c/carpenters

Swore by my grandfather's old wooden levels for 5 years until I tried a digital one

I grew up using his 4-foot mahogany level from the 60s. Thought digital was just a gimmick for guys with too much money. Then I was framing a deck last summer and the sun hit the bubble just wrong. Eye-balled it and the whole thing was off by almost an inch after 20 feet. Borrowed a buddy's digital level and the thing pinged at dead zero in 2 seconds. Went out and bought a stabila digital the next day. Anyone else have an old tool they finally gave up on?

1 comments

mark_green•10h ago

Been noticing a lot of folks on job sites cutting pressure treated lumber with their regular framing blades and just burning through them in a day.

I watched a guy at a deck build in Raleigh last month destroy a $40 blade in under 2 hours because he didn't switch to a carbide tipped one for the treated wood, and when I told him he just shrugged it off like it was normal, has anyone else seen this kind of thing getting worse or is it just me?

2 comments

kai_chen2•17h ago

Broke a $150 chisel on a oak beam yesterday

I was out at a job site in Portland fitting a new staircase stringer and went to pare a tenon cheek. Must have hit a hidden nail or a knot that was harder than diamond because the blade snapped right at the neck. I had to finish the cut with a cheap spare I keep in the truck and it gummed up everything. Has anyone else had a tool give out on them mid cut like that and what did you grab to finish the job?

2 comments

williamw75•1d ago

Spent 3 days squaring up a door frame before realizing I was off by a level

I was installing a new prehung door in my own house last month, and I spent three full evenings shimming and checking the frame over and over. Turns out my 6-foot level was just slightly bent from being dropped a few weeks ago, something I never even thought to check. After all that work I grabbed a straightedge out of habit and there it was, a tiny gap under the middle of the level. Has anyone else wasted time chasing a problem that ended up being the tool itself?

4 comments

iris_schmidt•2d ago

Noticed a weird trend with junior carpenters skipping hand tools

I was on a site in Denver last Tuesday and watched three guys in their twenties all reach for the same cordless trim router to cut a door jamb. Nobody even looked at the block plane sitting right there on the bench. It took me maybe 45 seconds to do that same job by hand a few years ago. Has anyone else seen this shift or am I just getting old?

c/carpenters

Swore by my grandfather's old wooden levels for 5 years until I tried a digital one

Been noticing a lot of folks on job sites cutting pressure treated lumber with their regular framing blades and just burning through them in a day.

Broke a $150 chisel on a oak beam yesterday

Spent 3 days squaring up a door frame before realizing I was off by a level

Noticed a weird trend with junior carpenters skipping hand tools

Shoutout to the guy in Bakersfield who called me out on my framing gun

Found out my tape measure was off by a full 1/8 inch after a year of work

Spent 10 years cutting crown molding with the saw upside down because my uncle taught me that way

Switched from a chisel plane to a block plane for hinge mortises...

Old timer at the lumber yard told me to pre-drill deck screws closer to the edge

Tried pocket hole screws on a hardwood table and regretted it instantly

Debate: Should we fill nail holes before staining or just leave them?

Chatted with an old timer in Iowa about his framing hammer and it made me rethink my whole tool setup

Cheap nail gun blew apart on me at a job in Phoenix yesterday

Spent 3 hours trying to fix a door that wasn't even broken

Walked into a 150 year old barn frame last weekend and nearly cried

That one engineer who wandered onto my site still bothers me

Best day I've had on site in months was last Tuesday when everything just clicked.

Am I the only one who thinks Japanese pull saws are overrated?

Finally got a dado stack to stop chattering after 3 setups today

Hit 10,000 board feet of hardwood this year and it snuck up on me

Always been a nail gun guy but a trim carpenter in Phoenix changed my mind about hand nailing

Still using a tape measure for everything after 12 years, digital measuring tools feel like a waste of money

The difference in a staircase after 3 years of wear is crazy

I finally learned the hard way not to cheap out on measuring tapes