Wavy washers
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>Others have no doubt noticed that recent Lee Valley offerings have started featuring wavy washers (known as "spring tension lock washers" at my local hardware store, a funny term since all conventional lock washers work by spring tension) in various spots. I had thought that Rob's elves, er, engineers, were just compensating for the difficulty of finding places to put set screws on plow and router planes.
But yesterday, I put one on the little adjustable bevel I bought recently, and, for seven cents, transformed it from a tool worth every penny of the US$1 I'd paid for it to a tool I'm glad I own. Originally, the setting tended to slip; not now.
Thanks for the inspiration, Rob.