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So this video is all about chalk lines
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And if you've used a chalk line before, then you can safely skip this video
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You really don't need to watch this. It's just a basic introduction for people
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who have never used a chalk line before. This is one here. It's brand new
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And the way a chalk line works is that the line, the string inside, gets impregnated with chalk
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And as with any string, you can kind of pull it tight and then you snap it and it leaves a line
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A straight line, as long as you want. That's really what a chalk line does
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It didn't leave a straight line there because this is a brand new chalk line
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that I intentionally brought to show you how it works and the care and feeding of your chalk line
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So if you look inside, you will see that there's a spool in there
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It's full of string, special string, strong, that is going to last a long time
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But also absorb chalk. And here's the way the chalk comes. It's just a powder, a bottle of powder chalk
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You can get it in different colors. Blue is common. Red is common
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Black is not so common. I don't know what they do to black, but it's quite a bit more indelible
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The marks don't come off so well with black. It's a much more permanent thing
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So I'll fill this up in a minute. But before I do, look at how the string goes through this sort of fluffy thing there
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And that scrapes off the excess chalk powder. So it's only the powder that's right in the fibers of the string
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that actually make it out to your surface. So it just keeps things a little bit neater
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And the way this works too is, if I try to pull this out, the handle is going to turn
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I mean you can do that if you want. But most chalk lines are made so that if you press the middle portion
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you're disconnecting the spool inside with the crank mechanism. So you can pull without having to crank the handle
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You can also lock it in position. And you can use this for a plumb bob
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Plumb bob is a way of transferring a plumb position. So when this stops moving, it's going to rest on my bench here
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directly underneath where my hands are holding the string. And sometimes you want to do that
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In the case of finishing a basement, the time you'd want to do that is if you were using the
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basement panels, the kind that require a cleat to hold them on the top and the bottom
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This is described in the course. So you're going to need to have those cleats directly plumb one to the other
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And that's where a plumb bob like this, that's where a chalk line like this would come in useful as a plumb bob
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But most of the time it's a marking tool. And we'll just take a look here in a second
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I'll show you how this fills up here with chalk. So you just kind of see if you can see this here
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Just squirt it basically about as full as you can. And being a new chalk line
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it's going to have to work its way in and around the string. So it might take a couple of fillings before it's behaving properly
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But let's see how that works. So the chalk line is loaded and ready to go
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And as I said, the purpose of it is to make long straight lines
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for you to follow for various things. When you're working in the basement, one application for that might be the installation of these floor tiles
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these sub floor tiles. You're going to want to snap a chalk line on the floor
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in order to have something straight to follow. Because as I mentioned in the course, you can't count on basement walls being straight
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So let's just see. So the string isn't as saturated as it's going to be
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when it gets to be new. But you just kind of hook it over, hold it down
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and then you've got your line. It's not a permanent line, but it serves the purpose
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And it does the job quite well
