Posted: 8/3/2011 10:18:53 AM EDT
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I rescued a copy of this book from the trash in the late 70s. I drug it out yesterday and got re-aquainted with measuring up some common rafters for a shed I plan to build.
In this day and age of hand held calculators, computers and pre-fabbed trusses, it really is obsolete, BUT! as I read up it came to me that our ancestors were some pretty sharp guys. Don't get me wrong. I respect and admire what passes for state of the art now days in carpentry and realize what sound business practices require. As a background, my dad was a carpenter in the 50s until work slowed one winter and he took a job meat cutting. As I grew up, I "helped" him on side jobs he was always moonlighting on to make ends meet. I learned to cut a stud with a handsaw. I did some of my own side work along the way. I actually formed up a bunch of concrete stair forms at one time ( I'd be rusty now.) Anyway, if technology ever "crashed", a framer's steel square (one with the rafter tables), a copy of this book, some simple math concepts and the ability to pencil out square root on paper will help rebuild society. 
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I have a copy of a book of logarithms and trigonometric functions (to about 10 places). It was published in 1895. It had many hand-written notes in it which one of the previous owners took teh liberty of erasing. They were thinking they'd "clean it up" but I feel we lost a little bit of history when they "preserved it".
It is a similarly useless book, unless technology crashes. |
For those of us that learned how to use the scales and formulas on a square they are still useful. I still step off common rafters with it. You can pre cut an entire hip and valley roof on the ground if you know what you are doing. It's getting to be a lost skill. When younger guys see me using a steel square these days it's like they are watching a magic show or something. I do use construction calculators for some things, but you can't beat a steel square 
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BuildCalc app for iphone! 
I use a framing square and points for stepping off stairs, but I'd much rather use a calculator for rafters. I can drop my square all day long and it works. How about your iPhone? Yeah - it has a pretty serious otter box on it. And if it does break I have two more stand alone construction master pros. And if all those break I still know how to step off rafters with a square. SO it's kind of like saying you only use a pay phone because "what if" you drop your cell phone? Also, Don't drop that square too much and from too far, because it works best when it's still SQUARE  The chance of compounding an error by loosing fractions of a measurement with every "step" is also eliminated with the use of a construction calculator. In short, it's good to know how to do it the low tech way but to shun the use of a construction calculator because it can break is ridiculous.
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My brother's house was built in the 30s or 40s, and his garage has exposed rafters. Seeing the compound angles on those things made my head spin. No calculators, no phone apps, nothing but brains and skill. It's beautiful. The other notable thing about it is the old growth clear Doug Fir. The growth rings are so close together, and the smell of the wood so pleasant when cut, it amazes me furniture quality wood was used to build houses back in the day.
Sorry to hijack the thread. |
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My brother's house was built in the 30s or 40s, and his garage has exposed rafters. Seeing the compound angles on those things made my head spin. No calculators, no phone apps, nothing but brains and skill. It's beautiful. The other notable thing about it is the old growth clear Doug Fir. The growth rings are so close together, and the smell of the wood so pleasant when cut, it amazes me furniture quality wood was used to build houses back in the day. Sorry to hijack the thread. It's even more amazing when you tear into houses from the 1800s and see what was done with all hand tools. The last house I owned up in New England was built in 1854. Some of the joinery of the framing was beautiful in itself. My house had floor joists with double tenons mortised into the center beam and held in place with wooden pegs driven in from on top. The original posts for the center beam were made of wood tree sections. When I bought the house termites had eaten the bottom of all 3 posts to nothing more than powder. Even with no support whatsoever to the center beam, the house only had a 1 1/4 inch sag in the center of the house. |