Shoutout to the guy at the lumberyard who said to measure twice and cut once with a story stick

I was framing a weird bay window last month and kept messing up the angles until he showed me how to mark cuts on a scrap stick instead of using a tape, saved me from wasting a whole sheet of plywood, has anyone else tried that trick on tricky layouts?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew_reed6228d ago

Used to think story sticks were old school BS but that trick totally changed my mind.

beth_reed28d ago

Always heard the old guys at the shop talk about them but figured they were just set in their ways... finally tried making one for a set of kitchen cabinets and it saved me from remeasuring like three times. Drew is right, they really do cut down on mistakes.

matthewmartin28d ago

Yeah the "saved me from remeasuring like three times" part really hit home for me. It's funny how we overlook these simple methods because they seem too basic, but then they end up being exactly what we needed. I've noticed that in a lot of areas of life honestly, not just woodworking. Like with cooking I used to just wing it with measurements and then wonder why things came out wrong, but now I actually write stuff down and it saves me a ton of hassle. It's like our brains just aren't great at keeping track of everything at once, so having a physical reference changes the game.