Couple of months back I listened to a TED talk by Rory Vaden about ‘multiplying time’, which, by itself was quite an entertaining talk. Since then I have been applying that principle to my workshop processes – especially to getting tooling right. One such is called a Horizontal Slot Mortiser. You can read more about this in my workshop page.
For the wedging table and wet storage projects, I had to create about 110 mortises – all spaced accurately and of the same starting position and depth of cut. I spent about 3 hrs fine tuning adjustments, getting both platforms level, securing ‘stops’ (the two blue clamps and the toggle clamp on the horizontal platform) to ensure repeatability. I also drilled oversized holes in the horizontal platform to insert toggle clamps to secure the work piece
With this ‘investment’ of time, I was able to create all the 110 mortises in just 10 hours! (allowing time for the router to cool down). That’s fantastic savings in time and rework from mistakes, misalignment etc.