sam_thomas•12d agoMost Upvoted

That time my framing square overcorrected a roof pitch and I lost half a day

I was building a shed roof out in Bakersfield last spring, and I trusted my square without double checking the rafter table numbers. The whole thing came out 3 degrees off and I had to re-cut every single rafter after I realized the square was just a little bent from years in the truck. Anyone else ever get burned by a tool that looked fine but was secretly off?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wyatt12d ago

Buddy of mine out in Fresno, Mark, had a vintage Stanley level he swore by. He was framing a pergola and used it to check his beam slope, felt great in his hands, you know? Turned out the vial had shifted just a hair from sitting in a hot truck bed for a decade, and his whole thing ended up with a weird tilt that looked like a funhouse floor. Took him a full Saturday to figure out why his cuts kept looking wrong when the level said they were fine.

the_emery12d ago

That "felt great in his hands" part hits close to home. I had an old Craftsman socket set I inherited from my uncle, everything fit perfect and the ratchet had that smooth click you don't get anymore. Used it for years until I realized the 9/16 socket was actually a 14mm that had been ground down just enough to fool me. Spent two days trying to get a bolt off a lawn tractor before I noticed the socket was slipping.