Friday, October 24, 2008

Eyeballing

Anyone who's read through my blog is aware of two facts about me, I'm a tightwad when it comes to buying tools, and I firmly believe in measuring by eye. Refining the ability to measure by eye is actually less about seeing and more about questioning. For instance,when determining whether to surfaces are square, if I look at it and try to make it square, I will quickly convince myself that it is square, or worse, square enough! But if I ask myself, how is it not square? I am on the road to accuracy. It takes a bit of energy, and honesty, but the assumption that you are off will reward you with keener vision and results. My lovely bride sent me this link the other day

http://www.woodgears.ca/eyeball/

This site is fantastic. It is a series of visual tests where you determine by eye certain geometric tasks, and are graded on your accuracy. I have only done it once, and plan to do it again (my score was 2.90). It was interesting using my "shop brain" while at the computer. Take a couple minutes and visit the site, it's a must for shop monkeys!
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2 comments:

Paul Jason said...

I love those games. Though they are a little like crack.I will pass this around the architectural firm I work for. Lets see how the CAD guys do.

October 25, 2008 at 8:10 AM
Anonymous said...

After a few goes 4.37, but the difference between a computer screen and real world is huge the human eye is able to detect if something is vertical and horizontal within a few degrees. (or maybe my eyesight is worse than I think)

I find that when it comes to making furniture especially chairs sometime the best and only way to do it is to eyeball the thing. I have made a double bow windsor chair were almost everything eyeballed or 'finger gauged' I really enjoyed the experience and hope to do it again next year.

October 26, 2008 at 6:22 PM

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