# Finding Dead Center



## cfm (Nov 4, 2004)

Heres is a tip I came across from a link in one of the posts:

I believe this is a tip from Better Homes and Gardens - Woodworking. A user suggests:

Finding the center of a piece of stock 9" wide is easy for most of us - 4 1/2" would be the center.

What if the stock were 9 11/32" or 9 7/8" or any other odd deminsion?

Measure across the stock on an angle to the nearest, greater even dimension (in this case 10 "). Find the center at the 5" measurement.

Done
Comments Appreciated
Hope this tip helps
cfm


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## reible (Sep 10, 2004)

This is a good hint! 

A lot of us just have used this for years and yet we don't even think of posting it as a tip. I sure a lot of people especial “beginners in woodworking” will find this a big help, but let me expand on it a little more:

Let’s say you wanted to take and divide that 9 7/8" board in to 3 equal parts...... or 4 parts??????

To do 3 parts move the ruler to the 12" line and mark at 4" and 8" to do
4 parts, again the ruler to 12" and mark at 3", 6", and 9"...... I’ll let you do the 5 parts (hint: go back to the 10” mark)

Now wasn't that fun?? Come on give it a try!

They also make rulers with a center 0 point and scales going both right and left see attachment 1. (In case your wondering if you hit your finger with a hammer it still hurts and you get this spot on your nail…..I hadn’t done that in a long time so I had to test it last summer)

They even make a tape measure with a full scale on top and a half scale on the bottom so you can find mid-way very easy. I don’t have a picture but if you want to see I’ll take one.

Ed


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