Now that I have a jointer in my stable (oops, shop — wrong lifetime) I find that a straight straight-edge is of the essence more than before. Problem is, I can’t seem to find one anywhere. I’ve checked all the various edges in my shop that are longer than 28″, none of ’em is really straight. Have bought 2 squares at the hardware store, they don’t really have a straight edge either. So which catalog do I go to — any recommendations?
Ended up setting up the jointer with the edge of a piece of melamine I had layin’ around. Nuts.
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Replies
Starett makes pricey straight straigh-edges- available from Garrett-Wade.
Henry
Lee Valley sells a 24" German made straight edge which is really nice.
My local sharpening shop does knives for the paper compamy and at a certain point they are no longer suitable for the paper folks so they can grind a flat on the knife edge. Accurate to within a few thousandths a foot and usually priced about $50 for a four footer. I used to work on machines for a living so already have a four and six foot Starret and these check out to be just as good for a fraction of the price. Levels and other so called straight pieces of metal cannot compare to a precision straight edge or reground paper knives in my opinion or experience. Straight edge should be 3/4 the length of jointer bed for minimal optimum use. That and a $5 feeler gauge and you are golden.
Rick
I was told by more than a few top notch machinists that extruded aluminum is very close to dead on- went to a local metal supply house & got a 3/8 x 7" x 12' chunk for less than eighty bucks, made a 3' & a 9', dead on til I buggered one edge.
only drawback is you prolly will have to buy the entire length
Edited 8/2/2002 6:40:31 AM ET by gb wood
Thanks for this tip too! There's a salvage and surplus place over in Seattle that probably (prolly, LOL) has some of the extruded aluminum a little less expensively than new. Pacific Ironworks I think it's called. Great idea.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I too have a new (to me) jointer, and the fellow I bought it from helped with delivery and set-up. A 1920's 12" Am. Woodworking Machinery Co. piece. He had a "blade" from an old steel operation, about 6', that had been ground dead-on straight. Very heavy (100 lbs. or so). About the size of a smallish 2 x 3. He kept in a wooden case to protect it as he uses it for set up on many old pieces, which is his buisness. Any idea where I could get one of these?
Call the paper industry and sharpening services. Paper knives aren't as good a steel as my Starrett but if I knew then what I know now I'd never have bought the Starrett but I can't complain...paid for itself and the nice thing about the paper knives is I can get them reground pretty cheaply
Thanks for the tip rsl! I'll check around the Seattle-Tacoma area and see what I can find.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Check Boeing's yard, they might have something suitable
Another good idea -- I've been looking for an excuse to go over and tour Boeing's surplus! forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hey FG, I have heard that you can make a perfect straight edge from nothing other than a router with a single fluted straight bit! Perferably one that use to have two flutes. Yea, that's it, you start at on one end and ... finally you end up in Hawaii looking for a Boeings Plant, unless of course you use to be an engineer (like me) and have a compass. LOL, I am still lost!
God bless.
Edited 8/3/2002 10:23:01 PM ET by B9
Edited 8/3/2002 10:24:19 PM ET by B9
Fair call,
I was part of an off-the-topic post - my apologies.
f_g, If the melamine is stable and set the jointer up well enough, is this the straight edge you are looking for? I have my reservations though - depends on the substrate.
Alot of good ideas through this thread - perhaps call a local engineering shop and ask what they use for a straight edge or where they buy them? Maybe they have a worn shear blade from a metal guillotine that is true, just at the end of its working life and destined for the scrap bin.
Happy hunting,
Eddie
Edited 8/4/2002 4:33:12 AM ET by eddie
Tooooooo funny! forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
YUP...I'm convinced. You need to go over to Boeing and check out there used stuff. I hope Boeing is not like here at Locheed Martin where we have all those fly boys in jump suits to distract the distaff....lol
Start early and take a packed lunch -- and a big truck!!
I'm pretty much w/Sgian on this one. You don't need a perfect straight edge to set up a jointer. Just set your knives to a small straght edge that will sit still on the outfeed table. This can be a small square, block of wood etc. (Granted these most likely will not be "perfect"). Set the knives so that they all "kiss" your straight edge from one side of your table to the other as they swing through the top of their arc. Do this quickly without worry or sweat of perfection at this point. All you want here is an equal kiss from all knives across the width of each knife. If you put a small mark on your straight edge to reference the kiss to you will be more accurate here.
Once this is done, and you're sure everything is tight and ready to test, joint a piece of wood on edge to start with. If, as you slowly pass the wood over the knives, the wood "bumps" the outfeed table, you'll need to lower it. If, as you finish your cut, the wood "drops off" the infeed table making a "sniped" cut, you will need raise the outfeed table. By making a few test cuts like this, you will be able to tune in your jointer to "perfection".
Test cut two pieces of wood about two feet long or longer, and put the two edges together to check the fit. Flip one board end for end and check again. If you see a void in the middle of the joint, the out feed table needs lowering(unless you want a small void here for a "sprung" joint- I don't). If there is "snipe" at the ends, the out feed table needs raising.
That's all there is to it. Writing it down makes doing it seem more difficult than it really is. Even if you use dial indicators, perfectly perfect straight edges and on and on, maybe even three straight edges to be sure that straight is straight for sure... You will still need to make test cuts to be confident that when you need to flatten or straighten WOOD,you and your jointer are up to the task.wb
I think you missed something WBWOOD1. A straight edge is not needed to set the knives but is indispensable for making sure tables are flat and coplanar. A straight edge provides me with a reference to make sure of just that. As a person who gets paid by local woodworkers to fix and tune machines I have to be sure that everything is set properly and in a timely manner as it's their bucks. The jointer pictured here had tables that were 1/8" off. Sure I could have gotten it close with a level or cut off piece of metal but I get paid to be dead on. Most of the people probably don't even know how accurate their machines are set. I used to go to a lot of schools with planer feed problems and believe it or not half the time I fixed the problem by cleaning the bed and waxing it and I could have milked the job but that's not my style. I'm in partial agreement with Sgian on the intuitive way of keeping up machines but that's something that comes with lots of practice and usually more prone to ones own machines. It's a lot different to go to a shop where they can't explain what's wrong. They just know it's not working like it's supposed to. Most woodworkers I know just want to work the wood and dread even changing knives.
Rick
I understand your point. And it's well taken,however, I think Forrest Girl was talking about setting up her new jointer. Initially I would make the assumption that a new jointer's tables are parallel to each other, and simply proceed with that assumption. If, after setting the knives, there was some kind of problem, I would then take another approach. Like if it's new, call the service tech.
Personally, I have owned several jointers and as yet have never had the tables enough out of plane to cause any problems. I've probably just been lucky, but that's my story...
Your situation is specific. You are hired to fix problems. You come in after a woodworker has tried everything he/she can think of and calls you. Like I said, I can see your point.I just find it faster and perfectly accurate to set knives and check the setup without fussing about with perfect straight edges and so forth. Why,if a particle of dust gets under the edge and you don't notice, you're bust anyway. When you test cut the wood you will see what you really have. At least that's my most humble opinion. wb
I'm enjoying the different perspectives on this process, so no criticism here, just clarifying my situation.
While I've been able to get a fairly decent jointing set-up with my little piece of melamine, and some common sense to assist, I still appreciate rsl's advice and information. Since I bought this jointer from a surplus/scratch-'n-dent place down the street from the Jet factory in Auburn, I have a limited amount of time to identify any problems with it, and checking for co-planerness (co-planarity, co-planicity?? LOL!) is one of the things I need to do. I don't have enough actual work on real wood to do right now to be jointing too many test pieces.
I'd also like to have a straight straight-edge to check my new planer with, and lots of other things in my shop as I'm setting up. I've gotten by without one so far, but am getting irritated at the lack of a reliable straight edge.
Besides, I figure if many (maybe most?) people use a dial indicator to set their jointer knives when they change or sharpen 'em, using a straight edge that might have a 64th or so deviation is really not going to do it!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forest Girl,
Please don't misunderstand. I guess I've just never needed anything that straight. Anyway, if you want one, you should have one. That's what I say.
I just haven't found this to be necessary for me. Somehow I've been able to muddle along without so far.wb
How does one find such a service as you provide where i live RSL?? It would be worth my bucks to be able to get back to work quickly..Thanks
I'll second BigO's question (specifically for moi, in the Kitsap County area of Washington) -- I was able to line up the Jet service guy for my contractor's saw, but he wasn't real enthusiastic as most of his work is done on multi-thousand-dollar machines at lumberyards and millworks places. Would love to find someone who likes to work on the little stuff.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I learned how to do it so I could take care of my stuff. I wasn't going to be at the mercy of an expensive repair service that wasn't even as good as I was. Typically repair guys get travel time as well as miles. Imagine paying a guy to come 500 miles. Plus in the shops and factories it sure beat doing the mundane stuff. I knew that you were talking about table alignment and not changing blades as some surmised. I'd still check out new jointers the same way as a reconditioned. I've owned 6 jointers and had table issues with 3 of them and one was a new 6" Powermatic. You can't imagine how some folks pick them up by the tables and there's still plenty of instances of bad castings. I have seen jointers come all the way from Italy and get plunked down in a shop and they are perfect but I have also seen the crate look perfect but the machine is trashed but still fixable. A good straight edge will pay for itself in just a few instances...especially when your friends find out you have one. I paid $250 for my 6' Starrett and considering the Oliver 16" jointer only cost $1750. Of course both tables and fence were warped so off to the grinding shop they went. I wish I knew about the paper knife thing back then but you know how that goes....20/20 hindsight.
Yeah, 20/20 in the rearview mirror is wonderful stuff. "If I only knew then...." I'm old enough to appreciate that!
Actually, the straightedge will be used for both blade and table alignment, as it'll be a little while before I get a dial indicator.
Hope to get some sawdustmaking done this week, but it's touch & go. Relative in hospital for the second time in a couple months! forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Blade alignment????? A straight edge is good for checking tables for warp and alignment. Of no use in blade alignment. I can show you how to do the indicator for cheap with a $15 indictor from Enco and a block of wood which will suffice for jointer blades.
Well, sounds like you need to get word to the people who write the owner's manual, and the authors of various magazine articles and books -- all of whom illustrate checking blade height using a straight-edge positioned on the outfeed table and extending over the cutterhead, checking both left and right sides of the cutterhead, to make sure the knives at the top of the arc are exactly the same height as the outfeed table.
Not as good as a dial indicator, for sure, but a pretty standard procedure from what I can see. Or am I misreading your post?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
There's straight edges and there's straight edges. When I think of straight edge it's a 2' to 6' piece of precisely machined metal. Straight edge to set the knives usually refers to a 6" steel rule. You can even use a piece of wood. Don't tell me you been talking about the little kind all along???!!!
"In the beginning...." I guess I was envisioning a 24" to 30" straight-edge. Sounds like that's longer than I need for blade setting, but too short to check the tables with. Then there's the planer set-up. Ohhhh, making sawdust is so complicated (tongue-in-cheek). I think I'll go for a 24" straight-edge, a dial indicator gadget of some kind, and not worry toooooo much about the tables being co-planar -- so far there's no evidence there's a problem, as the few jointing episodes have gone pretty well.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
If you want a straight edge to align your jointer, I recall a FWW article about two years ago that showed how to make one. It utilized two sticks with three screws each. I think it was in Issue 142 (May/Jun 2000) but maybe someone else knows exactly which issue.
Every machine tool supplier will have straight edges for sale. A local family owned distributor has been very helpful when I needed dial indicator, metric drill bit set, straightedge, ... Might also look at http://www.reidtool.com.
FG,
Many moons ago I bought an aluminum "yard stick" to use as a rule on my bench. I didn't use it as a straight edge; I figured it wasn't accurate enough even to prepare edge joints.
When Lee Valley came out with their aluminum straight edges, for not much money, I bought a forty incher (is 'incher' a word? If it isn't, it ought to be). They guarantee it to be within a very few thousandths for its entire length.
Yesterday, as I had both laying on my bench, just for fun I butted the two edges together--just to see how far out was my yard stick. Yup. You guessed it. I couldn't fit my very thinnest feeler gauge between them anywhere. When I held them up to the light not one photon got between them.
Live and learn.
Alan
Alan, you must have been having a very lucky day when you picked up that aluminum yardstick! Way luckier than me, anyway.
I think we can declare incher an official word here at Knots. "incher (n.): an object having a length equivalent to a preceeding number (applied as an adjective), in inches: "The best ruler I have is a 36-incher, made of aluminum."forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I think its an incher if its a jig....if its a fixture, its about 3 feet....:)
Alan,
The fact that two edges match perfectly is no guarantee that either is straight! In fact, there are two equally valid conclusions based on the fact that they match:
1. They are both straight
2. One is convex, the other concave, exactly complementing each other.
The only way to resolve between the 2 equally likely possibilities, is to compare them both to a third edge.
The results of such a comparison will have only 2 possibilities:
1. Each of the two edges will perfectly match the third edge. Such a result means that all the edges are perfectly straight. There is no other valid conclusion - if #1 is concave and #2 is convex, both cannot match #3, no matter what its edge configuration.
or
2. Either edge #1 or #2 will not match #3, in which case you know that one of them is curved. You then take the two that do match, and compare them to a 4th edge, etc.
Standard machine shop technique.
Rich
Edited 8/2/2002 3:59:36 PM ET by Rich Rose
Rich,
I bow to your superior knowledge; and I realize your post was meant to be informative and not critical. But...
The Lee Valley straight edge was forty inches plus a little, and my yard stick was thirty-six inches plus a bit. When I butted them together I slid them as far as I could past each other while maintaining a reasonable area of contact between them. Same result.
You may be right that one's convex and the other's concave; but I think it would be one incredible (as in not believable) coincidence if one was exactly the same concavity along its entire length AND the other was exactly the same convexity along its whole length AND the two arcs were exactly complimentary. (Besides, I checked the LV straight edge on my 30"x 10"x1/2" piece of plate glass.)
One other note. There comes a time when you just have to believe. At some point there's nothing to be gained but ulcers, gray hair (more gray hair) and no time actually working with your tools if you need constant reassurance that they are spot on. How many times must you check one rule against another, taking into account the temperature, the differential expansions rates...before you simply decide that they agree and get back to work. So I choose to believe my guaranteed straight edge is actually straight. Experienced blue water sailors will tell you that many navigation errors occur simply because the sailor didn't believe the compass (the now legendary Flight 19 comes to mind).
Again, thanks for the information.
Alan
Alan,
Use whatever comfort level you like. Sorry that knowledge is annoying to you. Didn't mean to upset you. No it is not unbelievable that two edges can appear to match along their entire length and neither is straight.
I was only describing routine, day-in-day-out machine shop procedures. If machine shop techniques seem too exacting for your workshop, do whatever you like. Facts are facts.
It is usless to rely on a straight edge without knowing its true condition. I described a process that is usually needed once, only occasionally later. Now you know how to select a truly straight edge from all the ones hanging on the dealer's wall. Isn't that reassuring? Think all high-priced edges are straight? Think all high-priced squares are square?
"Experienced blue water sailors will tell you that many navigation errors occur simply because the sailor didn't believe the compass "
Funny you should use that analogy, because i was going to use the same one in my first post. . . and didn't.
Experienced sailors never go to sea with one compass, nor with two. Always three. When one doubts a compass, (you don't think that they get damaged?) that is a horrifying sensation and it is worthless to compare it to a second compass. If they differ, which is right? A third comparison is a must. The two that agree are right. Odd man is out.
Have fun.
Maybe I've been hanging around woodworking machines for too long, and know their idiosyncracies too well, but I've never owned such a thing as a 'straight edge', nor a metre rule, or anything else called an 'incher' in the last twenty five years of hacking wood. But sure as hell if my surface planer (jointer) isn't doing the job it's supposed to do, i.e., get timber flat and square, I have a darned good idea as to what's wrong, and I fix it. It could be my technique for one, and I've never needed to be guided by engineering principles, nor engineering tools to work out what's out of whack. There again, in my opinion, winding sticks are useless-- I can see just fine that the frame or cabinet assembly are in winding, thanks-- it doesn't take a genius--- and if you can't see that the board you are about to plane is cast, warped, and in winding without relying on engineering type tools, then you might just need to think about finding another profession or hobby. Woodworking is a mixture of technical competence, educated guesswork, and a sort of art. It certainly has little to do with conventional engineering. Slainte, RJ. RJFurniture
RJ,
Yeah, winding sticks are pretty crude and are not needed. OK. But you don't rely on engineering principles? Really? Hmmm. I doubt that.
Got a cabinet saw? Like how dependable it is? Accurate? Repeatable? Smooth operating? What do you think the engineers and machinists relied on to make that puppy? A lick and a promise? Why is a Powermatic so much better than a current Delta or any other "lesser" saw? Absolute adherence to the best engineering principles.
We could use any piece of machinery that allows us to function as craftsmen in this field to illustrate that point. If you use no metal tools, then maybe you could insist that your work avoids reliance on engineering principles. You are simply a step away from them, but they are integral to any modern woodworking activity.
Yeah, I can set up my saw without my machinist's square. And I could check the parallelism of the blade to the miter slot without my dial indicator and machined slot and rider. But why? When such principles, tools and methods make our life easier and relieve us of the tedium of cruder methods, to devote more energy to fine work?
My style of work relies on very high precision. Y'know, I could prolly dispense with every precision instrument, but two - a true straightedge and a true flat surface. With those alone I could set up my jointer, saws, bandsaw, planes and drill press to a very high degree of accuracy and be assured of flatness and squareness of my stock to a degree too fine for me to further measure - and I need that.
So those two instruments need to be "perfect." But why should I limit myself to just those when the existence of other instruments of precision (and the machine-engineering thinking process behind them) are also available? What is gained by eschewing engineering accuracy?
You are fortunate that you have the innate ability to achieve the degree of accuracy that you need, apparently without a reference point, (um, edge). Some rare musicians have perfect pitch. The rest of the symphony needs the reference of A440 to properly tune their instruments.
Rich
Edited 8/3/2002 3:46:00 AM ET by Rich Rose
Hi Rich,
Hope that the 3:30am on the message was Pacific time, not Eastern time. I was logged on and saw both drafts of your reply to Sgian - agree with your changes in wording.
I agree that the better machines are those whose construction is of better quality and are built to closer tolerance. Goes without saying.
I have had a wide ranging exposure in work until family commitments led to a change to teaching - for five years I was the plant technical assistant in a steel mill. Often, at 3am, with the mill stopped and all and sundry pressuring for a restart, the fitters, engineer and myself would all be crawling through 1/4" of grease that smelt like tom cats, looking for the one error in alignment of 1 thou or less over 5' width that was producing sub-standard steel. Quality in this instance depended upon this degree of accuracy.
When I was at tech doing the cabinetmaking trade qualification, my instructor often said: "give it up - stop chasing ghosts & looking for errors of 10 thou when the bloo*y thing's going to move by about that much anyway ... ... ... this is cabinetmaking, not engineering.. ... ... you're being too fussy .... ... ...". Eventually, I saw his way of thinking. As well, good trade practice dictates that machine marks are removed by scraper or plane prior to finish sanding - this introduces more deviation from flatness and 'inaccuracy'.
I would say that for work to be judged 'accurate', the tolerances used (= quality of work) are different for different trades.
At the end of the day, the way I see it, quality depends on two things, the customers' demands and fitness for purpose. If anyone meets this, they have 'quality' work according to this definition.
Additionally, the attitude of the cabinetmaker to their work determines how far above the minimum acceptable benchmarks the piece of furniture ends up. This, I believe, is the main difference between a 'tradesman' and a 'craftsman' (no gender bias intended - pls don't read any).
Personally, I'm with both you & Sgian on this one - I don't go "chasing ghosts" any more. Woodworking is a mixture of technical competence, educated guesswork, and a sort of art.
However, I still rely on straight edges, feeler gauges, etc if I need to realign anything. That's my personal background, experience and training.
The 'masterpieces' of furniture on display in museums most certainly were created by artisans using tools with misalignments and tolerances that would have probably been massive by today's standards. Wooden planes out-of-flat by 20-40 thou, etc...
I suppose I look at it like a game of golf ... All that counts at the end is the result, not how you got there.
To each his/her own.
Peace,
Eddie
ps: Sgian, Are you Richard Jones? Had a look through the website - excellent work.
Edited 8/3/2002 6:45:54 AM ET by eddie
Eddie, Alan, RJ,
Agreed.
Eddie, I live in Hawaii. There's a 6 hour difference to the mainland East Coast. We have no Daylight Saving Time. When that stops on the mainland, the difference is 5 hours.
Rich
Yes eddie, I am. Can't deny it. Slainte, RJ.RJFurniture
Well now my computer's working again, I'll contribute a bit more. It seems my intentionally provocative post did the business and elicited some good discussion Rich. Of course I follow some engineering principles-- I don't want my furniture to collapse on itself, yet at the same time I'm not making an 'engineered' item, such as a ball race, or an engine with things like pistons, and cylinders and crankshafts, so I don't chase the 'ghosts' that someone mentioned. I'm a furniture maker, not an engineer working in things like metals and plastics and other composites, and I'm not the kind of furniture maker that relies on the kind of computerised precision machinery used by wood product panel processing companies, e.g., some kitchen cabinet manufacturer's in something like a 50,000 sq. ft. factory.
If one or both of the jointer tables is drooping towards the end, the board being cut usually pivots at some point resulting in one end being cut light or there's a rippled effect. If one or both tables sag towards the cutter, the middle of the cut will be light or missed usually resulting in a convex shape; in either case, or in alternative table misalignment problems, a straight face or edge can't be formed, and the poor performance of the machine and resultant misalignment is hard to miss. This does assume the worker is using good technique in the first place.
I've usually found a straight edge cut from a longish piece of MDF or ply on the sliding table saw adequate for checking out how badly misaligned the jointer tables might be. Cutting two pieces of MDF on the saw is handy for checking one to the other that each edge is straight. It's the same technique I use for checking that two solid boards prepared for an edge joint with a hand plane are slightly sprung where I slide one edge against the other to see where and what gap forms. True, the MDF strips and the technique aren't engineering straight-edges, but with a bit of practice it seems to have sufficed. Slainte, RJ.RJFurniture
RJ,
Glad your computer is working. (allowed you to get some real work done, huh?)
Mine also doesn't work from time to time. I've opened it up, taken my machinist's square to the CPU, used my micrometer calipers on the video card, applied my straightedge(s) to the data bus. I dunno, they always seem to measure within specs. And still the beast doesn't run. A good swift kick seems to do the trick.
Cheers
Rich
A big kick? That's seems to be the ticket Rich. I don't use more force. I just grab a bigger hammer. It's either that or I try to apply intelligence, ha, ha. Slainte, RJ.RJFurniture
Phil,
Jeez!
Simmer down.
Knowledge is not annoying, threatening, or unsettling to me in any way. I wouldn't visit this board--or any other--if it was. I'm sorry you misread my post. Look again and you'll see that I first wrote that I knew your post wasn't critical, but was passing along information. Read farther and you'll see that I thanked you for doing so.
My gratitude was and is genuine. How well I know that teaching can too often be a thankless task. The veracity and usefulness of a teacher's exposition is too frequently questioned, misread or countered.
Is it possible that you replied to me when you meant to reply to someone else? Otherwise I really can't see why you got so upset from my post.
All I was trying to say is that I think it extremely unlikely that my straight edge isn't straight enough for the purposes for which it will be used; and I gave my reasons. Is it possible that it's not straight enough? Certainly. Likely? No.
BTW. Be wary of generalizations. I know lots of blue water sailors who don't carry three compasses. Some of them don't carry two! I know a very experienced sailor who sailed to every corner of the Pacific with only one. In the interests of anthropology, archaeology and adventure there have been a number of voyages undertaken to demonstrate one thing or another, where the vessel carried NO compasses: the journeys of Ra, Kon Tiki, and a voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti and back come to mind. I've done a lot of sailing around California's Channel Islands with only one.
But how many compasses sailors or aviators ought to carry wasn't the point. The point was that there gets to be a point of diminishing returns; sometime, somewhere you have to stop testing and simply rely on the instrument, be it a compass or a straight edge. And secondarily it can be extremely counter-productive to disbelieve and begin to second guess your instruments, be they compasses or straight edges. (Again: the aviators of flight 19 almost certainly lost their lives because the SOP thought his compass was wrong. He led them east when they should have been headed west).
Alan
Alan,
Who's Phil?
I assume that you were replying to me in your post which wondered whether I were replying to you . . .or . . .
Anyway - straightedges or compasses. That's my story and I'm sticking by it...
Rule of sea faring: Always take two of everything. Except a compass. If you are going to take a spare compass don't waste your money on a second. Take one or take three. If you are left with only two, throw one overboard and rely on the remaining one and every bit of sailing ability that you have to get home.
Peace,
Rich
Not sure what the rest of the posts are I didnt read them.
Try the Tru-Grip clamp "n" guide tool from Griset Industries. It comes in several different lengths. Norm uses them on his show. I use them in my shop. The 56" runs about 40.00 and they have a 96" also.
Hi,
I have used a paperhanger's straightedge for many years, and it works like a charm. Mine is a 7 footer, so I can lay it on my jointer and the straightedge is longer than the jointer, so guesswork is eliminated. Paperhanger's straitedges must be straight since they have to cut through several feet of a given pattern at a time. You cna buy one at any paint store that serves professional painters. An 8 foot straightedge is about $65. You can cut it up into shorter pieces if you want. They are also available in shorter lengths.
I enjoy your messages,
Bob
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