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Talked with an old hand from the 70s at the lumberyard last week
He said he never used a string line, just eyeballed everything and it all came out straight. Made me wonder if I lean on my tools too much instead of trust my gut.
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jesse9888d ago
String lines are good for long runs but that old timer probably built his eye from a thousand straight cuts. Start trusting your gut on short stuff like crosscuts or single 2x4s where being off a 16th doesn't ruin the day. Your tools are a safety net, not a crutch. Mix the two together - use the string for layout and your eye for the final check. Eventually you'll feel when something is off without measuring.
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andrew_sanchez948d ago
Yeah that part about trusting your gut on short stuff really hits home. I pretty much learned this the hard way on a deck job a few years back. I was measuring everything twice even for a simple crosscut on some PT 2x6s and it was just wasting time. Finally forced myself to just square it up by eye and cut. It wasn't perfect but it was close enough that the next board hid the tiny gap anyway. Now I do the same thing you're saying - string line or laser for the big layout, then eye it for the final cut. Saves so much time. And honestly once you miss a cut by a hair and it still works you stop being so scared of it.
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