Serious question, how many of you actually use a mirror for layout work?

I was on a job in Gary last week building a new boiler support frame for a grain elevator. Old timer I was working with kept pulling out this little pocket mirror to check his scribe lines from awkward angles. I thought he was just showing off at first but after watching him nail every mark on a 40 foot beam without crawling around once, I tried it myself. Cut my layout time by about 30 percent on that one beam alone. He said he learned it from a pipefitter back in the 80s and never went back. Has anyone else picked up a weird trick like this from someone on site that just made you wonder why you never thought of it before?

2 comments

2 Comments

grantt394d agoRising Star

Did he ever warn you about how hot the mirror gets if you leave it sitting in the sun too long? I learned that one the hard way when I borrowed a buddy's mirror on a roof job and nearly dropped it off the edge. That same guy also showed me how to use a playing card as a feeler gauge in a pinch.

michael_green442d ago

That cardboard trick works too, just check the gap twice.