Recent content by pidgeonpost

The wheels on my existing grinder are already below their original 6" diameter so action is called for one way or another. Good point about the CBN wheel; something to consider.

Thanks. My hand sharpening efforts are getting better, but not better enough so, despite my reluctance, I'm leaning towards one or other of the powered systems. Funds won't stretch to the Sorby or Tormek offerings, even secondhand. The Einhell mentioned above might fit the bill though.

Thanks for your replies and encouragement, folks. I guess most of us hit something of a brick wall at some point so I shall persist, and I may do a 'refresher' at some point. @Hugh M. I've done between centres to rough out cylindrical stuff and turned down to enable gripping in a chuck prior to...

Last year I bought a s/hand lathe with a view to doing some small scale turning. This was partly with the intention of using up accumulated oddments of timber left over from larger projects, and partly for the fun of it. I'd done a small amount of turning 10+ years ago, mostly knobs or handles...

We have an ancient Zanussi condenser drier - 20 years old if it's a day. One failure in all that time when the drive belt failed last year. Replacing it was easy enough once Z sent me the belt path. I'm from the 'clothes-horse-in-front-of-the-fire' generation but 'er indoors has to have fluffy...

Ah yes, sharpening! Well, since you mention it... ;) Welcome along Roostay - some really helpful folks on here.

When I bought my TS2010 tablesaw the dealer had an ex-demo model, and offered a deal on the sliding table extension and the table length extension on the outfeed. It was a good deal, but after setting it all up I realised that not only was the whole shebang too big to leave fully assembled in my...

A situation familiar to many, welcome along! :)

Chisels, as with some other tools, can have a very personal connection. I bought a selection of Ashley Iles bevel-edge chisels with bubinga handles some years ago when I wanted to improve on my motley collection. They're nice to use, but have spent most of their lives coated in camelia oil in a...

This particular pinch only happened to me once when I was only 5-6 years old. My father was an electrician and had a message (no phone) to please call at the local blacksmith and farrier to investigate an electrical fault. I accompanied him and got fiddling with the blacksmith's leg vice...

Ah, but it's the 'once you've got it' bit that's easier to come by for some than it is for others! 😊 Although I promise myself that I'll 'get it' if I try hard enough for long enough I still fall back on my old Eclipse jig from time to time.

In fairness to the gunsmiths they replaced my Lee Enfield with another one but it was a 'bitsa' and all the metalwork had been blacked whereas mine had been all original with a nice patina on the stock and metalwork. When I bought it there was a competition sight fitted so I guess it was used...

Obviously some committed shooters on here. I've had a few air rifles over the years. Started off with a BSA Cadet, then a couple of Airsporters and HW97K which I sold a couple of years ago and bought a BSA Ultra SE. We moved house and the 97K made a hell of a rattle which I feared was going to...

Spot on with the cost of additional tooling or accessories. These can cost as much as the lathe. I like the ML8. I had a green one but sold it for something smaller. Wish I hadn't. The only minor irritation was that the bed tube could get full of shavings causing the tailstock to jam when moving...

Whoa - steady on there! An engineer? Moi? :LOL: