Hi fellow woodworkers,
we all need shims for various reasons:
Setting up machines,
slipping behind fences to finetune cuts
plenty of reasons too numerous to mention.
But...
Where does everyone source their shims?
Just lately I had one of those thought bubbles pop up: Why not look for suitable materials for shims before you need them and store them away? How often have you found yourself looking for something to make a shim 0.010" or any other dimension and not had anything on hand? Or if it was the right size it was not suitable for the application? What happens next? Well in my case I run round looking for something to do the job and invariably you cant find it. or if you do find it it might not be suitable. Some shims need to be non-conductive, others need to be non-compressible, some need to be waterproof, others don't matter.
Anyway, I decided to start myself a "Shim Library". I figured that if I start collecting stuff I would have suitable material on hand when I need a shim.
This evening, I looked at a powerboard I had on the desk. the plastic bubble packaging looked promising. So I dissected it. The clear plastic on different sizes was surprisingly consistent in thickness, 0.010" on one side and 0.009" on another. The laminated plastic backing was a consistent .025" and another piece of cardboard laminated on one side was 0.19".
After this I started looking around the desk for other things to test. A business card is 0.015", while a zip-lock bag is a very consistent 0.002". Woolworths heroes cards are 0.039".
Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that it is a worthwhile exercise to collect materials that may be suitable for shims in a variety of materials.
They do not take up much room and are easily stored. Who has a secret source of shims that they may want to share?
anything that is fairly skinny and consistent might be helpful to us all. Please post your secrets here.
Cheers
Doug
we all need shims for various reasons:
Setting up machines,
slipping behind fences to finetune cuts
plenty of reasons too numerous to mention.
But...
Where does everyone source their shims?
Just lately I had one of those thought bubbles pop up: Why not look for suitable materials for shims before you need them and store them away? How often have you found yourself looking for something to make a shim 0.010" or any other dimension and not had anything on hand? Or if it was the right size it was not suitable for the application? What happens next? Well in my case I run round looking for something to do the job and invariably you cant find it. or if you do find it it might not be suitable. Some shims need to be non-conductive, others need to be non-compressible, some need to be waterproof, others don't matter.
Anyway, I decided to start myself a "Shim Library". I figured that if I start collecting stuff I would have suitable material on hand when I need a shim.
This evening, I looked at a powerboard I had on the desk. the plastic bubble packaging looked promising. So I dissected it. The clear plastic on different sizes was surprisingly consistent in thickness, 0.010" on one side and 0.009" on another. The laminated plastic backing was a consistent .025" and another piece of cardboard laminated on one side was 0.19".
After this I started looking around the desk for other things to test. A business card is 0.015", while a zip-lock bag is a very consistent 0.002". Woolworths heroes cards are 0.039".
Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that it is a worthwhile exercise to collect materials that may be suitable for shims in a variety of materials.
They do not take up much room and are easily stored. Who has a secret source of shims that they may want to share?
anything that is fairly skinny and consistent might be helpful to us all. Please post your secrets here.
Cheers
Doug
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