Ten Jobs One Speed Square Does on a Framing Site

The Problem

The speed square rides in every pouch for 90s and 45s, and for most owners that's where it ends — while the same triangle replaces a protractor, a rip gauge, a center finder, and a rafter square.

The Techniques

1. Mark a 90 off the fence — the everyday cut line.
2. Mark a 45 off the hypotenuse.
3. Mark any angle: hold the pivot corner on your line and swing the square until the degree scale reads the angle you want.
4. Step off consecutive layout lines by walking the square down the board.
5. Draw a line parallel to the edge: set a pencil in the scribe notch at your width and slide the square's fence along the board — a rip line the length of the stock.
6. Find center: lay the square's rule across the board at an angle so an even number spans edge to edge, and mark half of it — on a 2x6, angle to 6 and mark at 3; on a 2x4, angle to 4 and mark at 2. No dividing 5-1/2 in your head.
7. Square a line off any existing line, not just off an edge — the fence registers on your mark.
8. Guide the saw: hold the square as a fence for the circular saw shoe on crosscuts.
9. Repeat a rafter pitch with stair gauges: clamp the little gauges to the square at the pitch (the demo sets a common 4), and the square registers the same plumb cut on every rafter without re-measuring.
10. Then use it as the cutting fence for that rafter cut, same as any crosscut.