Recent content by Qwercus

The bark looks like Sycamore.

I was a photocopier repairman and would occasionally get called in to replace a broken platen glass due to the machine being used for "unorthodox" copying. Paper jams deep in the bowels of the machine could not be retrieved by the operator, some of these had interesting images of...

The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby is an excellent read.

A peregrine falcon has been clocked at over 200mph when in a dive. This was recorded by a Spitfire pilot in WW2, the bird overtook the plane.

Instead of decking boards you could use scaffolding planks, cut to length as you describe. Not pretty, but you'd need fewer and they'd last a lifetime.

Not in the same league as luxury kit cars but in the mid-eighties there was a project called Africar. The idea was to provide a low tech vehicle that could be mass produced in developing countries, it was basically a plywood box with the drive provided by a Citroen GS engine and powertrain. The...

Slow grown spruce.

Oak grown in open parkland would have a spreading habit resulting in low hanging boughs with a natural curvature. Trees in closely spaced woodland grow straighter with fewer side branches. Hockey sticks were made from Ash cut from old coppice stools which gave them a curve at the base. Horses...

110/120 v tools usually have a thicker supply cable which doesn't fit comfortably in a 13A plug,

One of Jack Hargreaves excellent series - I can't remember if it's "Out of Town" or "Old Country" - shows how a wooden wheel is fitted with solid rubber tyres. Exactly as you describe a length of rubber tube is forced into a steel channel.

Looks like Ash to me.

Could the machine be sited onto a square of ply with a batten around the edge to contain the feet?. Wouldn't be able to move very far then.

A simple method or sharpening fine-toothed saws is to find a hacksaw blade of the same tpi as the saw being sharpened. Clamp both in the vice with the tooth profiles aligned but the hacksaw blade slightly lower- just a mm or so. File each tooth down until the file hits the hardened hacksaw...

A few layers of "Bendy Plywood" glued and laminated?.