Got a set of these <http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=66917
&cat=1,43456>. OK, sorry Robin but I got 'em at the local hardware
store, same item though--was gonna buy from LV but they had 'em for the
same price and no shipping and no wait.
Anyway, I got 'em just because I had a couple of jobs coming up where I
saw the need for a shim, and now I'm wondering how I did without 'em.
Just a few uses I've come up with. Levelling a section of floor in the
bar, I drove some brads into the beams, pulled strings, put a level on
the string, and then stacked shims under one end of the string until it
was level--that gave me a pretty good estimate of how far out of true
the beams were.
Putting in floor joists, working solo, I put down a couple of stacks of
blocks, laid the joist on 'em, adjusted it to level by putting shims on
the blocks, then socked down the joist hanger.
Making a shelf for a piece of late 1800s furniture, that uses sawtooth
shelf supports kind of like these
<http://woodmechanic.blogspot.com/2008/07/sawtooth-shelf-supports.html>
I mocked the shelf up in MDF before sawing up a hundred and thirty bucks
worth of mahogany, and found that I had made the cleats too short. How
much too short? I stuck one in place and put in shims until I couldn't
fit another and very easily found that it was 5/32 too short.
Haven't had occasion to put one permanently in place anywhere yet but as
measuring, jigging, and fixturing equipment they're handy as all getout.