“Making decisions based on facts is not easy to do. We all have assumptions and opinions we carry with us every day.” ~ Judy Lindenberger
I make assumptions all the time in my shop. There are frequent incidents that catch me up short and make me aware that assumptions about new tools can be costly, similar to interacting with people. Assumptions about one’s own competence, perhaps dangerous!
For example, quite a few years ago I purchased a well known and regarded Router Table. It appeared pretty solid and serviceable, and yet, somehow, the results have not been spot on during certain applications, especially working thicker stock. Passing stock vertically versus horizontally seemed to yield different levels of accuracy. Well, I just had the dim light bulb go off this many years after it should have: the fence is not square to the table.
A couple of shims and the problem’s solved. I had assumed the fence would be square.
Next, the rip fence on my table saw. After having dialed in with an indicator that the fence was parallel to the blade, blade parallel to the track, etc., there were times when ripping yielded uneven quality and burning when there shouldn’t have been. It turns out that the UHMW surface on the fence tails off at the beginning, so it is not straight along it’s full length. There is now a piece of tape marking where the taper begins and where to avoid placing side pressure on the stock. I had assumed it was totally straight.
The L-N #51 Shoot Board Plane arrived just days before a Hand Tool Event and I wanted to demonstrate with it. Honed it up, set it for a fine shaving, and boom, good to go. But, when it came time to demonstrate, the shavings were too small, and adjusting the thumb screw was ineffective in advancing the iron. Quite puzzling for me to figure out while under the public eye. Again, I had assumed everything was locked down tight, when in fact the frog screws were not.
This leads up to my most dangerous assumption of all: that my head is screwed on right! If it were, then it would seem unlikely that I could glue a stick of edge banding onto a panel without seeing that someone at the mill (where I order the stuff) had written my name in heavy marker on it.
Yes, it was on the side of the panel away from me
and the glued face was what was concerning me, but, I had assumed that the other face would be just fine.
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