Recent content by frugal

Not much work over the past week due to one thing and another. The builders are turning up tomorrow to start ripping conifer fence out and putting a dry stone wall in, so we spent the whole of last weekend getting the garden ready and removing raised beds where the new shed is going to go. On...

Out of interest, how do you plan on making all those plywood discs perfectly round and true?

Not much progress this week. The new planer knives arrived, so I fitted them last night, and then spent ages getting the out feed table at the right height. Obviously the jig they give you with the planer to set the knife height is different to the one they use in the factory, so the knife...

The cherry was out for 6 hours or so in weather that alternated between sun and clouds. When I took it back into the garage there was no noticeable difference to the control board.

Work has stopped today as we need to take down the shed before the wallers turn up next week to backfill the slope under it. And by take down I mean push gently until it falls over. In the mean time i have been looking at the cherry that i am going to be using for breadboards and the vise chop...

Why is it always on Friday evening that you need something by mail order. Anyway, the blades are ordered, and as Axminster are still doing their £1 delivery I did not feel the need to top up the order to £50 (I know I am going to crack need to try waterstones for sharpening at some point, but...

What I will be doing this weekend is ordering some new planer blades, and sending these ones off to be sharpened. Who knew that planing 320' of kiln dried hardwood would dull a set of blades ;) I also have to take the 11 sacks of shavings to the tip (I have already taken 5 sacks). When I was...

I am not sure why Rickard is no longer selling the whole leg vise any more. It might have been that he was getting too many questions about the fitting. He does seem to still fit them to the workbenches that he sells, so he must still get on with the concept. I know that he was experimenting...

Very nice looking bench! Unfortunately Richard no longer sells the steel rod and bushing as part of a leg vise kit, you can only buy the vise screw by itself. I am going to try to make my own and I have a 20mm stainless steel linear shaft and a 20mm linear bearing that I will fit into the leg...

Dougals, I agree that 30" is deeper than normally advised, but I am planning to have some cabinets on the walls above the bench which will effectively bring the wall in by 6" or so. You can just see the bottom of the window in the second photo, I have been using the window sill as tool storage...

Richard, The legs are not going to be all that supports the top, there will be a pair of long and short stretchers about 4-6" off the ground. The theory being that when the top swells and shrinks it makes the H frame more of an A frame which should tighten up the joinery. The stretchers will...

Pete, I think that the previous owner of the plane had tried something similar, except that they used wood glue. The results were less than successful as the glue did not stick to the enamelling at all and just made a mess of the bottom of the tote.

The legs for this bench will be 6"x6", and will be laminated up from 3 6"x2" planks. Where they need to attach to the bench top I am going to use mortice and tenon joints that are pegged through from the front for added support. 1 - Given that I will be laminating the leg, should I just make...

The removal men were less than impressed when I demanded they move the 7' long 18" diameter yew trunk when we moved in 7 years ago ;) It is still stood up in one corner of the workshop waiting for me to figure out what I am going to do with it... If we ever move, then with the lathe...

I can only imagine the laughter that would come from the timber yard if I asked for a 30" wide 5" thick single slab ;) You could probably get away with 2 15" wide slabs, but you would need to yard to cut it to order from the trunk as I doubt they would ever cut 5" thick stock as standard. Plus 5...