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I have been away from here for a number of years, in fact I have been away from most forums and social media, but in the meantime I have still been woodworking. One of my problems is that whilst I have a nice big garage for all of the tools and machines, the only surface I have for working with...

Ok, so I have been wanting to have a go at french polishing for a while. SO I figured that I would mess up the first few attempts, so I should start on a sample piece rather than do my usual trick of trying something new on an almost finished piece and messing it up. It all seems to be going...

I ordered this at Yandles in April, but as I ordered they pointed to the empty lathe stand and informed me that they had just sold the last one they had with them, and that there were no more in the country. Well, after 2 months waiting the nice man from Paletline turned up today and left this...

I mentioned in my jewellery box thread that I was going to a weekend course with Andrew Crawford. Well that was the weekend before last, and I have spent the last week and a bit finishing it in the evenings. The course was a birthday present from my wife and I was not sure what I was going to...

I have been gradually working my way through Andrew Crawford's The book of boxes. I am currently trying to make the last of the boxes which is a veneered jewelery box. I want to try to make this as detailed as I can and point out why I have done the things that I have done, but I do not want to...

There have been lots of threads about how to insulate your workshop. If I was to do my garage I would need 34 sheets of 2400x1200 kingspan 50mm to do ceiling, walls, door and floor. Even if I snap up some of the seconds that are available online that is still £350 plus about the same amount...

I was out in the workshop last night and when I came in I realised that my back was killing me. The last time I went out my back was hurting the morning afterwards. I treated it with a hot pack, a cold pack and some pain killers, and I do not feel too bad this morning. Obviously I would rather...

After my last bowl seemed like such a success I decided to try a more interesting (read difficult) shape. This piece is once again a nice looking piece of ash that was saved from the firewood pile at a reenactment event (I am such a cheapskate). I wanted to try to make more of an ogee shape in...

After playing with some spindle work I decided to have a try at a couple of bowls for the first time. The first was from a walnut blank that I picked up from the Gloucester Woodturning Association a year ago. It is mostly sap wood rather than heart wood so it is very light. The bowl is a very...

We have just come back from a holiday in New York. As expected we went out to museums and arts and crafts places, so I came back with a couple of photos and a lot of great ideas. The first was a wonderful cabinet by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art: (Click on...

I am not sure if these have been seen here before. Cool optical illusions in a practical form: Invisible Chair and Shadow Chair.

At the start of this year I tried to make a Spalted Holly and maybe-walnut box from some holly that a friend had given me and some wood I had picked up at auction. After a while it was determined that the walnut was more likely to be elm and I had a couple of disasters with the veneering of the...

We have a set of Oak dining furniture. The chairs are in need of some TLC. The side rails have come loose from guests rocking on the chairs and I need to take them to pieces and glue them as there does not seem to be any glue in the joint, just a dowel that is hammered through. Fair enough I...

Okay, I am trying to add a few things to the Christmas list, and one of the things I was going to add was a copy Joyce's "Bible". However there appear to be multiple books that all look the same (and none of them are currently published). Am I right in thinking that the following books are all...

I am beginning to think that power tools hate me. Last night I went to thickness some wood and my Dewalt 733 thicknesser refused to start. It worked fine when I last used it, but last night I pushed the start button and nothing happened; it didn't trip the RCD; it didn't blow the main breaker as...

As I have just acquireda lovely old Inca Combi from Ike, I thought I should start a new tread to cover the restoration (it is going to take some time with the speed I work), rather than keep the old thread going. The rest of the pictures are here. The first thing to do was to take the motor...

After talking to Phiily about how he cuts out the sides of his infil planes with a milling machine I got to thinking: Really when you get down to it, what is the difference between a router, a pillar drill and a milling machine? As far as I can tell they all hold a spinny thing vertically and...

At waka's bash last weekend he mentioned that he was lucky enough to get out into the workshop pretty much every day. It got me to thinking: How much time do people on the forum spend in the workshop each day. As I have a full time job and two small children, that accounts for my days and...

When I got home this evening my 5 year old daughter proudly showed me the certificate she got from school saying that she knows how to safely use a hammer. "Next week we will learn how to use screwdrivers and then drills, and then I can help you do your woodwork!". She exclaimed. Apparently...

This is a very simple game and I am sure that everyone has played it at some point. Step one: Knock out the drive center whilst not paying enough attention to the hand that is supposed to be doing the catching. Step two: spend 40 minutes turning the workshop upside down trying to find where...