Swanson Speed Square Pdf

[Ma Layssard]

Ifyou've ever spent much time on a construction site or watching YouTube videos on making things, chances are you've seen a speed square. These triangular devices have been used by makers for decades. Originally invented by Albert J Swanson in 1925, Swanson Speed Squares (affiliate link)have become a household name and it's the square that Dylan grew up learning to woodwork as well. If you are new to woodworking it can be daunting to figure out what tools you may or may not need. There is just a ton of information out there. Which is a good thing, but it's a lot to take in. Hopefully, in this blog, we can show you how to use a speed square to its full potential.

Here is the image that pops up when you think of a speed square. This one here is an all-aluminum speed square and what made the household name, Swanson and currently holds the copyrighted name of "speed square".

There are many differences between speed squares, so let's start there. The one on the left is a 20-year-old Swanson, and the one on the right is a newer one that we use daily. They are basically identical but have a few differences like the diamond cut out in the newer one and the scribe lines in the inner triangle. We are going to show you what you can do with these features here, but keep in mind that a lot of squares don't come with said features.

Another thing about the Swanson Speed Square is that they all come with the Swanson Speed Square Blue Book. This book gives you a lot of conversions and shows you everything you need on how to use the speed square. In the back of the book, it gives you all the measurements you need for making rafters, you find the length and width of your building and there ya go. This book goes way more into detail than what we are talking about today, just thought this was super interesting.

Here is a larger Swanson speed square at 12", and this one is made out of a composite material and is their "speedlite" model. Even though these are super nice and light and easy to use, ours has chipped and is broken in the middle. Just something to keep in mind.

Moving onto another 12" speed square, this one is all aluminum from Empire. This one large scribe marks designed for using the carpenter pencils, doesn't work so good with a regular pencil or pen. Another thing is on the back, it has a nice common rafter conversion chart with runs and degrees. This one isn't really the best for us, we don't build buildings, so the chart or the larger scribe marks aren't a selling point in our case, but it could totally be for you.

This one is a bit different. This all aluminum speed square from Husky is a bit thicker than most of the squares out there. It's also painted with white lettering which is nice and different, but not to sure about how long the paint will last over time. This one does have nice scribe lines that will work better with a regular pencil or pen. One downside to this one is that it doesn't go the full 7", it goes to a little over 6" which you can barely tell because there isn't a 6 on the square. This can be tricky and will show you why later on. The unique thing about this one though, it extends to turn into the full 12". One thing to keep in mind though is that if you were to drop this on the ground, you might risk bending the extendable part out of square, and then now what's the point. This is super handy though if you are looking into only buying 1, and now you wouldn't have to buy a 7" and a 12".

The most common use of a speed square is creating a square line. Simply hold the square against the long edge, you can draw a straight, square line. You can hold the square either from the top or bottom, really just personal preference, we both typically hold it from the top.

Still in this position, you can use that inner opening to make multiple marks using the guide there, and then move the square down the board to make another line. This would be a great layout tool for putting a wall stud in place. If you have a top and bottom plate, you can just transfer those lines and that's the reason for the length of a square. Now those plates are going to be identical.

Now say you want a different angle. Any angle on a 180 plane. On this square is actually says pivot. So place that point (the 90 point on a square) on your mark. Now, pivot the square until your desired angle is lined up with the board. This one is a 15 angle.

What if you need one beyond 90? This can also be achieve with a speed square! Let's do 105 angle. So, 90 + 15 is 105, make you're 15 mark, but now looking at it from the bottom of the board past 90 to your 15 mark, that's 105. All in all, subtract 90 from the total angle you want and use that number to make your mark.

Moving away from boards for a second, another really practical use for a speed square is using it for your saw. You should almost alway make sure your saw blade is square. For instance, with a circular saw, making sure there is no power going to the saw, you can push the blade guard back and making sure the blade is square to the bed of the saw. You can do this with any saw as well!

Another thing to think about and check is to make sure the square is actually square. All you have to do is make a 90 line, then flip the square over and make sure that line is lining up right with no gaps. This is just something to look for every now and then.

You can use a speed square as a guide for power tools, mostly done with a circular saw and man is this easy! You can use a square instead of measuring out the perfect line and clamping down a guide rail.

Now let's talk about roof structure and the speed square. This is what a house structure looks like, not to scale, but it gives you the picture. This roof has a 6:12 pitch meaning that every 12" of run, there is 6" of rise. That pitch correlates to the angle of the rafter that hits the ridge. This 6:12 pitch is a 26 1/2 angle. If the pitch was 12:12, the angle would be 45. Here's how you would line up the speed square to create that angle. The numbers labeled as common are your pitches, so number 1 would be 1:12, 2 is a 2:12.....ours is 6:12, so tilting the speed square until we get to 6, now you have the right angle you can mark and cut. I'm not sure how well I can explain the birdsmouth section in words, so I am going to refer you to the video at the top which this part starts at 17:30.

That's going to do it for this "How to Use a Speed Square" blog! I hope you got some good information here and you can refer to the video at any point if you get confused. I am such a visual learner that no matter how well you explain something to me, I will not understand until I visually see it in action.

A speed square, also called a rafter square, rafter angle square, and triangle square, is a multi-purpose triangular carpenters' tool used for marking out. Its functions include many of those of a combination square, try square, and framing square. Carpenters use it to make basic measurements and mark lines on dimensional lumber, and as a saw guide for short 45 and 90 degree cuts.

Albert J. Swanson invented the A Speed Square in 1925 as a carpenter's layout tool. He later founded Swanson Tool Company to produce it.[3] Today, Swanson Tool Company still manufactures and distributes the Speed Square and other carpentry tools from its headquarters in Frankfort, Illinois.

Speed squares are manufactured from a variety of materials such as aluminum, steel, and composites such as HDPE. They are also made in several sizes, including 7-inch, 8-inch, 25-cm and 12-inch sizes.

's get placed here -->XReplies sschefer Apr 12, 2002 08:20am #1Normally it comes with a little blue book.... I don't mean to be sarcastic but did you get the book and did you read it. The bigger one tells you how to figure out rafters, etc., and the smaller square comes with one that tells you how to figure out stairs, etc... If you didnt get the books and it is a swanson, go to their website and download them.

Interesting, what's the world coming to when Swanson has to go "cheep"? Personally, I never used a speed square for stair layout, not near as accurate as a rafter square. In my home building days, speed squares were rarely used for actual framing layout, mainly used as tool to make something fit right by the guys up on the deck or in the rafters.

Actually, a speed square is kind of a misnomer, because you have to calculate the lengths, a rafter square has all the information right on it.....'bout the only figgerin' one had to do was to subtract half the ridge board's thickness from the rafter length to make the plumb cut....

I got the "cheap " Home Depot version of the speed square which came with no instructions. Not made by Swanson but by Johnson Level and Tool (I only fiqured out that the actual name of the object was "Swanson Speed Square" by doing an internet search). Thanks for the tip on the downloadable manual. I will give it a read.

Now then, I'm not familiar with Johnson's speed square and their markings but, I and a few others here are familiar with the Swanson and their markings. Steve was trying to help and provided the links, I saw those links and just assumed that they would work, I didn't feel it neccessary to provide a "primer" on it's use, your sarcastic "thanks a heap" comment makes me even less inclined to take the time to do so.

rad - as said before in this thread speed square and accuracy should NOT be used in the same sentence. if you took 3 from swanson, johnson, HD, they all give you diffrent readings. they used for primarilly(whew SP sunday morn's) ROUGH framing and have important place in that genre. bottom line learn your framing square , aluminum -stanley with the book when looked at it's a very well thought out , versatile, accurate (baring it getting slam dunked, and on a productive framing crew it takes mmmm 3- 5 months) before it makes it's way up on the deck or in a helpers tool box. learn the framing square you cant go wrong.

Since I published the first review of the Swanson Speed Square, many people have been wondering how to use it. There are actually a large number of things you can do with it, but the most common is probably to use it the same way a framing square is used - to determine the correct angle to cut rafters.I'll show you how to determine the angle you need to use.

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