Shopsmith Forums

robinson46176 wrote:This post is for you guys that would use a dial indicator while cutting concrete form stakes.
One of my very frequently used tools is a common wooden yardstick. If I was cutting wooden gears for an old clock I would get really fussy about measuring. Most of my work is not like that. Just this week I have been building simple "undercarriages" for storage units like shelves etc. to put stuff up on casters. Nothing fancy and the dimensions rarely matter much other than being fairly close to the same at all corners and the like.
For such things I like to be able to grab a yardstick to measure. Even on more critical stuff I often double check myself to be sure I am playing in the right ballpark and have not caught my late uncle's disease... He always tried to measure everything to the nearest 1/64th of an inch, even linoleum and carpet. The trouble was he concentrated so hard in that tiny measurement that he would get off by a full inch or two. I can grab a yardstick and double check that I am not off a mile.
Yardsticks are getting harder to come by now and you have to double check them when you get them. I once found one that was 1/4" short. Most are quite close.
Earlier this week I took 5 or 6 yardsticks to the basement woodshop and placed them around in various spots. This morning I was hanging an item on the wall of the next room and I went to the shop to get a yardstick to center it (I carry a steel tape but a yardstick is easier to use one handed). Would you believe that the shop absorbed all of them overnight? I could not find a single one of them... I did finally find one and got the item hung then I went upstairs and raided a couple of my stash locations and gathered up 20 more yardsticks. Surely I can hang enough of them around (with a pencil next to all of them) that I will be able to grab one when I need it.

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robinson46176 wrote:... Would you believe that the shop absorbed all of them overnight? I could not find a single one of them... I did finally find one...

charlese wrote:Oh My Francis! I hope this is not the indication of bad omen happening in your new shop. The house we live in has a real bad habit of hiding my wife's sewing/embroidering tools. She has a special place for each of her special scissors, tweezers, screwdrivers,, oilers, etc. Often her sewing room simply absorbs any of these tools from their designated location and hides them somewhere where they should never be.

Glad they have never re-appeared out in my shop!