Looks fairly innocuous doesn't it?...it's just a lump of sprung steel, almost exactly the right size for a convenient straight edge and it's even got a hanging-up hole in one end.I thought so too when I picked it up from the last place I worked as everyone else seemed to be using it as well, so I lobbed it into the back of the motor and thought no more about it.
I found a place for it on the 'Tool Wall', hung it on a pin and have been using it as my bench straight edge for around the last ten years, thinking, as you do, that it's bound to be straight...
Stupid boy!
It wasn't until I came to 'check' something I was doing the other day where I was slightly puzzled when the piece of wood appeared convex one minute and concave the next...what the hell was going on! Eventually, being of relatively sound mind I put two and two together and by some miracle managed to arrive at four.
The bloody straight edge, so called, was bent like a banana!
In the pic above, it's positioned on the table saw, leaning against the crown guard. The little yellow disc that you can see around half way down is a 1mm brass spacer which will almost, but not quite, fit underneath! Faced with thoughts of impending doom and wondering how the hell I'd ever managed to make something straight for the last ten years, I reckoned the only way out was to literally pay penance at Axminster last week...
...and get hold of a couple of really top quality Veritas workshop straight edges. Fortunately, I only had to pay my penance into the coffers at Axminster, rather than submit to other delights...
1 comment:
You've still been doing unnecessary penance, Rob. I bought an Axminster own-brand straightedge a couple of years ago, and it's been great. No need for the Veritas-shaped dent in the wallet after all!
Sorry - had to be said really.
Simon.
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