Staggered Display Shelves

Woodworking Tip #4: Level Biscuits

Should a biscuit slot not be exactly at right angles to the surface, the desired alignment of the pieces is inevitably thrown off.  Yet often cutting the slot cannot be accomplished easily with the fixed shoe of the joiner on a flat surface.  I solved this problem by gluing a line level on the base of my DeWalt Plate Joiner.  With the workpiece plumb, of course, centering the bubble on the line level gives you a slot cut perfectly perpendicular to the surface without depending entirely on the fence.  This is especially helpful in cutting the slots on, say, the edging piece to a countertop or such.

Woodworking Tip #3: Old Sole Eraser

This seems especially apropos on the day news broke of the oldest shoe ever found, in Armenia.  So earlier this week when my work boot began running off at the mouth I knew this old shoe now had new purpose.  The soft soles of work boots make great "erasers" to clean sanding belts and discs, though you will find that the most any other "rubber" bottomed shoe sole will do the trick too. The shoe pictured is not 5500 years old, but it was just replaced by a lesser old shoe.

Lean Thinking Tip #2: Plague of Cheap Tools

Cheap, frequently used tools should be plentiful and everywhere, never items for which you have to look.  I used to think a work apron would keep such things handy, but inevitably they would be used and left wherever.  Invest in some extras of your favorites and scatter them like a plague around your workshop.  You'll never have to search again.  One note:  if you use multiple measuring tools do check that they are calibrated to one another.