Re: I Crack Myself Up

Posted by Kurt Maurer on Sep 2, 2006

Alan, you can believe it when I say I've learned all about making up two of the same side instead of the mirror-image pieces needed. And no doubt, it's a lot harder to get around (one of the top shop blunders of all time, too). I've also learned to buy pencils by the bushel, and cast 'em all over the shop like a farmer flinging scratch to chickens in a barnyard.

Kurt's Handy-Dandy Shop Tip: Pick a convenient and sacred spot for any small tool you happen to be using at any one time, then make it a hard and fast rule to set it down nowhere else under any circumstances until the job is done, and it finds its way back to the tool locker (okay, so set up a tool locker). Otherwise you spend half the day looking for the block plane, pull saw, or whatever. Unless you're one of those sickos who keeps a neat and tidy shop, in which case you ought to be placed in a home somewhere.

I enthusiastically endorse your philosophy of shop accidents, and in this case, the lesson is to keep the big picture in mind at all times. I got to focusing on lining up the scarf joints for maximum finished beauty, and ensuring flowing fairness... And so I was only looking at the middle third of the job. It was pretty silly not to take the whole thing in when finishing up. Also entirely lamentable not to have taken a picture; where were you when I needed you?

In Response to: Re: I Crack Myself Up by Alan Speakman on Sep 2, 2006

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