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Hello all. I have a large, heavy hinged lid on a large box that needs some rescue work. All four edges of the lid - made of a very hard pine, or some sort of "hard softwood" have had 100+ years of hammering and are a total mess. I would like to cut the worst off with the router and then attach...

Hello all. I am "restoring" an old antique oak and pine sailors chest. The original finish on it was so awful that I have stripped it back to totally bare wood. I wouldn't normally do something like that, but the previous finish was horrifically applied by my grandfather and it was universally...

Hello all. I have a very large sea chest which I am looking to strip. It was varnished incredibly badly around 60 years by my grandfather with what looks a mixture of varnish and shellac and I have a terrible feeling there might be some boot polish in there as well. Using the useless "EU...

Hello all. I am making a orchidarium - it's like a fish tank - but for orchids rather than fish. The plant is kept in 100% humidity, high light and high tempuratures in a glass box. I am looking to automate it heavily with an arduino, and so plan to make a base unit for the tank to keep the...

Hi, I am in the middle of building Mathias' 16" bandsaw, and multi-tasking and blending it together with Stumpy Nub's bandsaw table. When I'm doing, I have got a Mrs SlowSteve breathing down my neck demanding fancy doors, for which I need to finish the pantarouter (which I need a bandsaw to...

Hi, I was wondering if I could compare some hardwood prices with what other people are paying and get an idea of value. I'm not sure on the rules of this, so I won't name the timber yard who's offered these prices. I "think* they are OK though. 8' x 4' 18mm baltic birch (bb/bb) - £32.32 + VAT...

Hello all. This may sound daft, but it's a genuine question. On my bench I have a standard face vice ( no 52.5) and also a big long reach engineers vice ( number 23). which I have fitted with leather wrapped wooden jaws - which is a 2 minute job to change. Maybe because I have previously...

Hi, Quick question if I may? I am finding that I can produce loose tenon work pretty well and I want to keep going with it and "use it in anger" so to speak. I cobbled together a bodge of a DIY slot morticer which is doing good repeatable work until my Pantarouter is finished and for some...

I'm working on this at the moment. I'm not yet up to building the wheels, but I'm having a bit of nervousness about getting them properly balanced. Has anyone built them, and if so, did you have any balance issues? Also - how are you finding the inner tube method, rather than using cork on the...

Hello, I am in the middle of planning out building two new internal doors. They are big (BIG) heavy duty doors - they are really exterior quality, but I have 8 doors the same in the house and 2 different - this is annoying Mrs SlowSteve, which leads to more tasks of my jobs list. The doors are...

Hi, Is there a "done thing" when it comes to sharpening shoulder plane blades? As far as I can tell, I need to keep the two edges at precisely 90 degrees to get the best use out of it - this seems to add a new layer of complexity. I am pretty awful at hand sharpening, so would prefer a jig of...

Hi, This may seem like an odd question - if it helps I can post photos later. I have a house about a century old. All the joists and rafters in the roof are made of a wood which I believe is a very slow grown pine. It has turned yellow-y brown with age and doesn't look much like pine you get...

Hello. I am in the process of sorting out my loft. Officially this is purely out of love and affection for Mrs SlowSteve, but it does mean that vast amounts of tat and junk get removed from my workshop, so it's not all self-less. I live in a semi and it's an old house with a "proper" roof -...

Hello. Does anyone know of a proper jigging system to either buy or build to properly grind and dress bradpoint drill bits? I have a Quorn for metal bits ( which i built and actually completed myself!), which I also use for Masonry bits and never has there been a better sharpening jig made - I...

Hi, Does anyone know what is considered the optimal alloy for making plane blades? I have a couple of my grandfathers planes which have been battered and resharpened so many times that the blades at pretty much finished - I don't have enough metal for a dramatic regrind - although one blade in...

Hello all. I have a TS-200 - the old version. There used to be a whole series of posts on here about upgrades, improvements and tuning them - along with one which indexed all the other common ones. I've tried the search function but can't find them. Would any of you have them bookmarked...

I am looking for a cheap tough wood for all sorts of jobs and builds around the house that Mrs SlowSteve has demanded/requested/begged for. The nice people at the John Boddy website have nice pages on lots of different woods - I saw this: http://www.johnboddytimber.co.uk/Pics/g ... low_a.html...

Hello all. I was going to post a specific question about a specific type of wood use, but I thought it might be better to ask a little more generically. I am trying to find general rules of thumb or common suggestions for which woods to use in what circumstances - especially when you don't...

Hello. Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of a source of good enough straight 1/2" router bits - the really long ones - Ideally 65mm? The kitchen fitters use them a lot, and I am finding that they are an all around amazing DIY tool - everything from fitting worktops to milling...

Hello. I posted a post here regarding making large doors and now I seem to be going down the rabbit hole on door making. Now I have a question about big external doors - fancy front doors or garage doors - this looks like it will be the summer jobs. The mortice and tenon-ing of big (1.5"" x...