Preview: Woodpeckers Giant Square
By Benjamen Johnson
A framing square just isn’t designed to work with sheets of plywood. Especially when making cabinets, most pieces you need to lay out exceed the length of a standard sized framing square. That’s why Woodpeckers designed their 36″x24″ giant square.
Woodpeckers’ CNC machines the square in the USA from 1/4″ phenolic and guarantees the giant square won’t deviate more that ±.005″ from 90° across its entire length. They make the 36″ long leg 3″ wide and the 24″ leg 4″ wide, and machine three handle slots into the square to make it easy to hold and store. Finally, they laser engrave markings in 1/8″ increments along both sides of the square.
Woodpeckers will begin shipping their giant square the 27th of July (2009) and it will cost about $80 shipped.
Giant Framing Square [Woodpeckers]
July 7th, 2009 at 10:06 am
now I know what my kids must feel like using the “normal sized” one.
seriously - this would be nice to have, but I’m fine with just measuring on both sides and getting out a straight edge… I don’t do enough work with sheet goods to make this worthwhile for me.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Another useful alternative is a drywall T-square.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
a drywall t square definitely it should save you around $65 especially if you already have a framing square
July 7th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
A drywall square works fine as long as it’s SQUARE. When I went to buy one a few months ago, I checked it against a sheet of plywood. I went through 4 or 5 until I found one that was acceptable. Most were out 1/8″ to 1/4″ over the length.
On the big square, I wish that they would make the short leg thicker so that it would butt against the edge while keeping the long leg flat. Then, it would make a great saw guide, which the drywall square kinda sucks at
July 7th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Why not 24″ X 48″, to make it useful for a line across a full sheet?
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Re:
Joel Spangler Says:
but I’m fine with just measuring on both sides and getting out a straight edge
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A chalk or ink box works well between points, for a straight line.
http://www.tajimatool.com/products/inkchalk/
July 7th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
For really large sheets, we use a Fairgate 72 inch T-Square for layout lines - but do the cutting either on a sliding table or a panel saw. I think Fairgate T-Sqaures are still available - also in 48 inch and 60 inch sizes. I suspect that we bought ours at a drafting supply store.