The book that I learned a lot of cabinetmaking from used story sticks for  overall dimensions a lot.  Ran across this today  

Love story boards and sticks. Thanks for the tip on the cabinet board Keith!

I don’t know about that?

On 2/23/2025 at 7:18 AM, BillyJack said:

I don’t know about that?

Story sticks were used for eons in early cabinet shops and furniture shops, much faster to grab a stick with a mark on it for a specific part to be cut or manipulated. I use story sticks to build my chairs, rarely do I pull out a measure or tape measure.

 

45 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Story sticks were used for eons in early cabinet shops and furniture shops, much faster to grab a stick with a mark on it for a specific part to be cut or manipulated. I use story sticks to build my chairs, rarely do I pull out a measure or tape measure.

 

I started in cabinet shops in 83. Only story stick was for adjustable shelves. Now we have boring machines that don’t require it. Maybe they used them before my time , but not now. Equipment now is very accurate . I’ve been hearing the term “story sticks” since I joined forums in 2000. Maybe it’s more of a hand tool thing than a power tool..

 

Chairs are rare anymore. Even when I made a portion of the 750 barstools, I had to train and pass it off to several guys making 10 complete bar stools per day. 

Edited February 24, 20251 yr by BillyJack

Here is my story stick. This works in cabinetry and most of commercial. Chairs is the few places a story stick or pattern would be a plus,but how many are making chairs these days one by one..

 

Edited February 24, 20251 yr by BillyJack

It couldn't be used in production shops today or even in the 80's Billy, most of what we are referring to here in these forums are small scale makers and not production. We are a bunch of craftsmen hobbyist here  

That being said, they were used exclusively in production shops of the 18th and 19th centuries and before that. If we are using story sticks today, you are either a custom low production maker or hobbyist. 

I'd never turn my love of making chairs into production, even if I knew how, it'd ruin the joy for me. 

Also, they are very useful at the lathe. You can't beat em for doing hand work at the lathe and marking off profiles in a rapid manner, unless you have a duplicator of course.

8 minutes ago, John Morris said:

It couldn't be used in production shops today or even in the 80's Billy, most of what we are referring to here in these forums are small scale makers and not production. We are a bunch of craftsmen hobbyist here  

That being said, they were used exclusively in production shops of the 18th and 19th centuries and before that. If we are using story sticks today, you are either a custom low production maker or hobbyist. 

I'd never turn my love of making chairs into production, even if I knew how, it'd ruin the joy for me. 

 

Let’s break that down.John before it became productive it has to have a start.You created a jig , which made it productive because you had a need to be able to recreate it..

 

We are a bunch of hobbyist here? So what am I?

 

 

Edited February 24, 20251 yr by BillyJack

7 minutes ago, BillyJack said:

You created a jig , which made it productive because you had a need to be able to recreate it..

Exactly right, and why they were used in early production shops.

 

8 minutes ago, BillyJack said:

We are a bunch of hobbyist here? So what am I?

Only you can answer this Billy 😊

Early production shops has early versions on the Unisaw fences,. Late 70’s I think the Beisemeyer fences started coming out and shops didn’t always upgrade quickly. I had to use that fence in commercial for two years. After that most saws had already upgraded or bought new saws and an accurate fence was born. Today most saws has it or a version of it.

 

I don’t recommend anyone buying the older version saw with the older fence. 

On 2/24/2025 at 8:54 AM, BillyJack said:

Late 70’s I think the Beisemeyer fences started coming out

Man Billy, you going into the wayback machine with that, before my time in any serious woodworking. Lets see, in the 80's I was still using my dad's Craftsman contractors saw for menial woodworking tasks, and the only thing I knew about a fence was I had to clamp the other end of the craftsman fence to the table saw so it wouldn't move on me! I didn't even know what a cabinet saw was at that time. You're showing your age man. 

When  I worked for Gary White he had a Craftsman saw with motors on pulley in front. I personally didn't dislike the Craftsman, but when you get spoiled by commercial saws it’s hard to go backwards. 
 

This doesn’t mean I think I’m better than anyone else, I’ve just had the chance to work with commercial equipment. I can honestly saw I’ve worked with worse than Craftsman tools for some shops..

The very first experience I ever had with an industrial size TS was when I got out of the ARMY in 91', I got a job with Sea World of San Diego in the maintenance carpenter shop, whatever was wood in the entire park, we did. It was a great job, I loved it, next to the bay, the ocean, great climate, great conditions, but the pay sucked. We built a whole lot of cabinets for the office areas, and we even got to be creative at times, like when the Sea Otter trainers come to our shop, and submitted a work order for a Sea Otter birthing den, a what! After a little research I came up with something. It was a great job. It really fitted my creative flare.

Long story shorter, the table saw we had was a Delta 3ph 7hp 12" beast, and I loved it. It was outfitted with a Bies fence, and it purred and cut through anything as fast you could push it through. That was the very first closest environment to a commercial woodworking specific shop I worked in with all the bells and whistles of a commercial shop, and the foreman Tom Gumbold, an old biker from Minnesota was the coolest dude I ever met, and he took a lot of pride in that shop and us guys, we did some beautiful work. And the shop was impeccable always. 

 

I worked there for 7 years before understanding I wasn't going to make anymore money than what we were making, with my wife I brought home from the ARMY and our first born on the way and living in expensive San Diego, I decided to go to school and become a Land Surveyor and build bridges and roads and lay out tract developments. That is what I do now.

 

Before I joined the ARMY, and still in highschool, I framed homes when I was 16 years old during the summer, dropped out of high school in 11th grade and went to work full time as a framer for a few years, gravitated toward building boats for Bayliner Marine in Kingman Arizona in 87, working on the assembly line and building and installing woodwork, cabinets, and somehow my position got lumped in with installing the steering system too. 

Got into a little trouble in Kingman AZ, sheriff said he wanted me out of town, guess he got tired of coming over to our homestead and shutting down our loud parties and wild target shooting sprees at 2 in the morning, so I came back to San Diego and laid low, and finally realized I need to change something, or something is gonna end me. Joined the ARMY, found the LORD, and it was all she wrote. Sea World, then Land Surveying, now I'm getting ready to retire from my job of 24 years and see what more trouble I can make out east when we move there. Too much information Billy, but you caught me in a rare mood of sharing.

Been reading  your life experiences here with interest,

 

Keep on keeping on man. 

I got my Unisaw prior, I think, to when they had the option to come with a Biesmeyer fence.  It has a Unifence.

 

Pros:

* it will slide back so that the fence does not extent past the blade.  I've not used this much but I think it might be more common in Europe

* You can lay it on its side so it has a very low fence  This might guide the substrate when there is something laminated over it

 

Cons:
* It's not very adaptable to shop-made jigs that register over the fence, for example, a tenoning jig or L-fence

13 minutes ago, kmealy said:

I got my Unisaw prior, I think, to when they had the option to come with a Biesmeyer fence.  It has a Unifence.

 

Pros:

* it will slide back so that the fence does not extent past the blade.  I've not used this much but I think it might be more common in Europe

* You can lay it on its side so it has a very low fence  This might guide the substrate when there is something laminated over it

 

Cons:
* It's not very adaptable to shop-made jigs that register over the fence, for example, a tenoning jig or L-fence

Rarely do we slide the fence back on a Unifence in cabinetry. 
 

A little bit more in commercial.

 

furniture it’s more a plus, but depending on application.

 

I’ve used both depending on the shop and what they had. After I got hurt in 85, I got to where I like to ride my pinky finger over the ledge of a Beisemeyer fence. This is a habit I’ve had since then. Of course I can’t operate like that on every cut, but the  most critical  I use that method. It’s a confidence of knowing where My hand tips with the blade.

 

The fence is too tall for me..

Edited February 28, 20251 yr by BillyJack

Yes, when I'm ripping and guiding with my right hand, it's easy to put a finger or two over the top of the fence to keep it from getting pulled into the blade.

 

Another disadvantage, since my saw is a right-tilt blade, I need to swap the fence around to go on the left side of the blade.