Is there a tool that you have in your shop which you find absolutely indispensable that we may not know about its usefullness?
For me, one of them is my push block. I cut it from a 8″ long 2×4. I cut the 1/2″ deep notch with the bandsaw and quickly rounded over the back corner. I keep a half dozen around the shop but find them most useful at the table saw, where it always rides against the fence. It really shines when ripping narrow stock. I raise the blade about 1/4″ higher than the material I am cutting through, then run the stock and push block through, cutting a groove in the bottom of the push block, which carries both pieces past the blade. By hooking my pinky over the lip of the Unifence (when in the vertical position), I can apply enough controlled downwards pressure to rip long boards without any outfeed support. The best part: 10 cost about a buck-fifty!
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
– Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. – Albert Schweitzer
Replies
I'd agree that push blocks don't get the press they deserve. Most are just too plain (unsexy) to attract photo attention from the shoparazzi. I, too, have several of varied lengths and widths, some with sandpaper on the underside, others with file-sharpened brad nubs near the front for lateral grip.
2" X 2" X 12" Gum rubber abrasive cleaner. Has saved me a bunch of money.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 8/3/2008 3:17 pm ET by BruceS
My number one unsung hero in the shop is the trash barrel. Saves so much grief by hiding LN boxes and removes so much pain by swallowing up stock that won't cooperate. Occasionally I'll give it a snickers wrapper to enjoy...
The old screw jar. I don't know how many times I've poured it out to find the one right screw that I needed. I don't know how it does it but it's always full.
And the same goes for the nut and bolt jar.
Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
Mine would have to be my bench mounted disk sander/belt sander combo. It has saved many a box project by sanding down/flushing up everything after the glue up. Makes people think I'm a lot better than I really am...
Just don't tell anyone my secret, ok?
Chris,
My most used and greatest-effect tool is a $15 vernier of 6" (150mm) . It measures to 0.1mm accuracy and therefore allows me to make them tight-fitting joints, cleanly-set stringing and so forth. I must use it a hundred times per project.
"Ah ha! A precision fetishist!!!", Mel will holler, with AC grunting agreement and others smirking at the silliness of squishy wood configured to within 0.1 of anything. True - yet it just costs $15 and a bit of attention to achieve.
Lataxe, semi-robot.
Lataxe,
There are places where a variance .1 of a mm or of a red M&M would make no difference (overall height of a tall chest, for example). There are places where .1mm might make the difference between a good job and a cobbled mess (in a glue line, along the shoulder of a rail and the edge of a stile, a miter) . The trick is in knowing where those places are, and spending the time in getting it just right where it does matter, and not wasting time fiddle-farting where it does not. I have a vernier caliper, and use it with less frequency than do you, I guess, but when I use it, I really look closely at what it tells me.
The hero in my shop is my smoothing plane. Not a day goes by that I do not pick it up to clean up some surface.
Ray
Ray,
"There are places where a variance .1 of a mm or of a red M&M would make no difference (overall height of a tall chest, for example)".
And here was me thinkin' the height of a jenoowine reproduction C18th piece had to be the exact height to the 0.1mm , as well as festooned with 231.7 year age-marks, precisely roughened internal boards and chisel marks of just the right shape.
Maybe I been reading too much of that AC column in PopWW!
I do love to apply the vernier. Perhaps it measures not just the furniture but also my confidence-factor. It's this woodworker's blankey, whispering, "Yes, it's not a bodge" with it's little black lines all matching up at the right numbers.
Lataxe, navigating the planks.
Yes the vernier is great. I especially like how easy it is to center a mortise with it and check spline thickness.
Lataxe,
Ah, well, if you are exactly reproducing that C18th piece, then by default, you are giving up the autonomy to make those decisions on what matters and what does not. All must match the model; even when consistancy was obviously not an issue for the maker, the copy must conform! Even more so, if possible, when performing restoration work on one of those anty-cues. Gotta get inside the head of that old-timer, cack-handed as he was.
Ray
I have a tray with one corner kinda like a mini funnel. You dump a bunch of screws in the tray, find what ya want, then "pour" the remainder out of the corner of the tray/funnel. Got it at the dollar store.
For me, one of them is my push block.
Or is that Pushblocks... I like mine to fit the thickness of the 'stick' I am ripping..
I will take the time to make a new one.. I have a lot of scrap!
Will,
A little shop tip: If you push a pushblock thru the saw along with the stock you are ripping, the pushblock will automatically become the same width as the stock you are ripping. Think of it as a bonus. Hah.
Ray
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