Patent ID: 7958645

Claim:
A universal framing square for use in constructing compound framing systems of equal and/or unequal pitch, comprising: a) a planar body member comprising first body indicia on at least a first face thereof, wherein the first body indicia comprise: i. a first body scale incremented in tenths of a unit of measurement, ii. an equal pitch rafter table comprising decimal calculations and/or angle calculations provided in columnar format in alignment with each unit of measurement, and iii. a number associated with each unit of measurement and indicative of the equal pitch rise to which each column of the equal pitch rafter table applies; and b) a planar tongue member integrally formed with the planar body member and oriented within the same plane at a 90 degree angle from the planar body member, the planar tongue member comprising first tongue indicia on at least a first face thereof, wherein the first tongue indicia comprise: i. a first tongue scale incremented in tenths of a unit of measurement identical to the first body scale unit of measurement, ii. a first unequal pitch rafter table of decimal calculations and/or angles provided in columnar format in alignment with each unit of measurement representing the rise of an unequal pitch ratio, wherein the decimal calculations and/or angles apply to the specific pairing of each unequal pitch ratio with a fixed front face primary pitch ratio, iii. a marking of a front face primary pitch ratio to which the decimal calculations and/or angles in the first unequal pitch rafter table applies, and iv. a number associated with each unit of measurement and indicative of the secondary pitch rise to which each column of the first unequal pitch rafter table applies and wherein a selected indicia on the first body scale and a selected indicia on the first tongue scale simultaneously align with an edge of a framing member forming framework of equal and/or unequal pitch such that marking along the blade of the body and/or blade of the tongue the position for cutting the framing member in accordance with a value determined by the unequal pitch rafter table and/or equal pitch rafter table requires no additional trigonometric calculations.