Wood – How to select a good Triangle (Speed square?)

My dad has a Multimaster and it's truly awesome.

Like any tool, there are jobs it is good for.

There are quite a few tasks I've found where it would have been really useful - mainly in repairs and renovations, where you aren't ripping out whole floor boards or walls or anything. Those are things where a reciprocating saw, jig saw, circular saw or even a dremel tool (a cutting wheel is always the wrong angle.) won't work well.

He used it to cut out windows of my daughter's playhouse after we put up the plywood walls, and it doesn't do a great job on long cuts like that - he was cutting blind from the inside along the studs and the cuts aren't perpendicular to the sheet (but it's covered with trim).

You don't say what saw you used to cut the wood, but if you use a tenon saw you should get a cleaner cut in the first place that requires less sanding. This is because the saw has finer teeth for a smoother cut and a stiffening spine that means you get a straighter cut.

Clamping a second piece of wood to use as a guide is another alternative.

Alternatively you could use a plane to remove the excess wood - but make sure that you clamp a piece of scrap wood to the end of the plank to avoid it splitting:

------> direction of plane
+---------+---+
|         |   |
|    ^    |   | <- Scrap
|    |    |   |
|    |    |   |
  direction of grain