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The retired carpenter at Home Depot told me to stop using a speed square for roof rafters
I was at the lumber section grabbing supplies for a shed I'm building in my backyard. He watched me hold up that speed square and just shook his head. Said I needed to switch to a framing square for the birdsmouth cuts because the speed square was giving me off angles. I ignored him for two weekends and ended up cutting three rafters wrong before I tried his way. First try with the framing square, perfect fit. Has anyone else had some random stranger at a hardware store give them advice that actually worked out?
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claire_davis311mo ago
Trust me, that speed square is all you need for rafters if you know what you're doing, old guy's just stuck in his ways.
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taraross1mo ago
No, you actually need more than a speed square for complex hip and valley rafters.
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smith.parker1mo ago
Wait, have you actually cut a compound miter on a hip rafter where the pitch changes halfway down? I remember helping my uncle build a shed roof once, and he spent like 45 minutes arguing with his speed square before just guessing and cutting a test piece. Ended up with a gap you could stick your thumb through. Sometimes I think we overestimate how much one tool can do when the math gets weird.
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