Recent content by cookiemonster

Thank you very much for all your help and sorry I haven't been back before now - been finishing work stuff before the Easter break. It's sapele, not teak. My mistake. But I don't think that makes a difference. The photo (a close up of the underside of the tabletop near the edge) could indeed...

Hi everyone. I'm trying to finish a teak coffee table with Boiled Linseed Oil followed by a shellac top coat. The oil is easy but I'm having trouble with the shellac. I'm using a homemade concoction of dewaxed blonde shellac flakes + meths , applied by paint brush, with a light rub between...

Thanks for this. Yes, the rest of the door and frame are painted in light blue gloss. However, I see Sadolin do a clear extra durable clearcoat Sadolin Extra Durable Clearcoat | Sadolin. This wouldn't look too bad, at least not between now and when the weather improves enough to strip the door.

I have a hardwood front door and threshold. I'm fairly sure it's idigbo. The whole thing is painted, but inevitably the paint on the threshold is not doing well. So, I think I should strip it and oil it. The question is, what with? I've used osmo successfully on other outdoor stuff but the osmo...

It's ok with simple numbers like 1 crore or 2 lakh, or whatever. But when numbers get big and mixed up (or looks mixed up to me), e.g. 1,000 lakh, my head can't cope.

For me it has to be Indian lakhs and crores. Try as I did, when in India it still took me ages to work out quantities when those two were in play. Also the Swedish mile. But at roughly 10 kilometres that is easier to get your head round.

I bought the Lidl track saw for occasional use, pimped the blade and rubber strip as recommended by Peter Millard and now it cuts 18mm sheets like a dream. Personally I think Baltic Birch is OTT for a workshop but each to their own.

Thanks Brian, I do appreciate your point and, you're right, it's good to think about stuff from different perspectives. All the kind responses on this thread have given me much food for thought...

I would say, if (I) you like the industry or subject area (ii) you can tolerate the inconsistency and uncertainty in income and (iii) you have skills and experience which are in demand, then go for it. My problem is with the first of these.

First off, may I thank each and every one of you for responding to my post. I am humbled by your generosity. I think my referring to custom furniture building was a bit unhelpful. Yes, that is the ideal, but I (now more than ever) appreciate the difficulties in making that part of the trade pay...

I bet I’m not alone among serious amateur woodworkers in wondering whether I could make it professionally. My current desk-based career is fairly well-paid but otherwise unrewarding. It just doesn’t make me spring out of bed in the morning. I’m confident I would be much happier making stuff...

This is what I did. I think they just gave it to me as it was waste to them.

We've got the Bosch 25.2V Athlet. It's a few years old now and the battery has lost about 50 per cent of its life I reckon. Plus it has this annoying habit of holding a load of crud somewhere in the space between head and collection bin, which is deposited on the floor when you turn it off. I...

Thanks all for your responses. I went with the white spirit and wire wool, as suggested. It's harder work than I expected - loads of crud emerges - but it's now clean enough to take the paint.

Why use the table saw at all? A nice big knife-wall all round and then a hand saw would have the job done in minutes.