Do you ever get so stuck in your ways that you seem to have the horse blinders on, then somebody comes and rips them off? Last month I had one of those aha moments where the error of my ways on a technique was made abundantly clear to me, a learning moment that made me question what else I'm doing wrong. Simple thing really, but something I held so dearly as fact was vaporized in an instant.
SCMI shaper hoods have always vexed me, the single sided adjusting kind. I have one on my minimax shaper at home, now I'm using one on a much larger T-130. I'm used to dual micro adjusting fences, it's my preferred option. Set out feed to cutter, set infeed to take some off......your shaping. For years I've been setting the offset on the SCMI hood, then tapping the hood gingerly to set it to the cutter, running test pieces, adjusting with another tap....etc. Goal is to set the out feed precisely to cutter for no snipe then set infeed precisely to take 1/16" so the width of parts is easily calculated. It's how I was taught, it's how I'm comfortable working.
So there I am swearing at the scmi hood again, piece of blah blah single sided adjusting demon etc......when my foreman says "you know you can adjust both sides, just one at a time?" Huh....show me. Lock the infeed down, unlock the out feed, turn knob....the whole hood moves and sets the out feed precisely to cutter. Lock the out feed side, unlock infeed.......only the infeed moves, sets precisely to out feed position. They don't independently micro adjust....they articulate relative to the other, like bulldozer tracks. Tried it on the home shop shaper yesterday....works like a charm there too. Duhhhhhh..........I have been doing that simple thing wrong for years and struggling at it, somebody turns on a light I didn't know was there, nearly hugged him! Makes me wonder what else I'm doing wrong and don't even realize. Humbling and gratifying.
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