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Hi folks, Inspired by something I saw in a charity shop, I'd like to make a book-shaped box, and I wonder whether anyone could give me some advice please? The idea is something like this, with the red piece shaped to look like the spine of a book, the orange and green pieces resembling the...

Hi folks, I've had some reclaimed stair treads sitting around for a while, and thought I'd try making a simple lyre out of one. That got me wondering what sort of wood they're made of. Has anyone got any thoughts please? Here's a complete tread: and I cut a bit off the end and planed it a...

Hey folks, With Christmas just around the corner, I took a break from making tool holders, and tried to use up as many offcuts as I could making an advent-calendar's worth of little things for my wife. But the most exciting to me started off as an offcut from the garden a couple of years ago...

Hi folks, A bit DIY rather than woodworking, but I wonder if anyone knows what this kind of door stopper is called, please? Our patio door used to have 2 of them, but one has disappeared and the other was in the process of disintegrating - a process I accelerated in order to get it off...

Hi folks, I occasionally have to remove the tip of my GluBot to clear out accumulated solidified glue. Each time I do this, I am reminded that there is a little gasket inside the cap which is looking quite sorry for itself. I have a pack of 5 replacement tips sitting waiting to be used, but...

I came across a video on youtube of someone making a spiral Christmas tree: and thought I'd give it a go. Presumably the author doesn't have a lathe, as they use a bandsaw to make the initial spiral. I also don't have a lathe, but didn't fancy trying their bandsaw technique either, so I...

Hi folks, My bandsaw insert is starting to look a little chewed up, so I though I ought to do something about it before it's too late. And as I sometimes have small pieces fall down the gap, I thought I would try to make something closer to a zero clearance insert. I planed some 6mm ply down...

I've had ambitions to make a mini workbench for some time now, to allow me to have work higher up, have a bench with dog holes, and have a vice at 90 degrees to the vice on my bench. I got a vice some time ago, and it and some maple and poplar have been lying around getting in the way for...

Hi folks, I just bought some new filters for my 7500 mask, but when I went to fit them I noticed that there was a rubber disk on the inside of one side but not the other. I did a bit of searching, and it looks like I have somehow lost one of the 7582 inhalation filters. I wasn't expecting this...

Hi folks, Something that's on my to-make list, hopefully next year, is a tongue drum. I've been doing some research, trying to put together a plan for how to make it, and what experiments I need to do, but there's something that is confusing me: It looks like most people just build them as a...

I've seen a number of tensegrity projects recently, and thought it would be fun to have a go at making a side table. My plan was a wooden frame with 5 chains, one at each corner and one in the centre, holding it up, but I was having trouble visualising how many chain links would fit in - too few...

Hi folks, I'm looking to get 2 or 3 decent chisels, mostly for small projects, boxes, dovetails, etc, to replace my DIY chisels. My hope is to avoid picking up chisels that aren't good enough, leaving me wanting to upgrade again, without wasting money unnecessarily. I've read some old forum...

Hi folks, I recently used an eclipse-style honing guide for my plane blades for the first time, and found it worked a lot better than my previous sharpening attempts, so I thought I'd try it with my chisels too. However, this chisel is quite wedge-shaped and is 9.1mm at the handle end This...

Hi folks, I'd like to make something with accurately placed holes of various sizes, and thought I'd look at what the options are. It sounds like lip-and-spur bits might be a good solution for sizes for which they are available, and another improvement I should definitely make is getting some...

Hi folks, I'm planning to make a home for my Stanley 71 and all its parts on my tool wall, but one of those parts is a screw for attaching the fence which I'm sure will vanish if I'm not careful. I thought that I would get an appropriately-sized nut, and either glue that to the tool wall, or...

Hi folks, I have a leather strop, and a tub of chromium oxide stropping paste. Should I be reapplying the paste each time I use the strop, or how do I tell when it should be reapplied? Thanks Wend

Hi folks, It will probably not shock you to hear that I have a collection of homeless tools and clamps which migrate between my workbench, router table and various bits of floor, to make room for whatever I'm trying to do at any given moment. However, above the router table and workbench is...

Hi folks, I have a malfunctioning marking gauge. If I remove the sliding piece, then I can screw the thumb screw all the way in, and all seems to be fine. However, when it is assembled, if I try to tighten the thumb screw then it just slips, and will spin forever and never tighten. I was...

Finally got this finished! It translates between braille, morse code, semaphore and binary. Probably the hardest and most time consuming part was just getting all the wood planed flat and square. Here's the top with the hole layout punched. 116 7mm holes for the LEDs and buttons on the top...

Hey folks, I've been working on a project for which I didn't know what height I would need, so I made it oversize and cut the bottom off. This has left me with this: The dovetails are far from perfect, but they'll certainly hold the sides together - in fact, I was surprised at how well they...