Old church pew job taught me to laser out every cut

I got hired to redo some antique pews at a Methodist church in Dayton last month and thought I could eyeball the miters like I always do. Big mistake. The pew ends had this weird curve to them and my first two cuts came out a half inch off, wasted a whole 8 foot board. I finally pulled out my laser level and marked every single angle on the pew itself before cutting, took an extra 20 minutes but every piece fit perfect after that. Turns out the whole frame was racked from years of settling, not a single square corner in the thing. Now I run my laser across any old structure before I even reach for my circular saw, especially on renovation stuff. Anyone else found that older buildings are always hiding twist and sag that you only catch with a laser or level? What do you use to check for square on weird old pieces?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

the_dylan21d ago

Man, a buddy of mine ran into the same thing on an old farmhouse out in Vandalia. He kept fighting these cabinet doors that would not sit right no matter how many times he shimmed them, and it turned out the whole wall had a two inch bow in it from the floor settling. He finally started checking every wall with a four foot level and a string line before hanging anything, and suddenly the doors went up easy. That old stuff will fool your eyes every time.

5