: I am up to my 4th strip and I think, by Nick's book, I need a cheater strip.
: Any tips?

wedge shape strips w/ one end open are the absolute easiest infill strips to fit and you can make many errors and still have enough options or wood left to refit and refit and refitf:

1/first of all preplan the number of strips left to go and the amount of space at the bow(or wherever) where these strips have to splay to fit.

2/ decide whether or not to make up the difference in a few large width jumps or max 3/4in(strip width) or evenly spaced cheaters across the desired field.

3/maybe do a trial layout by eye but then glue in ALL the strips and NO cheaters. This way you can finely tune the cheater space widths if any look just a little large or small or uneven or start from odd or random locations. YOu can even make major adjustments if you don't like the layout or lines of the strips. Either staple them down if using staples or staple(brad or nail) BESIDE the strips if not stapleing to wedge/hold in place by whatever other stapleless method used. (I often had thin strips and bridged over the thin ones so that less staples were used - but i am a stapler)

4/ if you were smarter than me, you would have kept the offcuts off the longer strips and remembered which strip they came off and if long enough, you have fairly good colour and grain character match. other wise cut strips say 2 inches longer than you need. cutting longer is the key as you then have loads and loads of potential error leeway and still save the strip.

5/ you need to decide now if you want the grain to run parallel to the low strip, the bottom of the high strip or the middle. 3 basic choices. probably choose one and stick with it.

6/ if you have long spaces, they will curve and follow the lines of the larger strips and so you wont be able to underset or overset to fit, but you don't want to as you now want the grain to follow in the manner of #5, and most likely the cheater spaces will actually be very, very close to long curving triangles. And since you have 2 inches to spare if you cut or plane a long triangle and press in to fit along the space from the bow, it'll become apparent if the triangle has to thin out a bit in the ctr.

7/so the real easy thing is to realize that if you just draw a pencil line the width of the gap at the length of the slot, to the end. and plane to that line, you'll have a great approximation of what to fit.

8/a huge huge assist in getting an appreciation of what type of wedge is coming and of marking out without ANY measurement at all, is using either dial(best if using more than one cheater per space - easy to divide the space) or vernier calipers, as all you do is lay the pc beside and next to the gap, fit the opening w/ the caliper inside jaws and then prick the wood template w/ the same sharp jaws for a perfect markup and no reading or memorizing numbers. just connect the dots and sand or file or plane. gives you a bette idea of the intricacies of shape of the triangle.

9/and if you screw up a bit, you now have THREE choices. just move the adjacent larger strip down the tiny bit to make the fit. OR just sand/plane/file a little more to get the perfect fit as you already have 2 inches to play with. OR try to fit the wedge in any of the other spaces because you're trying to make them sorta the same ANYway!!!yahoo!!

ya gotta like it.

-mick