Good Morning Friends,

How do you find the center of a board with out a lot of figuring or guessing the exact center of said board?

There's a couple things I do that don't take much thinking.  First off I can measure on a diagonal across the board, say if the board is about 7 inches, find any number you can divide by 2 easily, and measure that diagonal and mark half of it.  The other thing I do is if a board is say about 9.5", I just pick something close, say 5", and measure in that far from each side, then it's usually pretty easy to find the middle of those two points.

Length divided by two, then width divided by two..

Larry

Draw diagonal lines from corner to corner.  Where the two lines meet, should give you the exact center.

 

SQ

 

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It it can't be fixed with glue and sawdust - it's not worth fixing.

Same as Roy! I measure the width from one edge, mark the approximate center, flip the steel ruler around and do the same from the other edge using the same dimension from the first edge mark it and then mark between the two marks and that's the center.

Diagonals work only if the wood is cut square on both ends otherwise you can draw a line square to the edge across the wood at both ends and then draw the diagonals.

I mostly used the diagonal method in drafting.  Getting those guys to find the middle of their drawing area was always a trick to do, but once I got them to try the diagonals a few times it made it a lot easier for them.  The best part was when someone would ask how to find the center to see one of the others go go show them how to do it.  The method works good for dividing a length into equal segments also, 3 segments divide by 3, 9 segments divide by 9.

Mike Dillen said:

Same as Roy! I measure the width from one edge, mark the approximate center, flip the steel ruler around and do the same from the other edge using the same dimension from the first edge mark it and then mark between the two marks and that's the center.

Diagonals work only if the wood is cut square on both ends otherwise you can draw a line square to the edge across the wood at both ends and then draw the diagonals.

Good Morning Folks,

I didn't get to answer yesterday's quiz for the system was down for maintenance and I forgot to come back. Now you all are right with your methods however with the one I use there is no measuring needed for all one needs to do is to take two numbers either even or odd and lay them on the boards edge and the center number will be the exact center of the board.

An example is if you lay the 2" mark on one edge and the 6" mark on the other side the middle number will be the 4" mark or if you use 3" mark and 7" mark the middle will be the 5" mark. No measuring needed.

 

Used it for years with out any mistakes. Thanks for your support.

Sounds like your method is basically the same as mine.  I'm just using 0 as the first mark and picking a number I can divide by 2 easily in my head, and marking that middle point.