEBAJ&printsec=drawing&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: Aunt Phil on December 11, 2011, 09:06:40 PM
>something about crafts? which i didn't get....

Remember those little square frames for weaving potholders out of circular elastic cloth bands? (I swear they were recycling pantyhose cutoffs by convincing everyone their kids would be amused for endless hours making an unlimited supply of potholders for poor mom...)

Couldn't have been pantihose cutoffs, those damn steel looms were around in the 50s, long before pantihose.

You ever get hit by the hook end of one of those in a fight?

Ever stood on a damn streetcorner trying to hustle those steenkin potholders to fund bringing Christmas presents to orphans knowing the dopey kids who spent months knocking them things out weren't going to see a penny.

Thanks for the memory!
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: Papaw on December 11, 2011, 10:41:45 PM
We made hundreds of them in "Summer Activity"!
My mother's way of keeping us out of trouble in the summertime. We may have used strips from old stockings, it was certainly pre pantyhose.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: amertrac on December 12, 2011, 03:47:26 AM
I am not saying  that 's what it is for but it would make puting the holes in rthe side of a cabinet to fit them damn little buttons that always come one short( like 11 in a package)  bob w.
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: bigdaddie47 on December 17, 2011, 12:10:01 PM
I remember the pot holder makers. They  were standard for Christmas -kids liked Chia Pets- hated the poholder things (work not play)
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: rusty on December 17, 2011, 05:44:55 PM
 Chia Pets - Bean sprouts - Salad :P

Of course the one I got wouldn't sprout, it just sat there, after about a month I decided it was dead .....

But I really loved the chemistry set with 20 chemicals you wouldn't dare give a kid today :))

You would be amazed how much smoke you can make with just six ounces of a certain ammonia compound.....the fire department was....
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: wrenchguy on December 17, 2011, 10:12:27 PM
WHATS WITH POTHOLDERS?????
PAPAW please delete this tread!!!!
Title: Re: Ho Hum, another framing square. BUT whats with all the notches??
Post by: johnsironsanctuary on December 18, 2011, 08:12:08 AM
Up until I read the patent, I thought that crenalations of the tongue was an STD symptom. But seriously folks, if you had to mark out a lot of mortice and tenons on barn beams daily, this was a step forward. For furniture, isn't it a bit too big?