Recent content by DoctorWibble

Building right on the boundary is unlikely to be allowed for a bunch of reasons. Not least you'd need access to neighbours gardens for construction and maintenance. Then there are shading considerations: boundary construction rather obviously solves your problem at the expense of your...

Some readers might be a little confused reading this thread. The question of thermal mass is not whether it is good or bad per se but whether there is too much or too little. Too much makes the building too slow to respond to your heating efforts, but some, even in an intermittently heated...

By strange coincidence I have an almost identical saw, found a few years ago on ebay. I wonder whether they might've been a promotional gift for their high rolling customers?

OSB or ply seems to be the go to lining for workshops but I think there's quite a good case to be made for soundboard or better still a combination of soundboard and OSB. The advantages are thermal mass, far better sound insulation, light and looks / ease of finishing. Thermal mass or rather...

Americanisms are sometimes just archaic forms of English. Taken over there by some batch of immigrants or another only to stick long after new words have replaced them here (or in Ireland). So French cleat could originally come from anywhere and may even pre-date split batten. Unless it can be...

French cleat was the first descriptor I came across (via web) but no-one else ever knew what I was talking about. Split batten on the other hand is instantly recognised. Being a web taught woodworker has it hazards :oops: . Someone should write an international glossary/translator.

Noggins make a big difference. They share loads between joists. Whatever you do include noggins. They don't cost much and are easy to install. And best use structural graded timber. Its not expensive and makes it easy and safe to design. The alternative is over-building with cheaper timber of...

In my younger days I worked as a hospital porter. In a few hospitals but the one that stands out was Springfield mental hospital in Tooting. Been demolished now I think. Anyway there were a few very old patients there who (I was told) had come as orphan children. At the time there was presumably...

Local Authorities always get the brunt of central gov't budget cuts. Westminster figures it can easily enough duck the blame for any consequences. They've been playing that game since at least the early 1980's. And of course the cost of anything that needs physical space (eg residential elderly...

Cool. :D Wonder why they gave it a saw handle rather than a dill handle? No idea why Belgium. I imagine the answer will lie in the operations of the Rawlplug company. They operated worldwide and so I guess Belgium simply had the space, or perhaps the subcontractors, to make the crude early...

Dead right. I've never understood why someone doesn't simply propose legislation to grant all public services -NHS, Schools etc blanket immunity from the ambulance chasers and opportunists. Its not just the claim costs it's that hospitals and schools are now obliged to document every action to...

When you look for vices do look beyond Records. Parkinson and Woden are equally good and often cheaper. Others perhaps too though I've only owned these three so will leave it to others to stretch the list. The very early Parkinsons (WW1 and before) are very common (they were the first steel...

Bed blocking is a growing problem but that doesn't mean it cant be fixed. Care outside the NHS falls to family and to local authorities and for a variety of reasons neither are able to step up in the way they used to. The second could be fixed at least. If the electorate are bothered enough to...

You can chase your tail on flatness forever. Those in most real need of proving it construct purpose built isolated temperature controlled rooms and use them to house millions of pounds worth of specially mounted metrology equipment. Some manufacturers spend many times that. But even they have...

I don't know whether you've already bought the beech for the top but if not keep in mind that most if not all of your work will be on the front of the bench. You could use cheaper softwood for the back half. I wouldn't worry about the weight implications. The importance of extreme weight is...