"Lurker" wrote in message
...
A few years ago, a designer of a special machine was said to have
made the remark during testing that a few 'shims' would correct a
minor problem. The VP of that division overheard him and said
".... no shims!" So the designer immediately rephrased and said
"Okay, a couple of spacers..."

But seriously, what's wrong with using shims? Shim stock is sold in
a variety of materials ,thicknesses, and shapes.

The use of shims for machine tools is sort of bush league. One of the
problems of shims is if you dismantle the object, there's no guarantee the
shim will be replaced, nor that it will be replaced where needed. In
machine tools, you pay for precision, which can include scraping or
precision grinding. Shims are a dodge to avoid doing so. That's not to
say that a shim doesn't work. Of course it does. You just don't have as
much control over the end result that you might have by doing it "right".

Harold