How to steady tools on wavy workshop floors
You rarely find a garage or basement with a perfectly smooth and flat concrete floor. And for most of us, that's the workshop floor. If you move your equipment around at all, you can spend a lot of time trying to steady it in each new location. Buy a package of pine shims (the kind lumberyards and home centers sell for installing windows and door jambs). Drill a hole in the thicker end of each shim and tie a loop of twine through it. Hang one of these modified shims on each piece of equipment. From now on, when you move a tool, you can steady it instantly by sliding the shim under the wobbly leg.
--Michael Tamarkin, York, Pa.
Flooring Options
Shims are some of the most useful but least thought of tools in the shop. I worked for 21 years around boilermakers. They use wood and metal shims to align and move anythng from small ubes to massive headers. Their shims range from small machinist shims to wood splitting shims to beveled 4x4"s. I have a fixture hanging by my bandsaw and peridicly make a couple bundles. Once you start using them, you will find multiple uses.
10/25/2010 11:36:53 AM Report AbuseThe first time you make tapered table legs you will have 4-8 offcuts that can be used the same way. If they are thick enough, they can be used to hold doors throughout the house open in the summer (or you can glue a couple together to double their thickness). If you have slippery floors, you can put a couple silicon bumpers on the bottom to prevent sliding.
10/21/2010 02:58:52 PM Report Abuse