These small pieces have been cut and labeled from readily available sheets. Having had them for many years, they get lots of use. They are a quick way to assess small measurements without having to stare and dwell over minute ruler values, or evaluate confusing visual input.

The product is TTC PSS5A 14 Piece Plastic Shim Stock Assortment – 5” x 20” Color Coded Sheets.

(Note that I also put a few thicker wooden examples in the upper photo.)

Some practical examples:

You can slide a shim under a straight edge or square to check how much a piece is flat or out of square. Then, you quickly translate the .004” gap to a few fine strokes with the plane.

Similarly, you can assess the sole of a new plane, or a worn wooden plane sole. 

How much gap of the tenon walls with the sides of the mortise? How far off square is a machine blade?

How much edge of a door frame do I need to plane away? (Or, how much did I goof up?)

Assess the amount of a sharpened curve (or accuracy of straightness) in a plane blade. Get the amount of the appearance. You can remember the appearance visually but also keep in mind the numerical amount for future sharpening.

Evaluate the flatness, or an appropriate curve, of a hand plane. Below: checking the desired inward curve of the sole of a Yoshihiro Yamamoto plane.

There are many other uses! The basic idea is numerically evaluating with the shim stock and relating it to the direct visual assessment. You are adding to your perceptive ability in your work.

Added: 

The fine reader points out (see comments) the less expensive stainless metal gauge sets available. I have long had similar ones (see photo below). Yes, they too are effective and handy, though I do not use them nearly as much. Somehow, I like the separate, colored, multiple in every size, and multi-reproducibility in every size for the plastic ones.

Still, you might like the $7 metal ones instead of the $45 plastic set for your purposes. Amazon, of course.

Have my techniques in dovetailing changed? Yes, of course. Many of my shop techniques do indeed change over time. I like to refine, alter, and upgrade most skills.  

For dovetails, I adopted important techniques from the outstanding David Barron. He has 51 videos on YouTube at David Barron Furniture. Many are directly for dovetail skills. His skill and precision are welcoming and enjoyable.

I have used some of his techniques in the past half-year for drawers and boxes. This mainly involves his magnetic saw guide. It makes sawing dovetails easier and more reliable than anything else I have tried. They are available online at Highland Woodworking and at Classic Hand Tools (England). Options available are 1:4 through 1:8, as well as 90° and 45° guides.

With the saw guide, and with some of the steps he recommends, I can dovetail in a more controlled and relaxed manner than ever before. Thank you, David!

By the way, please check the link “Dovetail Guide” at Series Topics on this website for a 44-page mini-book written entirely by me several years ago for the former version of Craftsy. Naturally, as usual, I have changed some of the techniques along the way, but there remains lots of worthwhile material for you. 

So, here is my point: as skilled as you may be, or as much difficulty as you may have, go ahead and be persistent, brave, and joyful in the wood shop. Life deserves it. 

A humidity meter is something you really should have in your shop. The cost is trivial. A thermometer is combined with most of them, as shown above. This one can fit conveniently on the wall with a screw, or stand on its leg, or grip steel with its magnet. It is about 2 5/8″ x 2 1/4″.

As we all know, wood is always changing as the air humidity changes. We really want to be in-touch, especially with wide flatsawn boards. Fittings and alignments will size up differently in a winter day of 35% RH (relative humidity) in a shop up north compared with a summer day of 75% RH.

Simple and useful. Set up one or more.

These wooden dogs grip a work piece using the rectangular openings in your bench top. They are easy to make and better than anything you can buy. I only use the steel ones that came with my bench over 40 years ago for very tall pieces of wood.

For the frame, use moderately dense wood, 6″ long. The side width is just under 7/8″ to fit in the width of the 7/8″ hole in the bench top. The front-to-back width is 13/16″ which works well in my bench. The corresponding hole dimension in my bench is 15/16″ in its full linear width, and 7/32″ greater in the upper 1 1/4″ of hight.

Alter the dimensional figures for the dog construction to similarly conform to the criteria of your bench.

Now plane the bottom 2 1/2″ to taper to about 5/8″ at the bottom edge. To that now-angled surface, screw in a 1/8″ strip (see the photos just above and below) of fairly flexible wood that is 1/8″ thick and 5″ long.

Now glue a piece of fairly soft wood, such as pine, 1/4″ thick and 15/16″ long, to the top portion of the frame, as you see in the photos. This serves as the contact to the work piece. Also, the sideways hole in the dog frame allows you to hang it up near your workbench, if you want.

These dogs will stand securely up to about 1 3/4″ above the bench surface. This covers 95%+ of the needs.

Make a pair, finish them if you want, and you’re done! Eventually, you probably will need to replace the 1/4″ heads. Cut the original off, chisel the service clear, and glue on a new one.

The dimensions quoted herein are based on the dimensions of my workbench as described. If necessary, adjust your building dimensions using the same principles to make the dogs fit your bench.

Wood will not get dented by these dogs, and they grip securely. You can easily adjust the hight of the dogs to avoid bumping them with the plane of other tools.

These dogs work. 

Here is how you can reduce the cost for a sharpening system that works very efficiently. I described the system in posts on 7/10/25 and 7/17/25.

First, let us look at the machine. My Tormek is more than 20 years old, with a 10” wheel. It cost too much but not nearly today’s approximately $1000 for a ten-inch wheel machine, and nearly $600 for an 8-inch.

I continue to recommend an 8” for practical purposes, and you can get this for about $100. I do not really need the leather wheel for most of my purposes but it is included in virtually all models that I have seen.

A CBN (cubic boron nitride) wheel is what I use and recommend. For the 8” diameter, 2” width is handier but not really necessary. And there is no need to spend about $400 on a diamond wheel! 

For about $130. the width is 1 1/2” width, which is quite sufficient. This is 180 grit, which is somewhere about 100µ. Mine is 200 grit, which is about 70 – 80µ. Both are fine.

Ok, we’re up to $230.

Now let’s look at the handwork expense.

As stated in the first explanatory post, I suggest a combo stone with about 45µ/9µ. I still like the Duo Sharp E/C. If you still want to save money, a similarly effective (I have tried it) 400/1200 diamond plate, 8” x 2 3/4”, costs about $20.

Now let’s look at the fine plates. You can pay about $70 for a Shapton Kuromaku 8000. I have used it for years and it is great. It is worth it. But if you want to keep the cost as low as you can, consider an alternative $22 #8000, but I do not know the quality because I have never tried it.

Now for the big expense, which is the finest stone. The Suehiro 20,000 0.5µ, which I have been using for years, is now about $265. The similarly fine Shapton is over $300. So, I suggest trying something that I have not, which is the Proyan 15,000, 0.64µ. It costs only about $46! See how it goes. 

To refine the edge even better, you can add quick work with a 1/4µ and even 1/8µ synthetic diamond compound on a leather plate. (This is discussed at the 7/17/2015 post.) Small cups that last a long time are $16 each.

Ok, let’s add it up:

$100 + $130 + $20 + $70 + try the $46 +$32 = $398 for the whole caboodle.

Of course, you know that Amazon will take you through. 

That is not too bad for an excellent system that I recommend. A family restaurant dinner may be more and won’t last as long. 

This is comfortable, fast work, and very effective. 

Here are three tools worth having.

1.

Mortise Master is a cleverly designed way to use your plunge router to make loose tenon mortises. In other words, you simply make a mortise in both wood parts and then add a separate tenon to fit them together.

Does this mean that it will not be a strong joint? No. We well break down this issue in an upcoming post.

Mortise Master has a clever way to keep the mortises laterally centered on both pieces. Just as easy, they both can be set equally off center, or they can be unequally off sided.

The vertical positions are also readily set. The router’s guide bushing sets in the slide plate which is governed by the two metal runners and limited by the screw-held stops on each side.

Work moves quickly and reliably.

It does have a couple of shared limitations. Like most mortising, there is no dust collection. Routers tend to through lots of cutting waste. Also, you cannot, like most basic mortise setups, do angled mortises. That can be done with the Leigh FMT ($) mortice and tenon jig, which takes a lot more learning to use.

I really like this tool! You can get a Mortise Master now for $230 with free shipping. (I have no business/money connection.)

2.

The JessEm dowel joint tool is just great. I have the common 3/8” dowel version. (I will be discussing the grace of dowel joinery in a soon upcoming post.) This very well made tool is accurate, direct and easy to use. You can make small joints or stepwise reposition it to make longer joints.

It has a great precision line up mechanism.

I cannot find a JessEm discussion/demonstration about using the jig to make the dowel holes across the flat face of the board. However, it is straight-forward and I have done it very accurately. 

Well, I do not think I am going back to my years of using the wooden hole jigs to set out and drill dowel holes. 

3.

Leigh makes bench hold-down clamps that I like better than the longtime traditional curved metal holdfast clamps. I never found that even good quality holdfasts grip well without more than a quick bang to set it up.

The Leigh tool bench connection does not set up quite as fast as the old kind, but once it is set up, it quickly grips on and off the woodwork. You simply move the lever at the top. 

A useful help that I think Leigh should supply at the rather expensive cost of this tool: The “speed nut” that fits underneath the bench top can be awkward in some situations. It can also loosen and even drop off occasionally. I made a simple wood piece (about 3 1/2” long, 1″-square thick) with a full-length hole. A framed nut is screwed into the wood. It attaches to the tool’s long screw at the bottom. It holds fast and well.

I have no business/money connection in any of these tools. They are worth your try!

Woodwork that you put yourself into creating can last a long time and have personal meaning. Consider that these are among the reasons it is worth doing.

Look back at the item from over 60 years ago discussed in a recent post: Still here

My 50-year file of Fine Woodworking magazine is still housed in a large bookshelf cabinet that I made not long after the magazine began. The beds made for my kids over 30 years ago, used by them in their young lives, are still in the house long after they moved into their own.

Now lately these two nifty trucks are for the grandkids. They are not high art woodwork but as personal creations they are meaningful.

Consider this when you work in the shop: personal connections, the joy of your work (usually), and how it may even outlast you. We work with our hands and tools because it matters.

Now a few comments on the kids’ trucks. They are about 14″l. x 8″h. x 7″w. with specially 10 species of nice wood. Practical, rugged, and fun – constructed to take plenty of playing action. The one at the top has a lifting back, and the other has a lifting lid of its back.

So, dear readers, get into the shop, go to work, and consider what is really going on – and enjoy!

Four months ago, I replaced almost all of my Norton sanding discs that I had been using with 3M. There is no contest in sanding speed and efficiency: the 3M wins.

3M Xtract Net Disc 710W Cubitron II sanding discs

A few different sources online that I read in the past 6 months show a clear sanding efficiency superiority with the 3M. More convincing for me is the actual use in my shop. It sands faster and lasts longer.

One quirk that I have with the 3M product is the progression of grit: 80, 120, 180, 22o, 240, 320. I think a more sensible progression is 80, 120, 150, 220, 320, 400, which with Norton. Why is 3M’s 240 between 220 and 320? And why not 120-150-220? I suppose 120-180-220 with 3M is probably fine but seems a bit odd to me.

On Amazon, I found $0.73/disc for a 12 pack of 6 grits, and $0.48/disc for a 50 single-grit pack.

I use the 5-inch discs on the cordless DeWalt DCW210. I attach it with a 1058 Design nozzle whose other end (1 1/4″ inside diameter) I filled inside to allow it to firmly connect to my Fein collection vac hose. I also have a handy power switch near the end of the Fein hose. Virtually all of the dust gets collected! 

I always finish off with fine hand sanding paper (such as 320 or 400) to improve the final look.

I almost like sanding now! OK, I do like it a little bit! But I love the results!