What was the BEST tip you learned here at the Wreck?

[charlie b]

Or farther up your face

charlie b also see caveat re: mortising chisel stuck in a mortise.

[Doug Miller]

For me, it's a tossup between learning about Lee Valley, and the TS-Aligner.

[B A R R Y]

For me?

I've learned that faffing around is annoying. I now avoid faffing around as much as possible.

[Mike Patterson]

1st - Norm is nuts, do NOT wipe the glue squeezeout with a damp cloth, instead don't get glue on your stock in the first place 2nd - Scary Sharp

3rd - a small electric iron and a touch of water will make most dents and shallow "scratches" disappear as long as the wood fibers aren't broken or cut. And sometimes when they ARE.

Mike Mike Patterson Please remove the spamtrap to email me. "I always wanted to be somebody...I should have been more specific..." - Lily Tomlin

[J T]

Tue, Oct 31, 2006, 8:40am (EST-3) [e-mail] (Robatoy) doth sayeth: For me it was this one:

I'm thinking it was to paint my tools. I'd heard of it before, but had never thought of doing it myslf. Now my sons don't even "use" my tools, let alone "borrow" them.

Borrow \Bor"row\, n. 1. Something your children do with your tools and then drop them where they have been used, or take with no intention of ever returning them to you. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

JOAT If it can't kill you, it ain't a sport.

[onoahimahi]

According to the can BIN is a "high-performance white-pigmented shellac-based primer-sealer"

It also says on the can that "new or unseasoned wood knots may require one or two coats of Bulls-Eye Amber Shellac prior to spot priming with B-I-N."

Instead of amber, I use blond shellac because it is easier to cover with white paint.

Scott

[Bill]

I came here specifically to ask about the TS-Aligner.

It's expensive.

Is it worth the money?

Bill

[CW]

Yep.

[Schroeder]

Cut my gums on a lot of advise on the wreck, but the one that saved me a LOT of work was to use a piece of sharpened copper tubing wrenched into a drill to auger out around a busted brass screw, sets up for a clean plug - thanks again to whoever imparted that wee bit of wisdom (Charlie b..I think...)

Schroeder

[Bruce Barnett]

Depends. How fussy are you about precision? That's the real question.

Did you watch the videos on his web page? It's worth it to do this so you know exactly what you get.

If you want to get an alignment tool, check out the comparisons on Ed's web page. I didn't buy any of the other tools (except for a dial indicator on a stick) but by careful reading, I considered the TS Aligner Jr to be the Cream of the Crop.

(And do they have videos?)

I don't know by name those who makes the alignment tools that the catalogs sell. Having Ed's personal service with any problems on the TS Aligner Jr is worth a lot to me.

[Doug Miller]

I bought the TS-Aligner Junior, actually. And yes, it's worth the money.

[DonkeyHody]

I have the TS-Aligner Jr. and one of Ed's precision angle blocks. I highly recommend the angle block as a companion to the TS-Aligner Jr. Yes, it is a lot to spend for a tool that doesn't make any sawdust, and you won't even use it every day. But it really did add a lot of enjoyment to my use of my tablesaw and my miter saw.

My Unisaw would cut perfectly when the blade was straight, but burned the edges of the wood when the blade was tilted. Ed's gadget showed me that my TABLE was tilted about 60 thousandths front-to-back. A couple of shims under the top, and my problem is solved. Not sure how I would have ever uncovered the problem without it.

A while back I had a project that required a 16-sided barrel-shaped figure (not sure what you call it - a hexadecagon maybe?). If you've ever done this sort of thing you know that the need for accuracy in mitered joints goes up with the number of pieces. I spent about 5 minutes setting the angle on my tablesaw to precisely 22.5 degrees, then ripped all my pieces, confident that they would fit perfectly - and they did. Before buying the TS-Aligner, I would have spent the better part of an hour cutting scrap pieces and adjusting the tilt to close the gaps. Now maybe you enjoy that process of cutting scraps and tweaking the wheel. I did - the first few times I did it. But I'd really rather spend my time on the real thing.

Is it worth the money? It is to me.

DonkeyHody "Every man is my superior in that I can learn from him." - Thomas Carlyle

[jtpr]

You used hide glue in your kid's ass???

Guess it's one way to keep him home...

[tommyboy]

Don't remember who first posted this but I use it every time I begin a session in my shop. Before doing anything, I put 10 things back in their proper place. Sandpaper, drill bits, pencils, whatever

[charlie b]

If you're doing carpentry - probably not.

If you're a Cut To Size, Beat To Fit woodworker - probably not.

If you're doing furniture and need to make accurate cuts, join edges, plane faces, resaw for thick veneer, etc., etc. - using power tools - yes. Accuracy errors for some unknown reason tend to accumulate rather than cancel each other out. Proper tool set up helps reduce the problem to "just" the Loose Nut operating the tools (me in my case). If you want to KNOW that your saw blade is parallel to the miter slot or if you want to KNOW your fence is parallel to the miter slot - yes.

If you want to KNOW if there's run out on the saw arbor or the saw blade, and how much - yes.

If you want to to KNOW if there's run out on your drill press, or a bit in your drill press - yes.

If you want to KNOW if your router table router or a bit in it has run out and how much - yes.

If you want to KNOW if your joiner tables are parallel to the cutter head - yes.

If you want to KNOW if your joiner knives are all the same distance from from the infeed or outfeed table - yes.

And if you're blessed (or cursed) with a sliding table on your table saw and want to KNOW if it tracks parallel to the miter slot - yes.

It's a good tool and for what it'll do - well worth the price. And the customer support is up there with Lee Valley - which is saying a lot.

charlie b

[Mark Jerde]

"Google is your friend."

-- Mark

[Bill]

In a former life I was a tool & diemaker.

Yes. Repeatedly.

Based on several positive responses and the lack of any negative ones thus far, The Ts-Aligner just got added to my wish list. When I tuned my saw last year, I used a toolmakers surface gage with an indicator mounted and riding in a miter slot. I got things to within about .0005" of right ... more than close enough. But it took me all afternoon to do it. I'd like to make re-checking alignment a 5 minute job.

So far, it sounds as if the aligner is the tool to accomplish that.

[Bruce Barnett]

I spend the time to read the comparisons Ed makes to competitive products on his web page. The competition with MasterGage makes interesting reading.

think this gives you better insight into what Ed feels is important. If other other manufacturers made such info available, it would be wonderful for intelligent consumers.

The decision was a no-brainer. I knew I was getting the best product available.

[Patriarch]

tommyboy wrote in news:0q8kk21nsqfcotl6puijgtf6ctamscqqvv@

4ax.com:

That one was a real life changer for me, too. Particularly if my son has been in my shop since I last was working.

Now I can find most stuff pretty quickly.

Patriarch

[Brian Henderson]

Norm isn't nuts, he just isn't the end-all, be-all of woodworking. From Norm, I've learned to avoid his full-auto brad nailer and painting expensive wood because he can't finish worth a damn.

Which is really, really cool and probably one of the most valuable things out there for new woodworkers to learn.