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On today’s show, we’re talking about precision and accuracy in woodworking.
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8 replies on “WT161 – Precision and Accuracy”
A lot of good discussion in this WoodTalk (as always). A really interesting reference regarding how close you would have to measure to get as accurate as “cut to fit” methods is shown in the embedded video.
http://www.bridgecitytools.com/blog/2010/11/02/how-close-is-close-enough/
The true beauty of the story stick is when used with knife lines and being able to “drop-in” to get perfectly repeatable “measurements.” (in lieu of having 50 marking gauges left to a certain set-ups.)
Hey guys, I really enjoyed the format of the single topic and all the advice provided in this episode. I will be listening to this more than once. Thank you so much!
Entertaining as always, but I have to give Shannon some grief for claiming that he doesn’t use any machines. No power tools maybe, but definitely machines. I’m kinda surprised the throw-back hand tool guy forgot all about Archimedes and the simple machines. None of us could get anything done without them.
I get enough crap about being the nerd of the show and using big words without bringing Archimedes into the equation
Screw that…get it? Archimedes…screw…Archimedes’ screw???
Marc has it,
The number one reason I measure some things super accurately, is because I need to be able to reproduce a part if an original gets messed up.
Just catching up after the holidays, and really enjoyed this one. I have to agree that the use of measuring devices with calibrated scales gets less and less important as I gain more experience. Things just work out to a better fit, with less room for error when I gage parts of a joint against one another, rather than against a ruler. Works on repeated parts of a batch as well. Gage once and cuy a bunch!
I wonder if the reason why a lot of newbies (myself included) are concerned about the accuracy of our cuts is because we are often taking our directions from plans that we’ve downloaded off the internet. If the plan says: Cut two piece of 3/4″ plywood to 10 13/32″, there is often a lack of understanding that the plan is malleable, and that actually 10 7/16″ will do just fine if you adjust the plan a little.
Worse that 3/4″ plywood is never 3/4″ (was it ever?), so when it doesn’t fit together I think there’s a bit of frustration. We measure and re-measure and find things are off and don’t have the experience to fix it, or to realise it doesn’t matter.
One of the biggest things I’ve done is to start designing my own projects. At that point you have to be able to adapt to mis-measurements