The best craftsmen don't measure like others do

Some time ago I did a tutorial on how to read a tape

measure

, which seems to be a lost skill among more recent generations, but that's another topic. In that video, I explained how to quickly read

measure

ments as fine as 16 of an inch and how it is Released. I have received several comments asking why I stopped at 16 and ignored 302 and 64 of an inch. One reason is the fact that few tape measures show such fine increments, but the main reason is that I don't measure anything that fine, certainly not. For me, the 16 inch project pieces are fine enough for many outside the US and our fantastic Al Liberia millimeters are fine enough for most woodworking and carpentry tasks, but wait a minute , they say look at how big a millimeter or 16 of an inch is. inches is that big if that's the closest you're trying to get to a proper fit plus or minus a full 16 you're not doing a very precise job you're just a hack you should close your shop and give your tools to someone with better standards and also You're fat when someone says something like that to me.

I think it's safe to assume one of two things: they see a lot more wood work than they actually do or their experience is limited to this modern era that is full of digital tools where wood is measured to the thousandth of an inch as if it were a much more stable material like metal or a good hard cheese. I'm here to tell you that you can build the finest furniture with drawers and other parts that fit like pistons in a car engine without using increments finer than millimeters or 16 of an inch not 30 seconds not 64s anything beyond that this is because that the entire premise of the argument that fine work requires fine increments is flawed.

A ruler with 30 seconds or even a 64 ruler is no more accurate than one with only quarters or even just inches, in the same way, a ruler with millimeters is no more accurate than one that is 16 inches or barleycorns or any other scale, as long as the scale is consistent from An end-to-end ruler is only as accurate as your ability to see the lines on it and place your marking tool on those lines to make a measurement to a part of the project, so when I say I don't need anything finer than 16 to do fine woodworking I don't mean that I accept an error of plus or minus 16 of an inch.

I simply want to say that I rarely measure project parts that don't fall exactly on one of the 16 marks on my ruler, in the same way my European friends rarely measure project parts that don't fall exactly on one of the millimeters of their rulers now. , how can that be? It's simple, this is not a machine shop, we don't design furniture that measures 24 and 1732 by 32 and 1164, you will never find measurements like that on a project plan despite what people who like to make fun of them may think. our fractional system, if I design a board, it could be 24x 32, some of the parts can even be designed using quarters or 16s, but that's it.

I don't normally use finer than that for designing projects, it's really no different to someone on a metric system, they can make something 60cm x 80cm, they can even go to 602mm by 86mm, but they're not going to design a 62.2mm and 86.3mm table there's just no reason to do it unless it has to be an odd custom fit in an existing space, but what about that, while the overall dimensions of a project may not be less than 16 inches or millimeters, some not? Some of the individual components of projects need to be further refined to achieve a perfect fit, but that's where many people get fooled by our modern FC with ultra measurable precision, thinking that woodworking is all about measuring and then cutting a bunch of parts and then put them together, but that's not how woodworking works, unless you want a lot of errors introduced into your project, take a simple box for example, let's say I want this box to have exactly 12 squares, now I could measure, mark and cut my The first two sides are exactly 12 inches, but the top and bottom pieces that go between them must take into account the thickness of the two side panels, so the total width will be exactly 12 inches now if I use perfectly one thousand 3/4 thick.

In stock, the calculations will be easy. I subtract 3/4 and 3/4 for the two sides and get 10 and 1/2 to get a full 12, but what if I'm using metric plywood or I bought thicker material material or wood that I could have had exactly 3/4 inch thick when the Home Center put it on the shelf, but it has gotten a little thinner as it dries, more than likely the distance between my sides isn't exactly 10 and 3/4, they could be 10 and 233 seconds or 10 and 45 64 or if I really want to end up with a box that is exactly 12 wide in total, I might need 10 and 89 128 between my side panels, these are ridiculous fractions.

Of course, if I tried to measure and cut to that, all sorts of metric onlookers would fall out of their chairs at how silly our measurement system really is, but we don't actually use those fractions in woodworking, we certainly would. I'm not trying to measure and cut something like that, if I want the box to be exactly 12 inches wide I'll just take a rough measurement and then cut the bottom panel a little wider than necessary. I'll put it in place between the two sides and check the overall width. If it's not already 12 inches, I'll trim that bottom panel a little and test the fit again.

Maybe I will. two or three times until the box is exactly 12 inches wide, then I'll cut the top panel to match the bottom panel and ended up despite needing an odd size for that top and bottom panel. I never measured anything in 30 seconds or 64 seconds. or something Now, if I decided I wanted something inside the box, like a back panel, I could even leave the ruler aside. Instead, I would place a slightly larger panel over the opening and mark its size directly from the project. That back panel itself may end up being really strange, like the dimensions go to 302 or 64 or t of a millimeter, but you may never know its exact size because it's irrelevant, it was just the size directly from the components that made it.

They surround and then cut to fit between them. That's why carpenters typically don't use scales finer than 16 of an inch and we certainly don't use crazy fractions of an inch any more than a metric carpenter would use small fractions of a millimeter, we don't design furniture that way. and when we need a fine custom fit, we don't get it by squinting at the fine markings on a machinist's ruler and then transferring that to our workpiece with our number two pencil, we are fitting the parts to the size they need. Now, something really interesting. I can plan some of my things by hand, but I do most of my milling with machines and I upgraded those machines, particularly my jointer and planer to helical cutter heads, years ago, and it completely changed the way tools work .

Quieter dust collection is better, surfaces are smoother and have no lines or breaks even on really difficult woods. Honestly, it may be the

best

investment I've made in a long time, so if you want an aftermarket head for your older model. machine, you should consider pulling the trigger now and you definitely should on my wood cutters.com. They are a small Canadian company that deals in Shelix and Titan Lux bird clipper heads. These are the

best

out there, in my opinion. I got my first wood splitter head I don't even know how many years ago and since then I've put half a dozen of them into different machines.

I trust Stefan and his team because they know what they are doing and can guide you in choosing the right head. they can help you get measurements if you need to make a strange tool, they can help you do the actual upgrade on your machine, and they don't go away if you need their help in the future - something that unfortunately seems common when purchasing from another source that you wouldn't consider anywhere else for a substantial purchase like this. If you want to check how much a helical carbide cutter head will cost for your joint or planer, use the link below this video and tellywood Cutters.com.

I sent you until next time