I’d like you to meet my two best helpers, without whom I’d probably never get anything done.

These two guys have taken many, many different forms over the years, but when it comes to being indispensible in the woodshop, nothing tops them. Never met them? Here’s a photo:

That’s Quick on the left; Dirty on the right. No, wait, maybe Dirty is on the left. They’re like twins and I can’t tell them apart. This particular incarnation of Quick and Dirty came about when I laminated a 12’ countertop. The hardest part was finding a place to spread contact cement on a 2’ x 12’ sheet of laminate. Nothing in my shop is that long, and the floor was out because my knees voted against me. (They vote individually, and always win shop elections.)

My new assembly table is 7’ long; great for assembly, but not so good supporting 12 floppy feet of sticky laminate. So I grabbed my shop stool and started stacking scrap on top till the height matched my table, then glued and screwed the scrap together and clamped it to the stool. Then I did something similar with my rolling clamp/tool caddy. Behold, the birth of Quick and Dirty. Or maybe Dirty and Quick; the resemblance is uncanny.

The big difference between this Quick and Dirty incarnation is that I’m making this one permanent. That assembled scrap stack on Quick (Dirty?) is just clamped-on, so I removed it and slid it on a shelf. Meanwhile, I’ve decided to deepen the height of the tool bin atop the rolling caddy to make it table height. Now whenever I need a supporting hand for long items at the assembly table, these two guys will be ready to go.

Of course, since these guys are now permanent shop fixtures, I’ll need new names for any future incarnations. I’m thinking maybe “Jury” and “Rigged.”