The 1/8” Rule - Carpentry Tricks and Tips

Cutting with efficiency is something I’m really digging into lately.

-

The trick is to get away from the tape measure, speed square, and pencil. Making sure to not set the saw down.

-

One of these tricks, is understanding the ‘1/8 Rule’.

That being the cutting tooth of the blade is an 1/8” thick.

-

Knowing this, I was able to pull my tape once. Mark all my measurements one time. Making sure to add an 1/8” to each proceeding measurement after the first. Allowing me to never set my circ saw down once cutting begins.

-

On the deck I’m assisting with for @peachstateprecision , twice I used this trick to get stacks of blocking out, and keep the amount of steps to a minimum.

-

Tip to assist, I don’t think there is any shame in using the Construction Master Calculator for when measurements get funky. On the 8” blocks to catch the picture frame boards, I just added 8+8-1/8”, hitting equals after each mark to get my next measurement.

Or ‘burning an inch’ on your marks, for when you have multiple different measurements. Like I did in the video for the 4x6 blocking.

Cutting 4x6 blocking for a deck built in Athens,GA. A 10-1/4” circular saw was used to complete this task in one cut.