Quicker Than a Rafter Square

One advantage of having a hobby is that people have something other than clothes, ties, and socks to get you as gifts. I’ve been playing with wood long enough now that when birthdays and holidays roll by, presents are a little more varied. Recently the Calculated Industries Construction Master IV Calculator 4045 came to me in one of those cute little bags stuffed with colorful tissue paper.

What It Is

Calculated Industries has been introducing, producing, and improving specialty calculators and measuring devices for professionals for the last twenty-five years. One of the trades they service is the home construction industry. This is the latest (almost; see the concluding paragraph) in their line of calculators meant to ease the figuring of things needed to build a home.

One of the keys for the US homebuilder is that it works neatly in feet, inches, and fractions. It also converts cleanly between yards, meters, and most of their subordinate measures. It has all the normal calculator features, including memory. It will certainly add 2 + 2. But it is when the user gets into those calculations that are specific to their industry that this calculator shines. It is complex but not at all complicated to use.

The calculator comes in a bubble pack complete with a magnetic carrying case and a user manual. The button battery is already installed and easy to replace when needed. The calculator uses terms that are intuitive to a builder. Instead of a lot of multi-function keys, the keys are laid out with names like rise and run, pitch and stair, yards, feet, inches. A few keys do have double functions, triggered by the convert button which is color coded to match the extra printing on the body, over the affected key.

Although the functions of the calculator are well thought out and laid out logically on the keypad, the real treat is the user manual. It is sized to fit in the case with the calculator. That is where it should stay. If it does get lost, one is available for download in Adobe Acrobat on their web site. The manual is a well written and well thought out tutorial on the use of the calculator. Going through it once will take over an hour and it should be done. Then it becomes a nice quick reference to lesser used functions and should be readily available.

What It Can Do

To begin with, it can do all the usual adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. It can do this in raw units or in measurement units, either yards or meters. When working in the imperial system, the measurements can be put in, for example, as feet, inches, and fractions of an inch (out to 128th of an inch). The math works in the measure entered and gives appropriate answers. For example if you multiply 2 feet by 2 feet, the answer will be 4 square feet. Multiply the answer by 2 feet and the result will be 8 cubic feet. 2 feet times 2 (no unit) becomes 4 feet.

Pressing the convert button followed by the desired resulting measurement will keep the units right; square feet will become square yards or square meters. There are functions to set the base fraction (the default is 1/16”). But doing this is only the tip of this marvel’s iceberg.

It will quickly and easily calculate the pitch of a roof if you know the run and rise. It will give you pitch in either inches of rise per foot of run or in degrees. Another button will give you the length of the rafter. By telling it the on center distance for the studs it will tell you the length of each stud. If you know the pitch and run, it will give all the other measurements. Most old time construction folks do this with a rafter square. I have seen some that could play a rafter square like a grand piano. This is faster and more accurate.

Need stairs? Give this baby a little information and it will do it all for you. It will calculate the number of treads and risers needed and the length of the stairs and the height. If you put in a riser size and the height the stairs need to span and the length or the stair pitch, it will adjust the riser for an even space and the treads as well.

If you ever need to order concrete or backfill, the calculator will figure out the cubic yards you need and even calculate the total price for you. Need to know how much it will weigh? It will do that too.

Do you work with circles, arcs, or columns? So does the calculator. In other words, the calculator is designed, successfully, to make your job easier, particularly if you are even a little math challenged. It is pretty intuitive once you go through the manual as a tutorial and the manual will quickly refresh the things you forget how to calculate. It is small and easy to carry. The operating temperature ranges between freezing and too hot to work anyway. There is a 30 day money back warranty completed with a one year limited warranty. The warranty even spells out the kind of things not covered. If it fails in the first 90 days, they will pay the postage to return it to you.

I really don’t have any complaints about this calculator. It says what it will do clearly and does what it says accurately. Especially since I got it as a gift, I am very happy with it. I have learned, however, that the Construction Master Pro sells for the same price and has a few more bells and whistles. You may want that one instead.