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Ooops. I did a misquote on that second one. I should have said tree, not wood.

dforeman wrote:Ooops. I did a misquote on that second one. I should have said tree, not wood.

A 'square' tree!:D

When I was in Panama (as a teenager) I went to a place halfway across the isthmus where there was a stand of trees with "roughly" square trunks. They obviously grew that way because there were trees of various ages ranging from about one inch square to about two feet square.

http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/panamas-el-valle-de-anton-where-trees-are-square.html

As far as I know this is the only place in the world where one can find "square" trees.

I would bet the lumber from these trees is more stable in varied moisture conditions than most.

lightnin wrote:Whoever built my house in the 40's did not use such tools as a level, square, or plumb.
Doing work on this house is an exercise in illusion to make it look right in it's surroundings.

The first house I bought was built in 1919 from rough (really rough) sawn GREEN beech. Super strong but if you wanted to drive a nail you drilled a hole first.
Some places the plaster was 1/4" thick and in some places it was 1 1/2" thick to level it out. It didn't have a full bath and so I installed one in a back room. It was badly out of plumb and I was inexperienced...
That was where I learned that if your room is not straight, either force it so or at least do not cover the walls with little "squares". I used melamine panels marked out to look like 4" x 4" tiles. It really announced loudly that the walls were not plumb.
Had I ever dealt with such a problem before I would have at least used an unscored random pattern more like a lot of counter tops so there would have been no straight lines to show up the differences.
Since that time I have worked on rooms like that but built the walls out straight and square.


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robinson46176 wrote:The first house I bought was built in 1919 from rough (really rough) sawn GREEN beech. Super strong but if you wanted to drive a nail you drilled a hole first.
Some places the plaster was 1/4" thick and in some places it was 1 1/2" thick to level it out. It didn't have a full bath and so I installed one in a back room. It was badly out of plumb and I was inexperienced...
That was where I learned that if your room is not straight, either force it so or at least do not cover the walls with little "squares". I used melamine panels marked out to look like 4" x 4" tiles. It really announced loudly that the walls were not plumb.
Had I ever dealt with such a problem before I would have at least used an unscored random pattern more like a lot of counter tops so there would have been no straight lines to show up the differences.
Since that time I have worked on rooms like that but built the walls out straight and square.


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Francis, A few years ago a friend asked help to repair a wall in an old house that had lath and plaster walls. When I showed up with numerous wood scraps and wall board shims he looked at me as though I had no mind to loose. He had never seen a wallboard shim. By the time we finished he asked if I could share some of my package. I gave the entire package to him then discovered I couldn't buy them there. When I finally managed to replace them I become stingy with them. Jim

Well, I didn't read all the posts on this but I've learned it ain't broke unless it breaks or unless you check to see that it ain't broke (e.g., tire pressure, oil level, etc.; just because something else didn't break because you didn't check doesn't mean you shouldn't fix it). Tables out of alignment are "broke" even if you don't think so. Fix 'em. A very easy way to align things is with a laser pointer (use 2) one for vertical and one for horizontal (about $10 for 2). Align the main table and then tape the pointers to whatever you want to align. Piece of cake. That laser beam will tell you everything that is not in alignment.