Shawn,
Sorry, I had the wrong view of how you were using the soapstone. Realized after reading this post and re-reading the first one that I had misunderstood.
But, as you mark and the edge of the soapstone wears down, won't the fillet get smaller and smaller as the soapstone fits down into the 'V' more?
Still not sure I understand how you are using the tape measure but if you have something that works for you, great. It's all about getting yourself set up so you get the proper sized welds so the inspector doesn't ding you to fix a bunch of undersized welds. Especially ones that are 500' in the air
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Won't bother to muddy the waters with how I thought you were using the soapstone to mark the edge. But, I still think you will find that soapstone is only 3/16" and I didn't use a mic either
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Just for clarification, I was not and would not challenge your skills as a welder. I misunderstood how you were using the soapstone and still don't understand what you are doing with the tape measure. Maybe you could post a pic for this old man. I always did do better reading the picture books. But your skills were not to be challenged and I know you don't make more of yourself than you are. You are probably better than you realize. Just don't let it go to your head.
To explain myself some and show you a variation of this, while I was teaching my boys to weld I cut them a short piece of 5/16" square bar and had them mark down both sides of it in the 'T'/'V' of the joint for the fillet weld. That gave them lines that were the size they wanted the legs to come to. (I thought you were laying the soapstone down flat and using a second one down the face to mark the leg for the fillet weld. And, whichever thickness soapstone you have, would have been shy of 5/16" by either 1/16 or 1/8).
Brent