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Overheard a guy at the lumber yard say he just eyeballs his cuts
He said he hasn't used a tape measure in five years for framing and just marks by holding the board up, and now I'm wondering if I'm overthinking my whole approach after spending 10 minutes measuring each stud.
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parkerrodriguez20m ago
Three inches is a lot. You can't just fudge that with a sledgehammer or some shims. I get that some guys have the eye for it, but that story about the guy messing up a whole wall is exactly why I wouldn't gamble on it. If you're doing a backyard birdhouse or a simple shed, sure, eyeball it all day. But if you're framing a house that needs to pass inspection or hold up drywall without looking like a funhouse, taking an extra 10 seconds with a tape is just cheap insurance. All it takes is one bad cut in the wrong spot and you're buying a whole new sheet of plywood or ripping out a wall. That's way more time than you save by skipping the measurement.
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ross.jason2h ago
My buddy Mike used to work with a guy like that on a framing crew back in 2017. He said the dude would just eyeball every birdsmouth cut on a rafter and somehow it always fit perfect. But then one day he was putting up a whole wall and it was off by like three inches, the whole thing was trash. So yeah, maybe these guys can do it, but most of us are just gonna end up ripping out a lot of lumber if we try to copy them. Are you really saving time if your wall is crooked?
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