Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers tools are for woodworkers who lay out joinery, mark parts and set up machines, and the reason to buy them is that the numbers on the tool are true. The Precision Woodworking Square is inspected on a vision system to thousandths of an inch per foot, and the Edge Rule’s scale is laser engraved to ±.004” total error over its full length. Woodpeckers machines, engraves and inspects these layout tools in its own shop in Strongsville, Ohio.

Woodpeckers is a woodworking tool maker in Strongsville, Ohio, founded in September 1988 by Rich Hummel, who is still its president. It spent its early years demonstrating tools at woodworking shows across the country and began building its own router tables and mounting plates in 1993. Its engineers, machinists, inspectors and shipping crew work under one roof, and the company does its own machining, engraving, assembly and packing.

How the Edge Rule works on the board

Set it on a board and it wraps the edge, with a scale on both legs, so one placement gives you a face mark and an edge mark that agree. The inside angle is slightly acute on purpose: contact lands at the outside edges of the stock, so a planed edge with a little rise in it or an eased corner won’t rock the rule off your reading. Both edges are beveled to put the graduations right down on the wood, which means you mark where you read with no parallax to guess through. That 89-degree inside angle is the detail that earns the price: a rule that sits at a true 90 rocks on any edge that isn’t perfect, and every board that came off a jointer has an edge that isn’t perfect. It also drops into an inside corner already zeroed on the intersection and lined up with the stock.

To find the center of stock that runs a hair over or under 3/4”, mark 3/8” in from one face with the short side, flip the rule, and mark 3/8” in from the other face. The center is halfway between those two marks.

Repeat marks with the Edge Rule Stop

Slide the stop to your measurement, lock it, and mark at the end of the rule. Every piece after that gets the same mark without resetting. For cabinet work, put a stop on each of two rules and set each to a different dimension, so one rule marks the sides and the other marks the shelves for the whole job. Extra and replacement stops are sold by themselves, and they fit only the Edge Rule.

Which length to start with

Start with the 12-inch; it covers drawer parts, door rails and most bench layout. Add the 24-inch when you mark case sides and the 36-inch for long panels, and keep the 6-inch for small parts and setting depths.

What the tolerance is and how to check it

The reason to pay more for a Woodpeckers rule is a number you can check. That ±.004” over the full length is finer than a sharp pencil line, and it is what lets a drawer front cut to a mark from this rule fit the opening laid out with the same rule, with no test cut and no recut. Lay it beside the best rule in your shop the day it arrives and read the far end with a knife point. Woodpeckers guarantees materials and workmanship for the life of the tool.

Keeping the red scale readable

Edge Rules are anodized in Woodpeckers Red, and sunlight fades anodizing until the scale gets hard to read. The high-elevation sun that pours through a south shop window in Montana does that faster than most people expect, so hang them on a shaded wall, away from windows and out of the truck cab. Cold is the other Montana problem for a precision tool: aluminum shrinks in an unheated shop, so a rule or a square that rode in the truck at ten below reads a hair off until it warms up. Let the tool sit in the heated shop an hour before you lay out the joinery.

The Precision Woodworking Square

The 12” x 8” Precision Woodworking Square is the tool to buy first, before the rules. Every Woodpeckers precision square is CNC inspected on a vision system for perpendicularity and scale accuracy to within thousandths of an inch per foot, which is why it is the square that checks the other squares in the shop. Stand it against the table saw blade to set 90, set it against the fence to check the fence, and set it inside a glued-up case to see whether the case is square before the glue sets, because after that it is square forever, right or wrong. The 12-inch blade reaches across a case side, and the 8-inch stock stands the square up on its own on the bench. It comes with a Rack-It, the powder-coated wall hanger Woodpeckers makes for its tools, so the square hangs where it can’t get knocked to the floor.

The rest of the Woodpeckers hand tools

The same Strongsville precision runs through the rest of the layout tools. The Mini Square is the one that lives in an apron pocket for checking small parts and setting a blade square between cuts. The Saw Gauge turns table saw setup into a quick, repeatable reading instead of a tape and a squint: set blade height and fence distance off its scale, and the next time the job comes up, set the same numbers. The Mini in-DEXABLE Center Finder finds the center of a round or a board in one placement, the job that otherwise takes two diagonals and a guess, and the Mini in-DEXABLE Protractor with its 8-inch blade lays out and reads an angle without a second tool; both come with a Rack-It for the wall. The 32-inch Taper Sled rides along the table saw fence with the workpiece clamped at an angle, for tapered table legs and for putting a straight edge on a board that has none, which is most of the rough-sawn lumber that comes out of a Montana mill; clamp the piece down hard and keep your hands on the sled, not the stock.

Beyond the hand tools, Woodpeckers builds router lifts, router tables, the Multi-Router joinery machine and track and stop systems for shop-built jigs.

Woodpeckers Edge Rule specifications

Spec	Woodworkers Edge Rule
Inch lengths	6”, 12”, 24”, 36”
Graduations	1/32”
Scale accuracy	±.004” total accumulated error over full length
Inside angle	89°
Short side	3/8” wide, marks stock as thin as 7/16”
Long side	Reaches 3/4” across the face
Finish	Anodized, Woodpeckers Red
Included with each rule	Edge Rule Stop

Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of woodworking tools does Woodpeckers make?

Measuring and layout tools, sawing and routing gear, drilling and clamping jigs, router bits and saw blades. If you’re buying your first piece, start with a measuring or layout tool, because every cut after that follows the mark.

How do you check whether a Woodpeckers square is accurate?

Hold the stock of the square against a known straight edge, draw a line along the blade, then flip the square over and draw a second line from the same starting point. If the two lines don’t land on top of each other, the square is out by half the gap between them. Do this check the day the square arrives and again any time it’s been dropped, because one fall onto concrete knocks a square out faster than years of use on the bench.

Where are Woodpeckers tools made?

In Strongsville, Ohio, outside Cleveland. Woodpeckers develops, machines, engraves, inspects and ships its squares, rules and layout tools from its own shop there, with the engineers, machinists and inspectors under one roof, and it guarantees materials and workmanship for the life of the tool.

Which Woodpeckers Edge Rule length should I buy first?

The 12-inch. It covers drawer parts, door rails and most bench layout, and it comes with its own Edge Rule Stop for repeat marks. Add the 24- and 36-inch when you start laying out case sides and long panels.