Out of square 45’s

[mike stenson]

Mark carefully, cut with a machine close to the line, and finish to the line with a shooting board.

This is always reliable.

[Bob Jones 5443]

This is always reliable.

For the years when I only used power machines, they were the only way I had to produce accuracy. It's only really in the past few years that it has dawned on me that exceptional accuracy is available with the switch turned off. Now it's my mindset: power tools to get close; finish with the finely honed and polished edge.

Machines are great for coarse work. I will predict that I will never resaw –– or even rip –– anything by hand. Even for small parts, if it needs to be accurate, I'd rather rig something up to hold the part safely and run it through a spinning blade before I fine-tune it by hand.