Engineer’s Squares: Accurate And Easy On The Eyes
By Chuck Cage
William writes: “These ‘engineer’s squares’ from Gladstone are metal squares with a heavy base. They’re great for making sure your saw blades are square and the small ones fit well into tight places.” Gladstone also claims they’re accurate to +/- 0.0005″ per linear inch for squareness.
They’re priced quite reasonably, too: the four-piece set in a wooden presentation case (pictured) runs only $30, and a six-piece set’ll only set you back $65. These would make great gifts.
For those of you looking for different brands, Google Product Search turned up a number of other options in the same price range.
Steel Engineer’s Squares [Gladstone Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Product Search]
May 8th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Growing up my dad (retired machinist) always had these, but I have been too cheap to get my own set. This is not that bad of a price. I might just raid some from my dads garage though. I hope he doesn’t read this…
May 8th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
.0005″ per inch is ok for a 2″ square, but for a 6″ (.003″ out) or 8″ (.004″ out) and up it’s really only good for woodworking & welding. You ideally want under .001″ over the total length, if not .0005″ total for precision work, especially when aligning machines and setting up work.
Borwn and Sharpe (although an old US brand, they are likely imported) has a 3 piece set that is good to .0006″ for about $53.00 from Enco.
It all depends on how much precision you need…
May 9th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Nick,
Speaking from painful experience, it’s like many other things. Better to have more precision than you need than not enough.
May 9th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
That’s why I have a square to .0002″ 3×3x4 Suburban angle plate, an 18″x18″ AA Doall Surface plate and a set (used and somewhat worn but still very accurate) of P&W gage blocks. Plus all the mics, a good swiss .0001″ test indicator, etc, etc. The Starrett Vernier Protractor is pretty handy as well.
But those are for the extreme precision situations…