Here’s a tip for any woodworkers or luthiers out there: if you’re at all like me, you’re always grabbing for a writing instrument to mark a board. Oftentimes they get “misplaced” or knocked around while working on a project. (I go through quite a number of pencils in any given week while making bowed psalteries.)

Well, as you can see from the photo on the left, here’s my cheap, somewhat quirky solution. Stash a whole bunch of pencils or other writing utencils in the miter tracks of your power tools. You could put pens, pencils, chalk, crayons, etc. in the standard miter tracks that come on many table saws and bandsaws. They sit below the surface of the table, and don’t interfere with regular cutting operations (unless you’re using a jig that makes use of the track, of course). Plus, they’re always in plain site and easy to find.

This has been another groundbreaking tip from Phantasy Psalteries.

(And no, in case you were wondering from the photo, I’m not a Clevland Browns fan – it’s just a random pencil that I had lying around.)