EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR Donald B. Peschke

Cutoffs
A
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Douglas L. Hicks
MANAGING EDITOR Richard S. Peters n inner voice. Over time, many So I decided to cut extra-long pieces
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tim Robertson woodworkers develop a voice to provide a better, safer grip when
ASSISTANT EDITOR Phil Totten that “speaks” to them about routing. Then after I was done, I’d just
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mark A. Williams safety. It occurs whenever a hand tool trim the pieces to length. Nothing mind-
is picked up, or a machine is turned on. boggling here. Just common sense.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ted Kralicek
ART DIRECTOR Cary Christensen
TAKE A STEP BACK. Usually it hap- THE SCRAPS. But what about those
SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR Kurt Schultz pens when you’re getting ready to scraps? It seemed a real shame to pitch
ILLUSTRATORS Will Niskanen make a cut on a small or narrow work- them into the trash can. After all, there
Roger Reiland piece. And just as you reach to turn on was a perfectly good sliding dovetail
Mark Higdon the power, something inside tells you to cut in them. That’swhen it hit me. By
PHOTOGRAPHER Crayola England
stop and take a step back. You begin to head of the marking gauge
sliding the
DESIGN DIRECTOR Ken Munkel wonder if there isn’t another way to onto the long cutoff bottom piece, it
SENIOR DESIGNERS Jan Hale Svec make this cut — a safer way. would make a nice beam compass.
Kent Welsh All it would take
It’s ironic that
SHOP MANAGER Steve Curtis
most of the crafts- would be a couple
SHOP ASST./FACILITIES Steve Johnson
men I know who Develop an inner voice of holes and a sim-
CIRCULATION have hurt them- about safety listen to. . . it ple pivot point.

Circulation Director: Liz Bredeson Subscription selves in the shop The resulting tool
Manager: Phyllis Jessen Circulation Analyst: have heard this
every time you hear it. ended up as two
Rod Cain Newsstand Sales: Kent A. Buckton
voice. And unfor- tools in one — a
PUBLISHING SERVICES

Manager: Gordon C. Gaippe Graphic Artist:

tunately (for one reason or another) — marking gauge and a beam compass.
Cheryl L. Cynor chose to ignore it was late
it. For some Not only that, when I trimmed the
CORPORATE SERVICES in the day. make this last quick
“I’ll just top piece to length, I ended up with a
Controller: Robin Hutchinson Accounting: Laura
cut.” And for others it was, “I know this cutoff that could be used as a spare
Thomas* Bookkeeping: Julie Greenlee Production
Manager: Carol Quijano Info. Services Manager: isn’t safe, but I’m experienced.” head. Instead of holding a pencil, I

Joyce Moore Elect Pub. Coordinator: Douglas LISTEN. The secret to developing a drilled a hole in this spare head to ac-
M. Lidster App. Specialist Linda Morrow *
Support Assistant: Nick Thielen Admin. Assis-
voice like this is simple. Listen to it cept an X-Acto knife. Now I can score
tants: Cheryl Scott, Julia Fish Recept.: Jeanne every time you hear it. Even if what a line on a workpiece. And even cut
Johnson Building Maint..: Ken Griffith
and arcs
you’re doing is something you’ve done circles posterboard for pat-
in
a thousand times before. Maybe there’s terns. (For more on this, see page 12.)
PROJECT SUPPLIES
a loose knot that you didn’t pay atten- CUTOFFS. Just as I find it hard to
Marketing Director: Robert Murry •Ait Director:
Cindy Jackson Fidfillment Mgr.: Valerie Wiese * tion to. But your subconscious did. And discard little bits and scraps of wood, I
Catalog Products Manager: Bob Baker •Inventory ifyou make the cut, the knot could ex- also find it difficult to throw away tid-
Control/Prod. Manager: Mark Mattussi • Project
Supplies: Linda Jones Tech. Support Jeff Janes
plode and cause an injury. bits of information.
Recept.: Cynthia Kerman A SIDE BENEFIT. In addition to keep- There are always a number of inter-
CUSTOMER SERVICE ing all your fingers, there can be (and esting “scraps or cutoffs” that don’t
Supr.: Jennie Enos Cust. Serv. Reps.: Jennifer often is) an unexpected side benefit to make it into the articles in an issue. The
Murphy, Joy Krause, Sara Kono, Anna Cox,
Kristi Andrews, Lonnie Algreen, Karla Cronin being safety conscious. A good example inside story on how and why a project
SHIPPING DEPARTMENT of this is the Combination Layout Tool or jig was designed —
like the Combi-
Supervisor:Nancy Johnson Fulfillment Gloria shown on page 12. nation Layout Tool.
Sheehan, Don McVey, Chuck Carlson, Sylvia Carey
It started out as just a simple mark- But I feel that the story is worth
ing gauge. Two short pieces of hard- telling. And so just like those scraps in
ShopNotes ® (ISSN 1062-96%) is published bimonthly
March, May, July, Sept., Nov.) by Woodsmith Cor-
(Jan., wood held together with a sliding my shop, I save the “Cutoffs” from the
Grand Ave., Des Moines, IA 50312.
poration, 2200
ShopNot es ® is a registered trademark of Woodsmith Corp. dovetail. When it came time to rout the articles in each issue, and they find a
©Copyright
rights reserved.
1994 by Woodsmith Corporation. All
dovetail in these small pieces, some- place here. That’s how this column
Subscriptions: Single Copy, $4.95. One year subscrip-
Two years (12 issues), $35.95. Can-
tion (6 issues), $19.95.
thing inside me said it was unsafe. ended up with its name.
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2 ShopNotes No. 17