Stainless Steel Square

For a few years Woodpeckers have been experimenting with different stainless-steel plate stocks, trying to find one they could machine as consistently as the cast-and-ground tool plate aluminum they use in their Precision Squares. When they found one, they put many of the features of their aluminum squares into the new stainless-steel design, and then added a few more, too. The result is a versatile square, ideal for project lay out work, material and assembly checking and machine set up.

The heart of the design is a one-piece core. Square isn’t determined by pins, rivets, screws or spot-welds like it is in virtually every other square on the market. It’s determined by Woodpeckers state-of-the-art CNC milling centers. The core is machined square by a computer and verified square by their computer-controlled optical inspection system, which is capable of measuring angularity to 5 decimal places. The 1/16" thick blade gets heat treated and tempered ensuring strength and stability. Finally, they’re bead blasted to create a non-glare finish that contrasts nicely with the laser-engraved scales.

Like Woodpeckers aluminum squares, the cheeks added to the central core are narrower, forming a shoulder that keeps your square registered to your stock even when you let go. You’ll love using the new stainless-steel squares for lay out work. First, the scales are laser-engraved to a tolerance of ±.004".  The thin blade puts the scale right next to your work, reducing parallax error. And, we laser cut precisely-spaced scribing notches along the blade. Just drop a pencil into the notch of your choice and slide the square along the edge of your stock. With twin points for each notch, it doesn’t matter whether you push or pull, you’ll get a line perfectly parallel to the edge.

To aid machinery set up, Woodpeckers laser engraved the end of the beam, as well as the edges. The squares stand upright without a hand, giving you both hands to dial in the height of your router bit, saw blade or dado stack.  Also like their aluminum squares, they stand behind these squares for the life of the tool. They’re guaranteed to be within ±.0085°. To put that in perspective, on the 1282SS, the maximum error you could find at the far end of the square would be about half the thickness of a human hair.  If you ever find it outside that tolerance, they’ll fix it or replace it.

Like all Woodpeckers tools, the 642SS and 1282SS Precision Squares are precisely machined and carefully inspected in their Strongsville, Ohio factory.