Charcuterie boards have been pretty popular this Christmas, I think I've done 16 recently. Two tools have changed my life and made me much more productive!
The first, and probably not a big surprise, is the Microjig GRR-RIPPER. I've had a load of strips to cut for glue-ups, something like 80 for the batch above. Using the GRR-RIPPER made it noticeably faster, easier, and better. I had so much more control; it was easier to keep the wood against he fence than with push blocks, giving fewer blade marks and less burning and more consistent widths. In all it was faster to cut and faster to prep for glue.
The other big thing for me both in terms of quality and speed are 4-way pressure clamps.
Using these clamps gave me consistently flatter and faster glue ups. Getting all strips flush quickly saved a bunch of time and stress and resulted in flatter boards. Since they were flatter over all (both better aligned but also less twist) I was able to use less material because there was less waste cleaning up after the boards came out of the clamps. (Full disclosure: I had one board come out with gaps in several glue joints. I'm not sure it that was some bad milling, I mated the wrong surfaces, or some other mistake using the clamps.) They were so much easier to use than a stack of pipe and quick clamps with cauls and all that. Before, it always felt like a race to get everything aligned before the glue started to set, now it's so much easier. I still felt like I needed to use extra clamps along the boards but it wasn't stress inducing at all ;)
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