Old timer told me to use a speed square for rafters, I called him crazy

I was building a small shed roof in my backyard in Phoenix about 2 years ago. This retired carpenter walked by and said ditch the fancy angle finder, just use a speed square for the birds mouth cuts. I told him that thing was for basic cuts not rafters. After fighting with my digital angle finder for an hour and getting it wrong, I grabbed his speed square and had both rafters cut perfect in 20 minutes. Has anyone else found that old school methods actually beat modern tools for certain jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.wesley1mo ago

Speed squares work fine for rafters. Not that complicated really.

anthony4261mo ago

My dad was a carpenter in the 1960s and he always said the speed square was invented because framers needed something faster than a framing square for complex roof work. The pivot point on the heel gives you a built-in protractor that works perfect for common rafters, hip rafters, and even jack rafters if you know the right numbers. I think a lot of guys give up on them because they never learn the rafter tables printed right on the tool itself. Once you figure out that little stamped chart, you can lay out any pitch faster than a calculator.

taraj111mo ago

@black.wesley you're right that they're not that complicated once you get the hang of them. But I've noticed a bigger pattern with tools like that - people either fully commit to learning them or just give up and keep using what they know. The speed square is kind of like learning to read an analog clock. Most people can tell the time but can't do math with the angles. Same with the rafter tables on a speed square. Your dad had it figured out though. Once you learn those numbers on the heel, you can lay out a whole roof in minutes without even thinking. Does anyone else find that most tools have this hidden potential that never gets used because the instructions are too tiny to read?