Nancy Reagan was referring to saying no to drugs. I don’t have that problem. My ‘drug’ of choice comes in a long neck bottle or is distilled from corn mash. Perfectly legal. What I do have a problem saying no to, is paying work.
I’m really grateful for every job that comes in my shop. However, there are occasionally, some jobs that you kind of regret taking. I posted a while back about fiberglassing a concrete form for an architectural column. I already glassed the mock-up, and am now glassing the real form, and it is truly a pain in the arse. The company wants it done yesterday, and the quality of the surface I’m glassing is pitiful. I should have taken a cue from Mrs. Reagan and just said no. Anyway, I did take the job, and I’m trying to get it done and feel good about it. The moral I’ve learned from this is that I can’t be all things to all people, and there is nothing shameful about saying no.
I have another homemade tool for show and tell today. This tool is a magic 8 sided marking device. When fabricating a spar (like a mast), you start with a square section piece of wood that has been cut to the designed taper of the whatever spar you’re making. You then cut that spar into an 8 sided piece while maintaining the taper. Then you shave the piece into a 16 sided spar, and then make it round by eye. Here’s a couple pics of the tool.
You use this tool by skewing it so the ‘wings’ are always in contact with the spar. This way the carefully placed pencil/pen holding holes will mark the lines for cutting the spar into 8 and 16 sided to get you closer to round. I usually use a drawknife to get close to the line quickly, and then switch to a hand plane to split the line. I have a couple sizes for different sized spars because the more the tool is skewed, the less accurate it is. On smaller spars, I usually just go to 8 sided with the tool, and eyeball to 16 sides. This is, of course, nothing I came up with, but probably has been used for hundreds of years by boatbuilders.
By the way, Nancy Reagan is 94 years young. Maybe saying no ,more often, is a life extending activity.