The Most Useful Carpentry Trick I Ever Learned

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many years ago when i was just getting started in the building trades an old time carpenter by the name of bob showed me a technique which i'm going to call a trick a carpentry trick that has proven to be the most useful carpentry trick i've ever known i use it all the time and it can be utilized in different ways and i'm going to show you the trick now and i'm going to show you a few applications for the trick so i have in my hands here the remarkable whiz-bang carpenters square which i show and discuss in another youtube video and i'm going to show you this trick on the square first and then i'll move on to other applications the trick very simply is how to use your fingers your hand and a pencil to accurately draw parallel lines and you can get surprising and accuracy very quickly without pulling out other tools with just your fingertips and your your pencil like i'm going to show you here and well first i'll draw a parallel line for you just to show you what i mean all right now i can draw parallel lines many parallel lines at different distances from the edge and the way i'm doing it if it's not obvious to you is that i'm holding the pencil first i'm adjusting the pencil where i want i could get my tape measure out and measure and sometimes that isn't necessary though i'm going to show you what i mean momentarily but for now the concept is that you adjust your pencil where you want it you lock it to your fingers and you then use one of your fingers to guide along the edge and draw your pencil now this is only an eighth of an inch thick but if it were thicker like a three-quarter inch piece of wood i could extend even further well i can still do it here it's not quite as easy but i can i can get up to uh just about three inches with no problem and i'll show you how you can get further away with accuracy uh later on in this video but that's the concept right there you lock your pencil against your fingertips at the distance you want and you guide your fingers along the edge okay very simple but very versatile very useful it's a big time saver now i'm going to show you a application for this okay right here i have a traditional style carpenter's sawhorse this is the type of sawhorse that i've used on my whole career i learned in building trade school how to make one of these it's a topic of a future video but for right now i just want to show you an application for this trick that i used when making this sawhorse now right here this rail you'll notice that the screws here are exactly in the center of this leg and i've got them spaced the same this one over here is spaced the same as this and what i did before i made this before i drilled the holes or put the screws in was that i used my pencil to mark parallel lines like that so i have the screws spaced the same and then for getting them centered on here i also drew my lines but first i gauged my fingers with the pencil to halfway approximately halfway in the center of that three-quarter inch and then without moving that locked position i could then go like that well yeah and i could do it over here okay so i've got a mark i didn't get my tape measure out that's directly in the center of this leg okay and uh as for the distance here that i showed you i i can do that right there i don't have to draw the line all the way across i can get it uh just on the lines so there's where my screws are going very simple uh very quick very accurate and that's one application for this technique here's another way to use this let's say i need to put a fastener a screw right in the center of this board and uh i can do that without measuring by simply adjusting the pencil to somewhere around the center or just shy of the center or even over the center but getting it in the ballpark and drawing a line there and then holding while holding that distance come over here and mark a line all right then i can eye it up in the center or if i want to continue with this concept i can readjust and readjust okay i can go even further we'll go even further it's not necessary but i'm just showing you what you can do we've got the center right there and uh so let's say i'll gauge it right my pencil right to the center like that and if i wanted to i could you know be equidistant this is this is a kind of a theoretical thing but it's it just shows the versatility okay now i want to show you another application for this trick i i am going to cut a block here i'm doing some framing and the typical way of cutting a block is to get your tape measure out and measure what you want let's say it's 12 inches i would measure it mark it get out my square and make a make a mark all right then i have my cut line but there's no need to do that to go to all that trouble because you can take your tape measure measure out what you want let's say it's 14 inches right here 14 inches my fingers tight against the wood i come over here and i just go like that and the mark is a little bit lighter but it's perfectly visible and it's it's square same same thing no need for the square in many instances when you know this marking technique all right it's it's just a real time saver you can go a long ways with this as far as your arm can reach and get the accuracy that you need here i'm out of sight now i know but that's 36 inches and i can draw a square mark on the wood at that distance with no problem i could also get it from that end if if i wanted to okay this idea this technique this trick can be adapted to be used with sheet goods like plywood or drywall i use it a lot with drywall and in this instance what you do is use your tape measure to measure the distance you want let's say i want two feet over here you need a straight edge of course to do this accurately but i've got two feet over here my finger is against the plywood and then you come over here with your pencil you bring it up against the tip of the tape measure the end of the tape measure i should say and you can then mark a long pull it you can push it whatever works for you along like that and i use this on plywood a lot for when i'm uh cutting it yes you can make cut lines with it but even more i like to mark out my stud locations or joist locations for uh flooring where i would get it over here and mark it it would be typically 16 inches you can go in and you can go quite a distance here i can go uh four feet easily i'm off the sheet here but i can go four feet and uh i didn't go all the way but i could go all the way if i wanted to and if the sheet was positioned differently like setting upward i could get the whole length easily and with drywall it works that way too so with drywall though you can also take your knife perhaps you've seen this and you can get your distance over here let's say this is drywall and i want to cut a 12 inch wide strip well this would be leaning against a wall but for here so you can get the idea and then you hook your thumb and your knife blade together and you can score the drywall i used to have a big t-square for drywall i don't do that anymore i can usually get what i want with this technique and the knife or a pencil whatever whatever is needed so there you go ...

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