Tricks of the Trade

Vinyl Blind Lamination Spacers

I saw the tip on spacers for counter-top lamination and wanted to share my idea.  We recently completed a rather large counter and needed a lot of spacers for it.  My idea was to use the vinyl blinds from a cheap window blind.  I was in a hurry so I bought a new 30" blind and cut the strings that held it together.  I was easy to use and clean.  The battens are now neatly stacked ready for the next counter-top job.  I took a picture of the lay-up.

-Kevin Doyle, Doyle Woodworks

Handy Push Sticks

Keeping table saw push sticks handy was a problem in my commercial furniture shop. My solution is to stick a small Velcro tab to both sides of the push stick and one on top of the rip fence. It's a durable and cheap way to be safer.

-Don Kibler

Keep Your Pockets Clean While Turning

When you finish turning that perfect bowl, lamp or hollow form, do you ever have to take your shirt off and shake the shavings out of your shirt pocket?
 
Here's a way to prevent that! You will probably give your head a shake because you didn't think of it yourself. I heard of one woodturner who got his wife to sew a zipper at the bottom of the pocket, but that seems like a whole lot of work to me. Simply stick a piece of masking tape over the top opening of the pocket! When your done turning for the day, pull off the tape and "voila", no shavings.
 
If you like, you could leave a little slit for your pencil.
 
-Allan Cusworth, Langley, BC