Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker
Chris, I use Cutlist Plus, but purely for sheet goods and it does allow you to compensate for grain direction, etc. For solid stock, I agree that hand-choosing is best. I use a piece of chalk to mark things out, usually after face jointing and skim planing the other side so that color and grain can be matched. Further, for solid stock, a cutlist program cannot accomodate "tilting" a component in a board to best utilize the grain that is present and that's something I find myself doing more and more to not only get better yield between any undesirable sap or "features" in a board as well as to keep the grain direction consistant with other components.

Hi Jim,

Have you tried that technique Paul Anthony demonstrated in the Micro Jig DVD for making those "Angled" cuts on small parts? Pretty neat technique but I find myself doing it on the bandsaw most of the time.

All in all, those little "tricks" sure do make for a better looking piece in the end. This past weekend I constructed a prototype table that I plan on manufacturing. The Oak I used for the legs was all straight grained except for one of them which was cathedral shaped, boy does that stand out like a sore thumb (more so than if I jammbed a 1" chisel into it ).

Everyone that has seen the prototype notices that "odd" leg everytime - makes me nuts. I should stick to my original concept of protyping in MDF to avoid all those little "Oddities" that come up in prototypes. Atleast with MDF, I can focus on the design without regard too grain, textures etc.

Chris