"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
I often use my old eraser shield when I am filling nail holes, especially on unfinished open grain woods. The shield helps avoid getting filler in the grain surrounding the hole.A lot of my old drafting tools come in handy for layout and when drawing out plans for a complex project.
--I had my patience tested. I'm negative--
I started my career as a board draftsman. I’m glad I kept all my tools. Especially the lead holders aka chuck pencils. They make for very precise layout work.
Sharp solves all manner of problems.
That is great improvising with what is at hand.
Another way to hide the nails is to 'blind nail' them > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?232798
Invisible Nails.jpg
It is a little more work. It looks so much better than filler.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Paper plates for holding glue and a disposable glue brush
Blue tape
Chalk
Set of precision shims. I have used these for a variety of datum-surface testing:
1) to estimate (along with winding sticks) how many stop shavings might be needed to remove the last bit of wind in a board that's already been run through the jointer, and has then acclimated for a few days.
2) to fine-tune the hardwood shim for band-saw tenons
3) to assess gaps under a precision straight edge for flatness-checking final parts, my bench, and various surfaces in the shop
4) to run along the fence, to fine-tune the setup for certain crucial table saw or router table cuts
The shims aren't cheap: fifty bucks for an accurate set of fourteen (14) 5" x 20" plastic shims, from 0.0005" to 0.030". (If you're interested, I can tell you where to get them.) But I suppose I appreciate them when precision counts, so maybe they aren't really under-appreciated after all.
Last edited by Bob Jones 5443; 01-14-2020 at 1:26 AM.
Safety glasses
Speaking of chalk, I recently discovered Hagaromo fulltouch chalk at Amazon. (Reputed to be the best chalk in the world, lol) It is wrapped in plastic to keep your fingers clean and it doesn’t have hard spots that cause cheap chalk to skip. Writes so much better, I threw out my Crayola chalk. Comes in colors too.
$7.00/12 or $19.90/72
11F62744-50B3-4732-8AEF-2337FEC74451.jpg
I'm going to try that chalk Mark, thanks!
I'm going to say my veritas stop rule: https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop...607-stop-rules
I find I use the stop rule more often than my rule or square. Anytime I need a precise mark within the range of the tool I use it, especially when making repetitive marks. The edge of the tool guides your marking knife or pencil so there is no issue with a slightly angled tick mark like you can get when you mark using a rule. Also ideal for taking a measurement and then duplicating it elsewhere, like a joint offset or the like, when having multiple things match is more important than an exact measurement. It has a vernier scale so you can read it to a 64th or finer if you need to (admittedly, not often) without the main scale being cluttered with tiny graduations. Of course you can use a combo square in this fashion too, but I find the stop rule easier and faster to use, and it has a wider marking surface.
Incra makes a plastic marking gauge along the same lines that is also very handy as long as the 1/32" stops built into it are good enough, but the stop rule is a much more nicely made and precise tool.
--I had my patience tested. I'm negative--
During my first attempt to purchase one at an art supply store, the clerk was a bit taken aback wondering why someone would be too lazy to just use a pink pearl eraser. When it was explained that for drafting one often has to erase a lot of lines, he kind of got it, but it still took a visit to another store to purchase mine.
If you can get one of the old metal ones they are likely a bit better than the modern plastic models. Even if it is only because they are easer to take apart. A wire to the switch broke on mine and it was a pain to take it apart to repair.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
I keep a stack of business cards handy, they are useful for a million things.
They are great shims! mine are about 0.015-inches thick, so nearly 1/64th inch. I use them to even-up cabinet door reveals for setting hinges. I put one under a saw blade when flush cutting dowels or through tenons so I don't gall the finished surface, they make great clamping cauls. Of course I can write down measurements and do some quick ciphering on them and pick my teeth too! If a board I'm surfacing is rocking annoyingly they'll wedge it up nicely. There's probably a dozen other uses for them, that I've forgotten. Heck you can even hand them out to people so they remember who you are and how to get in touch with you!
DC
Old business cards are great for spreading glue. Mine do not get as much use these days since starting to collect all those plastic credit card sized things that come in the mail.
Those are great for all the things my outdated business cards used to do. They also make a good shoe horn.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)