I’ve been a carpenter for 50 years now, I’ve learned to measure as little as possible. He’s showing how! Measure twice cut once still prevails though. He knows his stuff!
I was doing TI (tenant improvement) work with a partner in the 90's. We were into sticks and other tricks to avoid using our tapes. We played a game; first guy to pull out his tape buys lunch. We got so good the bet became dinner. ;0)
When I was 17 I started doing carpentry work and an old timer taught me these tricks to save time. The best thing about this method is that it doesn't take much practice to do it right. I haven't been a carpenter for many years now but occasionally I do still get to use this trick in my home wood shop.
That was wonderful! I worked as a Journeyman electrician for 39 years until retirement, and I appreciate all the techniques trades people utilize in their everyday work life. Thank you for sharing with those of us who are life long learners.
Learned this trick in 1969 wood shop. It's something I take for granted. Happy that you are bringing it to a new generation. We call it a finger gauge. I bet you know how to use a thumb gauge, very helpful with a razor blade knife. Glad men like you exist.
I am retired now but used that method to mark cut lines. I also was using a folding rule as well. The folding rule takes it to an even higher level. You rarely see a folding rule on the job anymore. I would be lost without one if I was able to work again. Thanks for the video. I am sure some up and coming wood worker will appreciate learning this method of marking a board.
member when i learned this trick but been using it for years and years, cant even count how many times or ways i use this on a daily basis for working, it is so valueable in countless applications the less you have to pull out a tape measure the faster the process
I use that trick all my life, I paid attention when my father used in his shop,I was about seven or eight years old. Can’t say thanks enough to him showing me all those tricks I use now ✊🏻✊🏻
Thanks for the vid, keeping these old tricks & tips alive is priceless. It also used to amaze me watching them cut in a roof with compound angles, figuring the slope, pitches and degrees without a day of trig or geometry class under their belt & no calculator. Now days it comes to the jobsite precut, just stick the puzzle pc.'s together & nail it down. We are being dumb-downed with pre-fab & the old-arts are being lost .
Just straight up great advice - especially for drywall where you don’t have to be so precise. Is saw a builder doing this once. He was so efficient it was nice to watch. This vid is inspiration to just start doing it, thanks.
Very useful tool. In addition to using a tape, a yardstick or ruler can be used, too. Back in my high school days, I saw a carpenter building canvas set panels for a play, and used a yardstick with a paint brush fixed on its end (using your method), and glided along the panel edge to paint parallel lines for a stage set depicting building fronts.
I’ve been doing construction for 40+ years and have used this technique several times. Collected a few splinters on the edge of lumbered through the years.
My grandfather worked as a surveyor and spent the last 30+ years working in a steel mill, the last of those years as foreman. When he was living, he used to amaze me with his ability to eyeball measurements, sometimes to literal pinpoint accuracy. Miss you Paw-paw!
These old Carpenter's, farmers, old school mechanics, Grandmas and Grandfather's. They are all a wealth of knowledge. Young kids learn all you can from these folks if you have them in your life.
I'm a carpenter and used this technique for years but great to see this video, it will help a lot of people. I use a finger on a saw to rip boards that look like they were cut on a table saw lol
I was working for a new guy when he broke out the table saw to rip some plywood, I laughed and said not only can I rip it straighter with my skilsaw but I can rip it faster than the two of you on that craftman tablesaw. The race was on! Well if you could call it a race. It was hard not to laugh as that table saw rocked all over the place and listening to the blade bind. My freehand cuts were laser straight. Theirs +- 1/4 inch. I said "its called a SKILSAW for a reason" lol. Framers Lives Matter!
Great tip with the thumb holding the tape to the blade! I think it only works with a reasonably wide tape, or tends to flex - especially on wider cuts. Thanks for taking the time to share.👍
Excellent tutorial. I am not a carpenter but i do some diy and this video is so helpful. This method will speed up the measuring and cutting. Thanks - from the Phils.
Yup. Great tip. Most often I use this for ripping drywall with knife and my tape, but also ripping 2 bys using my fingers as a guide for circular saw, best with gloves for splinters.
Standard procedure for me - it's fun when someone who doesn't know sees you draw a straight line using your finger as a guide and they're impressed and then they think you really know what your doing
Great reminder that you have “tools” literally at your fingertips. Other tips that work in rough framing is to measure the width of your fingers, length from inside your elbow to longest fingertip, and the length of your foot.
Brilliant. I'm not a carpenter - I make guitars. I use this technique all the time for scraping finish from an edge (we call it a finger fence) - and you can get accurate to a thou with ease. Funny I never thought to use it for larger dimensions. I can tell you that after seeing this I'm going to use it for whole lot more applications. Also nice to hear feet and inches (originally called Imperial - I'm proudly British!) instead of metric. I'm now off to binge on your other videos, starting with the fractional numbers ones. I'm from a generation where we were taught to just do this stuff in our heads, but it will be interesting to see your 'trick'. I see this is a couple of years old and I may be speaking into the ether, but if you are out there montoring, thanks a lot.
I built a set of horses many years ago that the design I got from a very old carpentry book. They were similar to yours but the legs were at a compound bevel and they had a shelf in the middle. A lot of compound bevels involved. I was so proud of myself for building them. I wish I still had the book for the exact design to build them again.
@E.T. Preppin, did that book show the use of the framing square to design and layout the cuts, on a 24 inch high horse? Wonder if it is the same one I read. Yes, an old book.
Your video came up in my suggestions. I like the way your saw horse is made. I remember using this technique in setting out gauges around steel frames in plastering. You have a very stable hand as you run your pencil along the wood. I like the carpenters square which you showed at the beginning of the video. Once when I was a young man working on a site, I walked past a carpenter kneeling hanging a door. I accidentally kicked his knee with my boots. I said sorry. The carpenter said that's alight, I like been kicked in the knee. I worked with carpenters setting up dry wall and used the technique you showed in this video. Great video, well done and thankyou for posting the video.
I'm an experienced enough Surveyor that I know in order to get better at my trade, my time spent learning about carpentry will go much farther than learning more about surveying. This one is amazing. I learned a lot from an older surveyor, who even 18 years ago was using "old techniques", that I'm still using to this day. Technology is killing the skill and understanding behind my trade, and it's such a shame, because it's small things like this that brings so much personal satisfaction from the job. Thanks a bunch for sharing this.
thank you kindly for sharing this.I've been using the same myself and was taught it by my grandfather.another one I found particularly handy was when subdividing a piece of timber by using a ruler at an angle that gives me the qbility,when used in conjunction with a t square to accurately divide odd widths of timber,rather than trying to work out dividing something,say would be 17 toand 3 /16 of an inch.May the Lord bless you and ylurs.stay safe and lucky my fdiend.maddog.woodworker,Turner and tree surgeon.I have a headache 395xp.running a 36" bar( she will take a 50" ,but the three footer is good enough for planning most trees I dea! with.it's 97.8cc,so plenty of power and I grind every third tooth off as cheaper than buying a skip chain.thank you and respect.you've a new subscriber anyway and I look forward to viewing more of your information.maddog
Kent Cleek actually taught me this! Kenneth can actually eyeball the center of a 3/4” board especially on something like a sawhorse where it isn’t crucial. As a DIY hobbyist, I challenge myself frequently on seeing how close I can get eyeballing measurements or finding center on much wider material, it’s pretty amazing how close you can get and sometimes dead on. Kenneth Cleek from Oklahoma can do this every time.
Good carpenters can eyeball the center of a 3/4” board especially on something like a sawhorse where it isn’t crucial. As a carpenter/custom cabinet maker I challenge myself frequently on seeing how close I can get eyeballing measurements or finding center on much wider material, it’s pretty amazing how close you can get and sometimes dead on.
I’ve worked for a wood turner on large batch production. I had ways of ‘centre finding’ but did a load by eye and tested them, I was always within 2mm on 90mm squares(never square) normally within 1mm, though still nervous at times. Amazing the calculations our eyes can do.
I learned the same "trick" from my former brother in law (he passed away from cancer in 2008) who was a master tradesman from drywall to ceilings to almost anything. It sped up marking drywall, studs, metal ceiling supports, etc.
I've been working on getting proficient in using pegs to make furniture. This seems like it would be a great technique for lining up the holes in two boards so the boards will line up the way I want them after putting in the pegs.
I’ve been a carpenter for 50 years now, I’ve learned to measure as little as possible. He’s showing how! Measure twice cut once still prevails though. He knows his stuff!
I was doing TI (tenant improvement) work with a partner in the 90's. We were into sticks and other tricks to avoid using our tapes. We played a game; first guy to pull out his tape
buys lunch. We got so good the bet became dinner. ;0)
When I was 17 I started doing carpentry work and an old timer taught me these tricks to save time. The best thing about this method is that it doesn't take much practice to do it right. I haven't been a carpenter for many years now but occasionally I do still get to use this trick in my home wood shop.
That was wonderful! I worked as a Journeyman electrician for 39 years until retirement, and I appreciate all the techniques trades people utilize in their everyday work life. Thank you for sharing with those of us who are life long learners.
Learned this trick in 1969 wood shop. It's something I take for granted. Happy that you are bringing it to a new generation. We call it a finger gauge. I bet you know how to use a thumb gauge, very helpful with a razor blade knife. Glad men like you exist.
I am retired now but used that method to mark cut lines. I also was using a folding rule as well. The folding rule takes it to an even higher level. You rarely see a folding rule on the job anymore. I would be lost without one if I was able to work again. Thanks for the video. I am sure some up and coming wood worker will appreciate learning this method of marking a board.
Oh yeah, the folders! I haven’t used one in years. I’m going to look for one of those... perhaps save a trip to town and just make one.
You have blown my mind
So simple, but I would have never thought of it without your video.
Saw a carpenter doing this a few weeks into being an apprentice, practiced it a bit and I've never looked back. I must use it near daily on site
same exactly
Voice of experience talking here...not book learning. Love it. Thanks for sharing.
You can lock your finger similar as a quide while using a circle saw too.
Your video was very well done, and I am especially grateful how many different applications you demonstrated. 👍👏
I learned this technique hanging drywall n have continued to use it ever since learnin it. Excellent tip Sir, thank you for sharin it n God bless
nice job teaching , I am an old carpenter and use all of these tips .
member when i learned this trick but been using it for years and years, cant even count how many times or ways i use this on a daily basis for working, it is so valueable in countless applications
the less you have to pull out a tape measure the faster the process
I’ve also done this for years as a carpenter, it’s fine on smooth surfaces but you get a few ‘skiffs’ in your fingers on rougher lumber
I have gotten some bad ones on rough plywood edges !
My fingers feel and remember 🤕 prkle!!!
Sewing thimble could help?
I always individually tape my first 2 fingers at about the 1st joint. No ragged fingers that way
I wear a work glove on my right hand if I want to use this
I use that trick all my life, I paid attention when my father used in his shop,I was about seven or eight years old. Can’t say thanks enough to him showing me all those tricks I use now ✊🏻✊🏻
God bless your dad, Yevgeniy, and mine too, and all the dads that passed their wisdom down to their sons and daughters.
Thanks for the vid, keeping these old tricks & tips alive is priceless. It also used to amaze me watching them cut in a roof with compound angles, figuring the slope, pitches and degrees without a day of trig or geometry class under their belt & no calculator. Now days it comes to the jobsite precut, just stick the puzzle pc.'s together & nail it down. We are being dumb-downed with pre-fab & the old-arts are being lost .
Used it all the time. Great to see it shared.❤
Just straight up great advice - especially for drywall where you don’t have to be so precise. Is saw a builder doing this once. He was so efficient it was nice to watch. This vid is inspiration to just start doing it, thanks.
great video, i do all these myself as a carpenter of 27 years, my Dad taught my all these tricks.
Very useful tool. In addition to using a tape, a yardstick or ruler can be used, too. Back in my high school days, I saw a carpenter building canvas set panels for a play, and used a yardstick with a paint brush fixed on its end (using your method), and glided along the panel edge to paint parallel lines for a stage set depicting building fronts.
Fantastic to know this handy short cut. Thank you SO MUCH! Just like you've always remembered Bob, we'll all be thinking of you forever 😄🙏
Great Job 😉👍🏽✏️📐🔨🪚
What a great video! Thank you Herrick...man this is so cool!!
I can see this method will save tons of time. Thank You.
Great shortcut!! But now I see why you need a Whiz Bang Splinter Removal Kit.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've been using the trick for years now... very handy and efficient... very accurate also... keep up the good work brother... God bless
Very helpful. Thanks
I’ve been doing construction for 40+ years and have used this technique several times. Collected a few splinters on the edge of lumbered through the years.
Thank alot for video. I like the carpentry bag u r using.very usefully. Not freely available or used here in south africa
My grandfather worked as a surveyor and spent the last 30+ years working in a steel mill, the last of those years as foreman.
When he was living, he used to amaze me with his ability to eyeball measurements, sometimes to literal pinpoint accuracy. Miss you Paw-paw!
Great video thanks 😊
Excellent tip. Subscribed.
I’m very experienced but watched anyhow and enjoyed your show. I pray that you are providing your knowledge to the younger folks. Thanks
These old Carpenter's, farmers, old school mechanics, Grandmas and Grandfather's.
They are all a wealth of knowledge. Young kids learn all you can from these folks if you have them in your life.
Great technique for measuring with a tape measure and pencil wow. Thank you.
Figured that out myself many years ago, works great
Thanks for the handy tricks.
Excellent. The best ideas are usually the simplest!
Out of despiration to finish a job but still work with quality as tradesmen we are always coming up with new methods
I'm a carpenter and used this technique for years but great to see this video, it will help a lot of people. I use a finger on a saw to rip boards that look like they were cut on a table saw lol
I was working for a new guy when he broke out the table saw to rip some plywood, I laughed and said not only can I rip it straighter with my skilsaw but I can rip it faster than the two of you on that craftman tablesaw. The race was on! Well if you could call it a race. It was hard not to laugh as that table saw rocked all over the place and listening to the blade bind. My freehand cuts were laser straight. Theirs +- 1/4 inch.
I said "its called a SKILSAW for a reason" lol.
Framers Lives Matter!
So much wisdom in experienced carpenters. Thank you!
Followed you instructions. Thanks for the tip and the splinters.
😂 ua-cam.com/video/s3jVQm8rznY/v-deo.htmlsi=ISvZWLfW70uTMyHc
Thanks . Been using that for about 50 yrs.
I greatly appreciate you sharing this technic. Its going to come handy with all the cutting I am going to have to do to build an enclosed garden.
Great tip with the thumb holding the tape to the blade! I think it only works with a reasonably wide tape, or tends to flex - especially on wider cuts. Thanks for taking the time to share.👍
Seems like every carpenter uses that Stanley metal tape measure.
yeah, you need a sturdy tape.
Excellent tutorial. I am not a carpenter but i do some diy and this video is so helpful. This method will speed up the measuring and cutting. Thanks - from the Phils.
*Thanks Mr Herrick Kimball.*
Always wondered why I was never a fan of the marking studs. Preferred my roofers square over a set square too.
My old man taught me that trick , he's an old school drywaller.
I am an apprentice carpenter and my journeyman won't even allow me to use another technique than this one! Great technique indeed.
@@johnfischer_2I was a Union Carpenter in Chicago for 22 years. You can kiss my ass!!
Fantastic, thanks for sharing ❤
Piekna sprawa. Dziekuje
Yup. Great tip. Most often I use this for ripping drywall with knife and my tape, but also ripping 2 bys using my fingers as a guide for circular saw, best with gloves for splinters.
I grew up working with my uncle and he used that method all the time , growing up and working with him he taught me a lot . May God rest his soul . 🇺🇸
Thank you so much for sharing this helpful measuring skill.
My father was a carpenter. My name is Bob. I approve this video. I'm also very happy to be a subscriber😀😀
Standard procedure for me - it's fun when someone who doesn't know sees you draw a straight line using your finger as a guide and they're impressed and then they think you really know what your doing
Excellent tip! Thank you!
Great reminder that you have “tools” literally at your fingertips. Other tips that work in rough framing is to measure the width of your fingers, length from inside your elbow to longest fingertip, and the length of your foot.
I agree, and I have a video about "hand measuring." 👍 ua-cam.com/video/ZQ_zJ7Pbgrw/v-deo.htmlsi=ybBK2asENcbj62Vm
Beautiful...Thank you!
Excellent lesson!
I used my ringers and hands as a measuring tool all the time shaping surfboards,thus not having to make home made jigs.awesome video sir
Brilliant. I'm not a carpenter - I make guitars. I use this technique all the time for scraping finish from an edge (we call it a finger fence) - and you can get accurate to a thou with ease. Funny I never thought to use it for larger dimensions. I can tell you that after seeing this I'm going to use it for whole lot more applications. Also nice to hear feet and inches (originally called Imperial - I'm proudly British!) instead of metric. I'm now off to binge on your other videos, starting with the fractional numbers ones. I'm from a generation where we were taught to just do this stuff in our heads, but it will be interesting to see your 'trick'. I see this is a couple of years old and I may be speaking into the ether, but if you are out there montoring, thanks a lot.
You can stick your imperial where the sun don't shine.
It is so messy for want of a better word.
I built a set of horses many years ago that the design I got from a very old carpentry book. They were similar to yours but the legs were at a compound bevel and they had a shelf in the middle. A lot of compound bevels involved. I was so proud of myself for building them. I wish I still had the book for the exact design to build them again.
And a sacrificial top.
@E.T. Preppin, did that book show the use of the framing square to design and layout the cuts, on a 24 inch high horse? Wonder if it is the same one I read. Yes, an old book.
Great tip
Cracking video thanks very much
Your video came up in my suggestions. I like the way your saw horse is made. I remember using this technique in setting out gauges around steel frames in plastering. You have a very stable hand as you run your pencil along the wood. I like the carpenters square which you showed at the beginning of the video.
Once when I was a young man working on a site, I walked past a carpenter kneeling hanging a door. I accidentally kicked his knee with my boots. I said sorry. The carpenter said that's alight, I like been kicked in the knee. I worked with carpenters setting up dry wall and used the technique you showed in this video. Great video, well done and thankyou for posting the video.
Great trick for centering screws and more.
That $7 Stanley tape measure is still the best one I ever had.
That’s awesome! Thank you for sharing!
I'm an experienced enough Surveyor that I know in order to get better at my trade, my time spent learning about carpentry will go much farther than learning more about surveying. This one is amazing. I learned a lot from an older surveyor, who even 18 years ago was using "old techniques", that I'm still using to this day. Technology is killing the skill and understanding behind my trade, and it's such a shame, because it's small things like this that brings so much personal satisfaction from the job. Thanks a bunch for sharing this.
Informative, thank you.
My dad demonstrated this technique 50 years ago. I still use it often.
thank you kindly for sharing this.I've been using the same myself and was taught it by my grandfather.another one I found particularly handy was when subdividing a piece of timber by using a ruler at an angle that gives me the qbility,when used in conjunction with a t square to accurately divide odd widths of timber,rather than trying to work out dividing something,say would be 17 toand 3 /16 of an inch.May the Lord bless you and ylurs.stay safe and lucky my fdiend.maddog.woodworker,Turner and tree surgeon.I have a headache 395xp.running a 36" bar( she will take a 50" ,but the three footer is good enough for planning most trees I dea! with.it's 97.8cc,so plenty of power and I grind every third tooth off as cheaper than buying a skip chain.thank you and respect.you've a new subscriber anyway and I look forward to viewing more of your information.maddog
Great tip. I also love how he went a lil bit 'carpenter gangsta' with his cap... 🤣
I Miss You My Old Shop Teacher. You're Now My Replacement. :)
Awsome thank you very much
Very generous of you to teach these techniques. I can make the cuts in acoustical ceilings in no time using these techniques
8:33 the method on plywood is also very good for filling your finger with splinters! 🤣🤣
Using on OSB will make you woodpecker bait too....
Thank you!
learnt this at school in wood work class back in the late 60s, used it most my working life i
This old-timey trick is such a time saver. I’m fairly certain I learned about it from my dad as youngster.
Very useful. Thank you!
Kent Cleek actually taught me this! Kenneth can actually eyeball the center of a 3/4” board especially on something like a sawhorse where it isn’t crucial. As a DIY hobbyist, I challenge myself frequently on seeing how close I can get eyeballing measurements or finding center on much wider material, it’s pretty amazing how close you can get and sometimes dead on. Kenneth Cleek from Oklahoma can do this every time.
Good carpenters can eyeball the center of a 3/4” board especially on something like a sawhorse where it isn’t crucial. As a carpenter/custom cabinet maker I challenge myself frequently on seeing how close I can get eyeballing measurements or finding center on much wider material, it’s pretty amazing how close you can get and sometimes dead on.
Custom worker goes for eyeballing over using the tools....quality work at its finest by this stud
@@FRHYKDd
Operative word = "sometimes"....lmao
@@MrAc4321: Haha, yep, wait until you’re building a kitchen cabinet and you ‘sometimes’ get it dead on, lol.
I’ve worked for a wood turner on large batch production. I had ways of ‘centre finding’ but did a load by eye and tested them, I was always within 2mm on 90mm squares(never square) normally within 1mm, though still nervous at times. Amazing the calculations our eyes can do.
Wow!
Thank you.
My father taught me that at about 8 years old, I'm 70 now. I like that old speed square!
This way is very similar to how you would scribe a countertop in as well
Wow! I love this! Thanks.
Great technique, thank you. 👍👍👍
I appreciate your sharing!
Learned this as an apprentice very helpful trick
Great video.
Button hammered! Nice video.
love it thank you
I learned the same "trick" from my former brother in law (he passed away from cancer in 2008) who was a master tradesman from drywall to ceilings to almost anything. It sped up marking drywall, studs, metal ceiling supports, etc.
I've been working on getting proficient in using pegs to make furniture. This seems like it would be a great technique for lining up the holes in two boards so the boards will line up the way I want them after putting in the pegs.
I've known this trick for years as an artist..
My ocd can’t handle that, I love my squares, but I respect your skill. Now I am off to look for your saw horse video. Thanks for the content
Learned that technique in the 60,s. It was very commonplace
Great idea! I will use this!