New Tools - Keeping it Square - Bridge City Tool Works

I have needed to really tune up my miter saw, every time I think I have it adjusted correctly it seemingly just falls back out of square. While I have a number of pretty standard squares in the shop; a combination square, a carpenter's square and a speed square just off the top of my head none of them are really good for tuning in the miter saw. At this point I have been taking the combination square apart and using that to try and adjust the miter saw blade to get a nice straight cut and it just doesn't seem to do the trick.

I have admired the Bridge City Tools squares and there was a sale (which is about the only way I can afford these) and I just had a bonus from work so I bit the bullet and dived in. I bought a mini miter square, a small try square and (drum roll) a Universal Gauge Imperial Left (yea, I don't know what it is either but it looks cool and it was half price).

The boxes are worth the price of admission, sleeves and heavy weight boxes inside. The squares are just amazing to look at and feel solid in your hands. Just waiting for an opportunity to get back into the shop so I can use them. 

Just the boxes are impressive

First up is the mini miter square, the extra steel piece is the foot which connects with three magnets and can then be slid from one side to other when flushing up against a piece of wood.

The try square so I know longer need to worry that my combination square is not actually square. It even has a profile for dove tail joints built right in.

And then there is this beast; the Universal Gauge (left handed in this case). You can use it to check angles on just about anything and the protractor is built right in. I'm pretty sure its smarter than I am.

Just need to let the cooler weather pass to get back into the shop.

Winston Churchill - Quotes

I have decided to step out of the comfort of American quotes and bring a few from across the pond. Winston Churchill may well be one of the most quotable speakers of his age. I do try and make sure that the quotes I list have been verified as being spoken by Churchill, just like I did with Mark Twain and John Adams There are lots of quotes out there attributable to famous individuals that have been twisted or just plain made up.

A few shorter quotes from Mr. Churchill

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." 1898

"I object on principle to doing by legislation what properly belongs to human good feeling and charity." 1902

"The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go." 1905

"The usefulness of a naval invention ceases when it is enjoyed by everyone else." 1913

"At the beginning of this war, megalomania was the only form of sanity." 1915

"Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library." 1921

"He spoke without a note and almost without a point." 1931

"France, though armed to the teeth, is pacifist to the core." 1932

"Never...was so much owed by so many to so few." 1940

"If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care." 1941

"We must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic." 1942

"The English never draw a line without blurring it." 1948

"If you destroy a free market you create a black market." 1949

"Nationalization of industry is the doom of trade unionism." 1950

And a few longer ones to feed the beast:

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming o a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."

"United wishes and good will cannot overcome brute facts. Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is."

"In the twinkling of an eye, I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without and appendix."

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

"Danger gathers upon our path. We cannot afford - we have no right - to look back. We must look forward"

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. June 4, 1940

Some of those should get the blood flowing!

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Mark Twain - Quotes

One my favorite writers, Samuel Longhorne Clemens, more famously known as Mark Twain, has a lot to say and his quotes easily relate to us today as they did when he wrote them.

Of course we start off with my most favorite quote:

"Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile."

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read."

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

"Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option."

"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."

"Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most."

"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards."

And wrap it up with one that is perhaps more thoughtful and less off the cuff:

"The government is merely a servant - merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."

Hopefully some of those will make you both chuckle and think!

Cartoon Wednesday