Making a Wooden Try Square Homemade Woodworking Tools

On several occasions I’ve been asked about the plywood try square that I’ve used in a few of my videos, so I figured I would make another one to demonstrate how I did it.

First, I located a scrap of Baltic birch plywood to use and checked to make sure that the corner is square. Normally, the sheet from the factory has a perfectly square corner, but it’s best to check this to confirm.
The first cut is with the blade up high enough to cut deep into the corner. The pencil marks indicate where the inside corner is, so I stop short of that:

The blade is then lowered until it will only cut 1/8″ into the wood. Without moving the fence, I make a cut on each side:

The blade is raised again for the next cut. Again, I stop short of the inside corner:

For these cuts, I let the blade coast to a stop before pulling the wood out.

There is some wood in the corner to be removed. I’m using a very sharp chisel with it pressed flat to guide it as I pare out the excess:

To thin the blade of the square, I’m nibbling the material away using the table saw sled. I’ve left about 1″ uncut at the end to support the work while making these cuts. This will be cut off after I’ve finished:

The nibbling creates a pretty good surface, but some hand sanding completely smooths it:

Branded and a coat of clear finish. Painting it a bright colour is also a good idea, since it will make it easier to see in a shop full of wood:

Making this square is featured in this video: