As you probably know, Amazon has their Prime Day Big Deal sale going on right now. I came across this DFM woodworking square, which was on sale last time too, and finally realized something.
It’s a small woodworking square, made in the USA, and available in a couple of different color options.
The price seems fair, too.
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And it’s also a center finder?! I had totally missed this!
When you have two pins equidistant from a small hole, you can mark a center line for any straight and parallel-edged piece of wood.
Obviously this is a small square that can only find a center line for small boards, but it’s still a neat relevation.
As it has a thicker depth than some other squares, it can help with machine setup tasks, such as squaring up a table saw blade.
It also seems like you can use the included pins to align the square to your stock to leave perpendicular marks almost as with a saddle square.
The square comes with 2 pins and also has a 11/32″ center hole for marking out your center line.
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The square measures 2.625″ x 1.625″ x 0.625″.
It’s available in black, blue, green, and orange.
Sale Price: $20
They also have this small carpenters square on sale too, for $37. It’s available in black, blue, green, orange, and purple.
The purple one is priced a bit higher, at $45.
Sale Price: $37
Curtis Hibbs
That small carpenter’s square looks exactly like the one I have from Woodpecker. Is that a copycat product, or does Woodpecker actually make it?
Stuart
Different brand, also USA manufacturing. That’s the extent of what I know for certain.
CMF
Are they not both USA manufacturing?
CMF
I may have mis-read…I think you were saying it is a different brand, but it is also USA manufacturing
Stuart
Sorry; it’s a different brand, but like Woodpeckers, DFM tools are made in the USA – or at least these ones.
fred
TSO Products is another US manufacturer that make some items that look a bit similar to things from Woodpeckers. Woodpeckers has a more extensive line of items than either DFM or TSO – but both of them also make some unique items. TSO also sells some of the UJK line from Axminster Tools (UK).
https://tsoproducts.com/products/
https://www.ujktools.com/
Robert
I wish TSO guides fitted Mafell and Bosch tracks.
fred
Another source for some Mafell add-ons is BenchDog Tools UK:
https://benchdogs.co.uk/search?type=product&options%5Bunavailable_products%5D=last&options%5Bprefix%5D=last&q=MAFELL
I have some of their items – that I use with my shop-made MFT tables.
Steve
Thanks for this! Those two sites have some unique stuff that looks affordable.
WildChickenWoodworks
These are made by a small manufacturer in the USA with extremely high quality standards. These are definitely not a low quality copycat of Woodpeckers.
I am very happy with my DFM Toolworks tools!
Jum
Great tools. Great company to deal with.
I have several of their measuring tools as well as a nice cabinet scraper with different radius corners.
They will send you occasional emails about available tools with cosmetic blemishes at very good prices
JR Ramos
I got one of these several years back and I like it. It’s not perfect, certainly not machinist quality, but for general woodworking and woodworking setup it’s fine. Mine was a few thou off and had some odd humps on the inner surfaces near the elbow. I like that it’s wide and stable. The pins are not a snug fit in the holes for for centerline marking consider it rough – compounded by the large hole for the pencil body and lead. Those plastic widgets that Rockler has and that are copied by umpteen China brands actually work better for that if you like the tool style…I prefer a bar gauge or double square. DFM is a good outfit, very small operation, worth supporting. Given that he’s a machinist I was surprised that these small-leg squares would be as far off as they are, but ok. Those new scrapers are great though…glad you posted about those. He had some great looking dowel plates, too, probably well worth the boutique pricing.
KokoTheTalkingApe
I got a factory second version of that center finder. There was an almost imperceptible nick on the body. I’m happy. I don’t know how accurate it is, but it’s certainly more accurate than my woodworking.
If I had a gripe, it would be the packaging, which is just a small but heavy-duty ziplock bag. The two pins just knock around loose in the bag. I wish the pins stowed somehow on the finder body.