Nothing heavy or Earth-shattering today - no deep meanings or discussion of severed fingers like last time - just some random thoughts on woodworking and the shop life.

While working together a while back a friend referred to a "skill saw." He meant circular saw, of course, but he belongs to a generation that genericized the brand name "Skil" long ago and have been calling circular saws that ever since. Know anyone who still calls them that? Do you?

They say, "Measure twice, cut once." I say, "It doesn't matter how many times you measure if you can't remember what you just measured long enough to make the mark in the right spot."

Speaking of which, if you do measure wrong but measured it too long, you might actually get a chance to cut a second time.

I've been seriously thinking about adding a window to my garage shop. Before I can construct the window I'll first need to deconstruct part of the wall. Does that seem right to you?

We're finally coming off the most uncomfortable summer in memory, with 90-degree weather hanging on till just last weekend. It's finally starting to get comfortable here, and my shop is a delightful place to be right now. No heat, no cold, just right.

I've stated hundreds of times here that there's no such thing as scrap, and I believe that firmly and irrevocably. However, I'm beginning to believe that there just may be such a thing as too much scrap.

On a related note, I just finished a project that was incredibly clamp-intensive. In fact, I used nearly every clamp I had. But the thing of it is, is that I had enough clamps.

Woodworking is the only activity where you can say, "I just finished my project, but I'm not done yet," and make perfect sense.

I can always tell it's been too long since I've been in the shop if my wife starts piling things that need to go into the attic on my table saw.

I sure do miss Norm.

Till next time,

A.J.