Empire E255IM Heavy Duty Professional Combination Square with Etched Stainless Steel Blade Inch and Metric Graduations, True Blue Vial, 6-Inch

Great price and a great product! I use this guy every sing day at work and it has preformed wonderfully. Very sturdy construction, I love the stainless blade and the writing is etched in nicely.

Great. Just the size needed for 90% of work

Accurate - perfectly square. Very nice to look at. I love the blue bubble. Very easy to read the etched markings. In agreement with another reviewer, the edges are super crisp. Watch out for those! But for a shorty, not really that big of a problem.

The first thing I did when I got it was extend it all the way and check for square. To my surprise it was indeed square! I set it in the drawer and pulled it out about a month after getting it to mark a line 1/2" from the edge of a board. I set it, tightened down the lock and went to work... but the rule fell out. I thought I did something wrong so I put it back and the same thing happened. It would not lock down any where below 2.25" making this tool absolutely useless. Upon further investigation I found the groove that runs down the middle of the rule was made at an angle (or the rule was cut crooked), so no matter how much I tightened it wasn't "clamping" the rule in place. It works fine on metric, but I use standard so that does me no good (although at times I wish I stuck with metric...)

Small, yet big enough for most of my tasks so far (making some furniture). I really love it, though since its my first I cannot really judge it. The only things I don't like is that the little spring loaded locking nut has a tendency to wedge itself at times, or rather that the spring somehow hooks on to the nut and the thing jams. For that one star is deducted. And, the quality of the ruler and its locking pin is not perfect. But, for the price I'd say it's well worth buying. For that matter, I'm buying the larger version of it as well, since I liked it so much, even though I don't really need it that often.

This little square has it all. The numbers are crisp and look like they will last forever. It has a bubble level built in that helps and a little stored pick that can be used for marking your workpiece. I am carrying it in my apron and use it continuously rather than running to the pegboard for a larger unit to check squareness, etc.

This combo square is a nice size. Based on the photo I thought it was going to be larger and chunkier--basically identical to my Swanson combination square, but with a 6" ruler instead of a 12" ruler. It took me a while to figure out the different model numbers, but the letters at the end of the model number indicate whether the ruler has an Imperial scale (I), Metric scale (M), or both (IM). One of the Imperial scales reads in 1/32 increments, and the one on the flip side reads in 1/8" increments. The scribe tool has a friction fit into the bottom of the square. I really prefer the Empire's friction-fit scribe tool over the screw-in scribe on my other combination square. Some edges on the tool aren't actually square or aren't flat, which is disappointing. Over the length of 5", the ruler seems to be square to the 90 degree face when I do the standard test (draw a perpendicular line, flip the square, and draw another line on top of the first). For hand tool woodworking this square is certainly good enough, but I'll have to use it more to find out if it's good enough for calibrating my power tools and setting up cuts.

This is a great little combination square. I use it every day for my work. It's very well made and accurate and the price is unbeatable.