Techniques CUTTING SQUARE WITHOUT A SQUARE

ONE OF THE MOST important skills a carpenter learns over the years is training and trusting his or her eye.

And one of the best ways to develop this capability is to cut square by eye. Instead of using a square to mark a 90-degree cutoff line on a board, simply make a quick pencil mark for length on the board, line up a circular saw, and make the cut. Over the course of framing a floor or a wall, this method can save you plenty of time.

If you’re comfortable using a circular saw, it’s not difficult to master this technique. Position the saw with the blade aligned on the cutoff mark and the front of the saw’s base parallel with the edge of the board. As you make the cut, keep the base parallel with the board’s edge. Practice a few times on scrap, check each cut, and adjust the angle of the cut until you’ve got it right. Ir time, you’ll develop a "feel" for square.

MAKE SQUARE CUTS BY EYE. To make a square cut, put the blade on the cut line and keep the front edge of the saw base parallel with the board.

between the rim joists and the interior girders or crib walls in the basement or crawl space of an old house. Stress tests have long shown that bridging provides little extra stability to a floor sheathed with plywood or OSB. My experience is that most midspan bridging docs little except increase floor squeaks.

Blocking between joists, on the other hand, helps stabilize a building and keeps the joists from falling like dominoes under severe lateral stress, such as that generated by an earthquake or high winds. Blocking is installed at the bearing points where joists cross girders or crib walls. On many houses, this is also the spot where joists from opposite sides of the building lap against each other (see the illus­tration at right). To quickly cut dentical blocks with a circular saw, use a jig like the one shown in the sidebar on p. 70.

If you1 re building with I-joists, you’ll need to determine the length of the blocking on the

і

Helping Hand

Call for inspection. Don’t forget to call for an inspec­tion of the joist system, the rough plumbing, and the ductwork once they are in place. Before the inspec­tor arrives, remove all scraps of wood and other organic matter from the crawl space.