The day I realized I was squaring my lines all wrong for 8 years

I was working on a set of cabinet drawings for a kitchen remodel in Austin last month and kept getting these weird gaps where the cabinet faces met. I had been using my T-square the same way since trade school, lining it up against the edge of the board every single time. My coworker Tom walked over and just watched me for a minute, then asked why I was using the wrong side of the square for those angled corner lines. I felt like an idiot. He showed me how flipping the square around and using the other edge would keep my lines consistent with the grain direction rather than fighting it. Now I re-did that whole section in about 20 minutes and everything fit clean. Has anyone else had that moment where someone pointed out a basic thing you'd been doing backwards for years?

3 comments

3 Comments

erickelly1d ago

Man, I felt that "weird gaps" line in my bones. I spent three years framing houses before someone told me I was reading my speed square backwards for birdsmouth cuts, and I wanted to crawl under the deck and hide. It's crazy how one little flip of a tool can make everything click after years of fighting it. Did Tom give you any other tricks after that?

zara_sanchez18h agoMost Upvoted

Hold up, THREE years reading it backwards? That's wild, dude.

charles83621h ago

Tom taught me to always check for square first @erickelly.