Dan's response in the thread about honing the backs of shaper knives got me thinking. Here are a few of the oddities my coworkers have expressed over the years:
1. Long shaper panel raising knives in a bearing head would bend well over 2" at the tip when cutting. Every now and then this came up. It has 100% to do with the flashing of a fluorescent light above the machine. As the shaper rotstion . But a few guys really still believed that those 1/2" thick x 1" wide by 3" projection knives were bending.
2. You can cut glass with scissors underwater. I needed a 90 inside cut on a piece of laminated glass to accommodate a large mortise latch. I was told to take the glass home, fill the bathtub, and cut away. "Make sure it is 100% underwater, though!"
I brought the glass in the next day with the cut made. They asked how, and I smiled and said "how else? - underwater!"
3. On my first day at an old shop previously run by an old German cabinetmaker, I was told at the end of the day to unplug all the machinery. This was to prevent the power company from overcharging us.

Okay - so what are some dead end practices you see done in your shop?

Not in my shop but Ive heard of people using a router plane on the bottom of a mortise.

Also, I see these posts on Instagram of "professional" guys, and yes, they call themselves this while promoting some product, yet they talk about their regular job and then they have every stupid plastic gadget from every woodworking hobby supply store known to man and their shop is immaculately clean.

Plus, people wearing gloves around equipment.

Im sure the list would be endless if anyone really dove in deep.

I'd say my biggest money Ill never get back peeve is when people are far slower than myself or anyone else at a given task and when you very nicely show them where, and why, thy are falling short, and how to correct, they just insist on continuing to keep doing things their slow/flawed way. Its of course best to move them along to another employer if it persists but often times its not that easy.

We have 1/4 sheet, 5" and 6" RO sanders, and 6" hogging RO's, all have their place with regards to speed and quality finish, and I cant tell you how many people Ive had that will only grab the 5" (smallest, lightest, slowest other than the 1/4 sheet) by default and will not jump to the 6' or hogger to speed up or downshift on grit for a hard/bad spot because "this is the sander I like" or "that one is too heavy"...

Best not to get started on the rabbit hole of when there is a lull and jumping on a broom or vac and they barely hit the same spots over and over never getting into corners and places that havent been hit. Its another one where I can pick up a vac and run side-by-side and cover 4x as much ground.. and the answer is usually "well, thats because you have more experience"... at that point my head simply explodes.

I usually say things start going downhill about the time the key hits the lock.

This isn't nearly as dumb as thinking unplugging a tool will affect the electric bill, but poor tool acquisitions. When you don't know any better, or just make a poor choice and you end up getting something sub par, and it's going to cost a fortune to unscrew the mistake.

Or, when you do buy the right tool, but let it sit on a pallet for six months before putting it into service. Then, realizing it's a gift from the God's, and you wasted six months of increased productivity.

I am positive that David would have no problem using the sliding table saw as a some type of laminate storage system.

you need to rip wide boards in half, fip one half (end for end) and glue them back together...

Pete said it all how fake it getting on home shows and the fake cabinet shop. I did my research on YOUTUBE people are making a killing promoting pocket hole, using a sledge hammer to take out drywall
I just finish doing cross Canada rant were are all the cabinetmakers ? At Ikea mass producing
The real answer is new home are being built and there cutting corners on cabinets in Toronto on a 1 bedroom condo the builder has to pay 120.000 to the city keeps out compaction so white mdf cabinets and laminate flooring

The woman in my shop swears the building is haunted, even wears a ghostbusters shirt most days. Any time gravity gets the best of a pile of scrap, bird flies in, strange refection form skylights.. We all just say "Its the ghost! "

As some of you may know, I worked for people that went to jail for their business practices. I left prior to that, afraid I might get caught up in their shenanigans. It was not that they were so clever and shady. They were just plain dumb.

Here is an example that had nothing to do with their illegal activities, but does highlight the dumb that prevailed.

Like most shops, the 14 man shop I ran for the owner had a molder, a few ripsaws and a gang rip saw. As a result we had big bundles of rippings- 4' around and 16' long - going out the door almost every day. These accumulated until they could load up 2-3 flatbed lumber trucks and take them to an amenable gravel quarry and dump these into the bottom of the quarry (200' deep), then drop some stone slurry and other trash on top to keep the rippings from floating back up as the quarry re-filled with water. Well, yes, this was illegal, but not the reason anyone went to jail.

We had looked at co-generation of power, or giving bundles away so people could start a kindling business, and other ways to get rid of the bundles. One day the owner, who's cocktail hour started about 8:30 AM, was busy directing a concrete forming crew, pointing and yelling in his usual management style. Now, besides our Architectural Shop, this place also had a large lumberyard selling dimension lumber to building contractors. The place was huge, about 20 acres, and there were always many things going on. The reason I did not take much notice of the concrete crew. Then someone told me the owner figured out what to do with the rippings. Immediately, it became my area, my potential problem, my thing to steer and get under reasonable control. I found the owner, wagging his arms in the air, trying to explain to the concrete formers what he wanted. There were of course, no drawings, no sketches, no plans. Just shouting and arm waving.

Then I heard the word - 'incinerator' - and my blood ran cold. "Incinerator" I say, sounds like you have a new project. The owner was of course mumbling under his breath about dumb forming crew, stupid fork truck operators, etc.
But, in time, they formed up a 6' wide x 20' long x 10' deep concrete box with walls about 18" thick. A chimney out of 12 x 12 block (no liner, of course) was centered along the back wall, and there were 4-6 12" vents, residential HVAC type, along the floor. This all sat on a 12" thick concrete drive. Capping it all off were two 5' x 6' -3/8" steel plates, hinged on one side, to act as doors. An exceedingly obviously flimsy crank mechanism was rigged to open and close the doors.

So after a few days building, the incinerator was ready to be loaded with wood. I suggested a single bundle until we saw how it worked. The owner overrode me, and yelled for it to be filled and the doors closed. A match was lit.

Smoke curled around and came and went, and for a while it looked as if the darn thing could not draw. Then the smoke diminished, and the flames began to dance in and out of the vents. Then the chimney put up black smoke. Thick black smoke. The velocity increased until it looked and sounded like a jet engine. Sparks added to the threat. the sounds grew louder.

This, I remind you, is in the middle of a lumberyard with several million dollars inventory.

I was ready to call 911, when I heard the sirens. Sure enough, passerby had seen the smoke and called them. But the owner would not let the firemen get near the structure. He insisted it be allowed to burn. "Working fine!!" he said. The lids were curling up like a potato chip. The smoke, now white, covered the entire small town like a fog. Traffic was stopping, first to see the fire then to see perhaps the entire lumberyard go up in flames. The walls were cracking, going off like artillery. The lids were cherry red. I think some parts of the concrete were a dull red also.

After a few hours, it began to cool down. The firemen doused what was left, after it settled a bit. The next day, true to form, no one mentioned the event to the owner. Everyone else tried to outdo the others with their description of what they saw. But the owner never said a word.

After a few days, a crew came in and demoed the monster, and hauled it all away. The steel was recovered, amazing us with the liquefied parts.

Shortly, there was nothing but a blackened shadow on the concrete.
And never a word about the thing. I mentioned that it was good the insurance company had not heard about it. Only then was it explained to me that there was no fire insurance on the properties since the Owner liked to smoke at the lumber yard, and allowed any/all smokers to smoke in the yard.

Dumb on top of dumb.