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Hi Dave, I have a Ryobi table saw with a similar sort of table. It is now my regular router table. The hole pattern didn't match my router base, so I had to drill two new holes in the table (and countersink them) to accommodate my router. I use three small bolts with countersink-type heads to...

Hi Woodspoiler, That's wonderful. I'm very impressed. You could possibly still aim for a bit more "botanical realism" with the veins (several people have remarked that they are not as "delicate" as they could be) ... but that is a refinement that I'm sure you can work on. I also sometimes...

Hi eastyorkshirelad, I have one of those (your second lathe option - the one you're currently bidding on). It's made in China and it's nothing fancy, but I've been very happy with mine. I did bolt mine to the floor, though. It helps when turning some very-out-of-round stuff. In South Africa...

Hi there, For anybody interested in the strength & other properties of wood as an engineering material, check out the "forest products laboratory" http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publi ... eader_id=p They have a full book available for download as pdf chapters, or as the full book "wood as...

Hi Colin, Andi Wolfe is a botanist. She also started out as a carver. That means she has a head-start on us turning types. I've never been brave enough to try carving on a piece I spent hours making. I'm too scared of ruining it (probably a bad attitude, I know). Good luck. Cheers Steve

Lovely bowl. I like it a lot. If you want to see how far this can go, take at look at Andi Wolfe's work from the AAW Maple Medley exhibition (go to http://www.galleryofwoodart.org/MapleMedley.html and download the exhibition catalogue - the piece in question is on page 50). At our local South...

I hate throwing stuff away - so I would try sharpen them. If you have a small diamond file / stone, then you can hone the cutters every time you use them. It maintains their sharpness. The trick is NOT to work on the outside face (the one which is one the outer diameter of the cutter). As you...

Oooh ... an engineering question... I will try to answer it - but since I live in South Africa and therefore have no need for radiators, I might not fully understand the way in which these things are controlled. I assume that there is a thermostat in the system that turns the hot water flow on...

Hi, As far as I understand it, machines are often shipped or stored using a vapour phase corrosion inhibitor. It's an amine compound that forms a protective film on metallic surfaces and stops the oxygen from rusting them. The vapour phase inhibitor usually comes in the form of brown paper...

Hi Mick, See my post at simple-bookcase-t49574.html I had a very similar experience. More Vicks than you can shake a large stick at - but the wood is beautiful. I've turned some recently and it was great to turn too. Cheers Steve

Hi Mike, I assume your tamboti is dry - because the sap is toxic. You should probably also be careful with the dust. Apparently, it is bad for the eyes and can even cause blindness. I would guess that it's not a good idea to breathe it in. Here in South Africa, the most important thing is to...

Hi all, Actually, now that I've been thinking about it, I'm confused. I was sure I bought East African camphorwood (Ocotea usambarensis). But I see from the Country Woods website (where I bought the wood), they now seem to list the true camphorwood (Cinnamomum camphora). From the various...

Thanks for all the nice comments. Bob: We are a bit spoiled with the weather - if you like it warm (it's 33 degrees centigrade today). Thank goodness for airconditioners. Jim: The "proper name" for the wood species is Ocotea usambarensis. You can type that into Wikipedia if you're feeling...

Thanks. They're square pegs of African Blackwood. In Greene & Greene furniture, they'd be actual pegs inserted into the wood (usually to peg tenons) - but I couldn't achieve that easily using the tools I had available, so they're just applied to the surface. They were shaped by rotating them...

Hi all, I'm a beginner woodworker (both flat stuff and turning) from Durban in South Africa. I've been hanging around here for a while now, but haven't gotten around to posting much. For the last couple of months, I've been working on a bookcase for my daughter's bedroom. It's quite simple and...

Here's a trick I used recently when butt-joining narrow boards into wider boards... Take a length of mild steel angle-iron. Drill holes for small screws at each end. Screw the angle iron to the top of your board, with the edge of the angle near the edge of the board (with a small wood...

Hi, I don't have the Leigh dovetail jig - and my memory is very fuzzy - so I'm not much help. However, here is some stuff from an article that I downloaded from the net on machine-cut dovetails: (It may not actually be relevant to your jig ... but maybe it will help) "Setting up to rout...

A hand grenade that passes undetected through airport metal detectors ?