On January 27, 2019 at 02:31, Ernie Gilman said...
One day I handed him a random piece of 2x4 that I was using for something and told him to cut another one that size. He got out a tape measure, measured it to the 32nd, then measured out the same distance on another 2x4, make a mark with pencil and square, and cut along the line. He was surprised when I suggested putting one piece of wood on top of the other and drawing a line with the thus improvised exactly right length measuring device.
Where did he cut the next piece? On the right, left or middle of the line? Was the pencil sharp, or dull?
If he only uses that one piece as the standard, he has a limited deviation from that size but if he starts using the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc pieces, the difference between the first and last could be 1/4".
That's the reason stop blocks and guides exist- nobody needs to draw, cut to a line, think.....
The crew who built my house were probably very similar to that 'unreasonable' tech. Flat, straight, plumb and level seem to have been foreign concepts to them.
