Thread: In memory to my beloved husband Niki

Would be nice if someone (time is an issue) could put Niki`s how to posts in a single thread and include them in Best of the Best. Would be a very fitting tribute for someone who gave us so much.

DJ has been doing some extensive restorative work to his posts to ensure images are not lost. I don't know if joining them all could be done without everyone else's comments ceasing to make sense.

And obviously it would come under the heading “G`day mates”

Regina
Very sorry for your loss we will all miss his great jigs.

Regards Jerry

Regina, it was very sad news indeed when Niki departed this world. He was one of a kind, a very special person and a gentleman in every sense of the word. He will be sadly missed here on the forum. His work was immaculate and an inspiration to us all.

Our thoughts are with you at this time and we wish you well. Niki will be remembered on this forum by all.

Hello Regina and thank you for joining the forum which Niki appeared to enjoy so much.

It is certainly sad that he is gone but his contribution, insight and talent for looking at a problem from so many different perspectives was enlightening, entertaining and helpful to so many people that he will not be forgotten.

He was definitely one of the "Givers" of this world - which is an attribute beyond value and is something others can aspire to - I'm sure his forum threads will continue in the way he intended.

My condolences to you and your family.

Bob

Hi Regina. I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. When I heard the news I felt for his family and thank you for posting and giving us an opportunity to give our condolences straight to you.

Take care.
Dave

Hi Regina
You have my heartfelt sympathy

Andrew

Regina ,
I maybe a bit late only just reading of Nikis passing .
I must say how sorry I am to read the news .
Niki was a true gentleman and some what a genius with his jigs and fixtures and the ideas that he had .
He was the forum adopted Aussie "mate" and will be missed greatly but always remembered ,please accept my condolences .

Kev.

Hi Regina,

How sad and what a loss. Niki was an absolute genius and inspiration to us all. His practical, easy to follow instructions were a testament to a brilliant mind. I will miss him greatly and heartfelt condolences to yourself and family.

Regards,

Tony

This weekend I needed to resaw some wide boards on my Triton table saw and, although I have a nice high supplementary fence for the Triton rip fence, in the past I have had difficulty keeping boards being resawn vertical. My Magjig feather board is generally okay for ordinary use(except that it often seems to try to locate the magnets over the mitre slot (which are alloy) rather than somewhere where there is a lot of steel). However, when I used it with the high fence to resaw wide boards, for some reason the boards tended to topple away from the rip fence and over the Magjig feather board. When I say topple, I don't mean they actually fall over, but the cut ceases to be parallel to the face, which means there is quite a lot of planing to do to get a flat board.

I therefore made a new high feather board and took the opportunity to put in action one of the ideas that I learnt from Niki's jigs. Niki often used little castors in his jigs and I managed to pick up a dozen or so from Hafele and put them to use on this. The good news is that the jig worked perfectly! I can highly recommend using little castors and wheels. Since the Triton doesn't have a traditional mitre slot, I used 30 mm Magswitchesto hold it in place - they worked perfectly.

I know there is no anti-kickback feature in them, but in my opinion kickback is best controlled by appropriate setup of the table saw to ensure that would does not get trapped between the fence and the blade, use of an effective splitter (in the case of the Triton, I have added some thin shins to ensure that the splitter is accurately located on the line of the inner side of the blade) and by ensuring that the outside hand does not push the work beyond the arbor of the saw. In other words I prefer to ensure that there is no kickback rather than to try to save the situation when there is a kickback.

One problem with traditional feather boards is that as you increase the lateral pressure, the workpiece becomes harder to push through the saw . Small wheels or castors provide even and firm pressure laterally without making the timber significantly more difficult to push (I know that in theory the increased pressure should result in increased friction against the fence, but this seems much less than the pressure required to push through a traditional feather board).

Thank you once again Niki. Your inspirational jigs and the ideas lying behind them, are a continuing benefit to woodworkers all over the world!

PS photo to follow tomorrow.

Here are the photos of my jig in memoriam

welldone: a great tribute to Niki

Hello Regina,

Much sorrow at the passing of a friend we never met physically but certainly connected as we did as a forum members.
I knew he was ill from the occasional oblique reference he included in his postings but I had no idea it was so advanced. The long "empty" spell last year of "no Niki" postings on this forum did make me wonder.

His postings were always eagerly anticipated and you could not but learn something new every time. Like most keen "Niki watchers", I would look into the background of his work area photographs and spot a number of things I also had and see the same modifications I had also made to them. I would think to myself: " my goodness, he's all the way over there in Poland but he's so much here in the shed with me". He inspired me to keep tinkering on. I've actually made a couple of his tools and for a long time now I've always referred to them as "Niki-Jigs". Thus he will live on as the spirit behind the jig in my shed!!!!

Isn't the modern world of the internet fantastic?

Such wonderful improvisations and inventions would make him an Australian farmer's son anyday. He set a standard of easy to follow presentation that everyone of us here would do well to follow. His methods certainly revealed a deep understanding as to the ways of clear communication and simple instruction that we could all follow. I loved the way his brain worked. I was so thankful of his generosity in giving so honestly and so openly.

Thank you for your courage and bravery in going onto the internet forum in his place to inform all his brother and sister woodworkers - I'm sure he was typing with you!

Regards in sympathy and empathy,

TA