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Over the last few weeks, I’ve made several posts about measuring tools in the series Precision Instruments for Woodworkers. The purpose of the series is to introduce the idea of precision through establishing standards for accuracy with a few high-quality instruments and to test all of your measuring tools against them. It’s a simple theory: If you start with a few quality tools and make sure the other measuring tools you’ve chosen are tested or calibrated to your standards then you can grab any tape, ruler or square in the shop and trust them.
A big series like this takes a bit of time to put together. Months in the making, in this case. Time spent has been doing research, testing and looking back at personal experiences. Taking on a series like this comes with something of a bonus of sorts. Along the way, I took a hard look at some my own processes and ended up upgrading and changing out a few measuring instruments. For example, I now have more quality calipers than I can practically use. On the plus side, I finally cleaned out all of the unreliable or broken digital calipers that were tucked away in the nooks and crannies of my shop. Unlike the no longer accurate tape measures that I regularly remove from the shop to retire to other home-owner duties, those crappy calipers have been tossed into the trash.
From the writer’s perspective, working on the series brings a certain amount of clarity to own your thinking about the topic. So, I decided to take the series one more step. To that end, early on I decided to create two videos to supplement the online series. The first, a Video Guide to Precision Instruments for Woodworkers is shown above. The post to follow this one will contain a short second video of suggested sets of tools for different types of woodworking.
— Tim Celeski
The Layout Value Pack
Digital Collection
Proper layout is essential to crisp work. This collection includes information on shop-made squares, the most accurate ways to measure using new and old tools, how to measure an ellipse and more! Don’t wait, start making you layout better with The Layout Value Pack download today!
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Additional Resources from Tim Celeski
- All posts on Precision Instruments, click here
- Digital Woodworking on Instagram
- Personal Work on Instagram
- Digital Woodworking YouTube Channel
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
