Precision Instruments for Woodworkers is a 4-part series. I’ve been working as a furniture maker for quite a while, now. Along the way, you refine your processes, develop techniques and create a lot of habits over time. Certainly, an important part of working professionally is to work efficiently —you learn very quickly that time is a fixed asset. You also learn that you have to work accurately. There are good reasons for this. Precision is not just about pride in your work, it brings serious benefits. If your measurements aren’t dead on, somewhere down the road, you can bet that it wille back to bite you with a serious mistake. Don’t ask me how I know this. Working accurately starts bymitting to use accurate measuring tools. After a few early hobbyist mistakes caused by old rulers and measuring tapes that didn’t agree, I started seeking out accurate measuring tools and have never looked back. Like every woodworker, I rely on the tools in my shop, but none more so than my me... See full list on Every woodworker uses tapes and rules. So much so, that we often take them for granted. We shouldn’t. If you’re not using accurate measuring tools, or have been lucky so far, that’s when big problems start to happen. Now, luck might work in some woodworker’s favor, but I don’t trust any mark, position or setup unless I know that the measurements they’re based on are made in a consistent manner using accurate instruments. Given the choice between luck and accuracy, I’ll take accuracy every time. Getting to a high level of trust is not so simple. The first step is finding accurate tools you can rely on. Like many woodworking processes or techniques, there are different ways to go about this. Rather than do this in a grand manner and consume vast quantities of time and energy to test everything in sight, I prefer to keep the process simple and direct. So, here’s how I qualify and select my measuring instruments. See full list on When ites to measuring tools, I take the reference approach. I start with a set of high accuracy squares and rules and use them to verify all my other measuring tools and for tool setup. When I began woodworking as a hobby, I did what a lot of woodworkers do: I turned to machinist tools with a solid reputation. I started with a few, key Starrett tools 12” and 6”bination squares. The 12” is over $100 and the 6” is around $70. Yes, they’re a little pricey but whether you’re a professional or amateur, I’m here to tell you tha I’ve used them for over 20 years, they’ve also proven to be an excellent investment. No, those cheap ones you can buy at your neighborhood home center are not the same. That small Starrett square has been li 1997. The larger one lives on my workbench. I depend on these tools all day, every day. That makes it easy to rmend them. If you’re unfamiliar with the brand, Starrett has a well-... See full list on It’s important to qualify your measuring tools, test and establish standards in your shop. You can’t just randomly rely on various measuring tools around your shop and hope for the best. You have to test them. Mixing precise tools and imprecise tools around will drive you crazy. Every tool and setup has to agree with each other. That’s why standardizing is critical to every shop. The only way to do that is to start with a few high-quality tools, use them as your standards and test your other tools against them. For measuring — with a few new additions I’ll get into later, I use my Starrett squares and rulers as standard setters. Makes sense. Using my highest quality and trusted tools, I qualify and regularly test every measuring tool I that I use in the shop. Testing is particularly important for measuring tapes, squares, straight edges, and rulers as these tools take abuse in day-to-day use and can be less accurate over time. Having a standard makes the process easy. You just n... See full list on
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