My neighbor Jimmy the framer told me to quit using a speed square for rafter cuts and try a Swanson blue book instead. After fighting with compound angles on a shed roof last Saturday I finally gave his book a shot and got it right on the first try. Anybody else have an old timer talk you into ditching a tool you relied on for years?

Jimmy said I was overcomplicating things by trying to eyeball the layout and the book had the exact numbers I needed. Now I wonder how many hours I wasted guessing at those cuts.

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_kelly15d ago

Man oh man, I feel that in my bones. I did the exact same dance with a framing square for years, just eyeballing and hoping my porch roof wouldn't leak. It's wild how a little piece of paper with some numbers on it just makes everything click, isn't it? Jimmy did you a solid. I still remember the first time I used a book for hip and valley cuts, felt like I finally joined a secret club nobody told me about. Don't beat yourself up over the lost time though, that's just how it goes with this stuff. You learn from the struggle, even if the struggle was completely avoidable.

elliotr3915d ago

Exactly how I felt when an old roofer showed me his little cheat sheet for valley cuts.