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The speed square angle that fixed my corner brick work in Akron
Been laying brick for about 11 years now and always fought with corners pulling out of plumb. Last month this old mason walks by my job site in Akron and just says, "You're holding that speed square wrong for a 135 degree corner." He showed me how to mark the return angle off the pivot point instead of the edge. I tried it on my next two corner leads and I'll be darned, the brick sat back true on the first try. Every corner I did before took at least one extra course to correct, now I'm saving maybe 20 minutes per wall. Anybody else get handed a trick like that from a stranger on site?
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wyatt_mitchell261mo ago
That old timer probably saved you a whole season of headaches. I had something similar happen with a framing square down in Columbus, this roofer just watched me fight with a hip rafter for ten minutes before he walked over and showed me to read the measurements off the short leg instead of the long one. Felt like a dummy but man did it click after that. Funny how those little tricks that take two seconds to show end up being the ones you use every single day after. You just don't get that stuff from watching videos or reading a manual. It's like the old guys are holding the real secrets and they only hand them out when they see you struggling. Now I always let the old timers watch me work for a bit before I ask for advice, just in case they decide to drop some knowledge.
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