George's Fingertips - How to Easily Make Accurate Measurements
George VondriskaDescription
You’ve probably seen George lay out woodworking projects using nothing but a pencil and his fingertip. It’s a very fast woodworking technique, and can be very accurate, too. With a little practice and George’s tips on using your fingertips, you can use this woodworking technique, too.
Well, people out there have been asking to see my finger tips, so I wanna show you, this is my thumb, this is my pointer finger. No, what we're really here to talk about are tips using my fingers. So what people are really asking about is this technique that I very commonly do in my shop, and as a result on the videos, where I'm laying boards out using nothing but a pencil and my fingertip, hence the name of this video clip. So here's the deal. I've been doing this for a really long time, and as a result of lots and lots of practice, I've gotten really comfortable with this. And I find it's a really good way to lay stuff out, so I wanna show it to you, but I'm gonna say right now, you've gotta practice this to get good at it, but once you have it, then you're gonna find it a pretty indispensable skill. So here's the deal. Let's say on this board, I want to cut a chamfer on this outside corner, so I maybe gonna do that with a block plane. If I'm doing it with a router bit, I'm not gonna bother laying it out, but if I'm going to hand plane it, I will. So I'll establish the width of that chamfer, here across the top, lock it in with my fingers, with the tip of my middle finger to the tip of the pencil, establishing the overall width of the chamfer, pull that along, strike a line. Now, if it's a chamfer, it's gotta be on the face and on the edge. So then we'll come along and do the same thing on the edge, same thing all the way around the board. Now the key to this, of course, is not losing that position between the tip of the pencil and the tip of your finger. If you do, so I just gave it up there, we can come back, re-establish at an existing line point there, and then we could continue around the board. The thing that I probably use this for the most is finding center on a board. So for that, what I do is just approximate the center from the tip of the pencil to the tip of my finger, let's see if I can hold that board still for four seconds here. There we go. Make a line. Now freeze that, spin the board, make a line. Now depending on what you're doing, you might be done at this point. So for instance, if I'm looking to set a dado head or a router bit to the approximate center of this board, I'm probably just quit at this point. I know that center is about there, it's halfway between those two lines I just made. So I would bring the bit up just below that, make a test cut, check it, raise it if I needed do. If you really want to get a layout line that's in the correct spot, so this is where I ended, I project out a little bit more pencil, go again, spin, go again. And of course, when those two lines fall on the same spot, then you know, you're in the center of the board and we can do with that information whatever we need to, whatever it is that we're laying out. So this is one of my fingertips, and I actually learned this from Jim King, he's a foreman I had in construction, oh geez, a really long time ago, like 30 years ago when I was doing construction for a living. Another finger tip is to use the ever famous folding rule, which I know a lot of you have also commented about, thank you very much. And in this case, what I'm gonna do is get the layout line that I want against the edge of the board. So in this case one inch, then I put my finger against the edge and use that to strike a line. And I can't tell you how many boards I've ripped with a circ saw in the field having done this to get a line established down the length of the board. Working by yourself, it's way easier to do than snapping a line, and you're dead parallel to that edge if you do this correctly. Now again, it takes a little bit of a practice, a little bit of practice to make sure that once you're established at a given dimension, you hold it at that dimension throughout the pass. But it's something that's definitely worth messing with, practicing, because once you get the hang of it, it's a really easy way to lay stuff out. So those are George's finger tips for the day, and I hope you enjoy them. Hope you use them, practice them, you're gonna get good at them and you're going to find that an indispensable skill to have in your shop. You'll have my fingertips with you all the time, which is a little weird, but you know what I mean.
Great with lots of practice but if the edge is straight I find a square ruler with holes for a fine pencil easier for me
I learned this from my shop teacher about 65 years ago. Been using it ever since.
Thanks George. I know you make it look easy but with precise, we can all use this! Sooo much easier and quicker than measuring and snapping a line.
My Jr. High shop teacher (ca. 1963) always did the first way.. Coincidentally, his name was Mr. George. For the second way, I typically use a combo square, which I guess makes it a third way. I just find it a bit more accurate and repeatable
Those are some working mans fingers right there George.
learned a new skill tonight.
Been doing it ever since my dad taught me.....around 50 years ago :-)
Great tips George!
Would any splinters though cause problems with these techniques? I presume you would inspect the piece first......Great tips ! Thank you.