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TBH I've never seen the point of so-called MTF benches. Have peered at a few youtubes but still mystified. Seems to be a gadgetised fashion item more than anything. Is there something particularly useful about them? Am I missing something?

It's very easy to make your own feather boards, any size/shape you like, from off-cuts of timber. Then you just need a means of clamping it to the saw table - G clamps, bolt holes etc.

Because it's extremely unlikely that I would ever have my hand, with or without a glove, anywhere near a moving blade, anymore than I would accidentally stick it in an open fire, or the mouth of a wild beast! Also because gloves can improve handling of heavy and /or splintery pieces and not...

"Bangy bangy sticks" are often referred to as "mallets". But a normal little steel pin hammer is probably better for adjusting a plane blade.

If you mean removing waste and trimming the end grain at the bottom of your bridle joint then "paring" doesn't come into it - it's more just heavy chopping. Start about 10mm from the line to chop out the bulk with heavy mallet work and a firmer or mortice chisel. Then work not quite up to your...

I've seen this written before but wonder if it's a bit of a myth? I use a pair of rigger gloves where necessary, with bigger boards/timbers, as the improved grip gives much better control and surely must be a lot safer. Not much use for protection (except from splinters) but definitely good for...

Private enterprise has failed to provide the necessary. Why do you think this is?

I've gone for the Makita UD2500. £225. https://www.lawson-his.co.uk/makita-ud2500-2500w-electric-shredder I need the organic material even if not composted, to bury in new beds in this hard pan clay soil. Also as a mulch.

You'd probably care a bit more if you noticed the number of immigrants working e.g. for the NHS at every level; about 20%. They are desperately needed there and elsewhere.

Because otherwise they would be homeless.

Surely a contradiction in terms? You've got it completely upside down. Council house building was highly successful but Thatcherite ideologues said private sector could do it better. Private sector failed completely and left us with a housing crisis. New Labour did even worse and de-regulated...

Plenty of places doing courses and no doubt an interesting experience but I doubt many of their alumni end up making a living by selling furniture, least of all at the expensive designer furniture "high-end" of the line. It's a tiny little niche market, for the very well off. If furniture design...

Exactly. Successive governments have failed to build more houses. They have also failed to regulate and control existing stock and new builds. This has led to the highly profitable house price inflation bubble which started before Thatcher but was given a big boost by selling off council houses...

Immigration is a fact of life and we actually need them. Picking on any one homeless group as blameworthy for house price /rent inflation is just lazy thinking. What about second home owners, empty properties, lack of council house building, low incomes...etc etc

Rents and house prices are both inflated by the property bubble.

How would you solve the housing crisis?

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/property/what-now-costs-rent-home-25936813 "As of July 2024, the average monthly private rent in Birmingham, UK was £1,003, which is an 11.4% increase from July 2023. In the city center, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is between £900...

But free market rents are astronomical, which is the whole point of "social" housing. Nobody who could afford a typical rent would choose to live in social housing. https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/property-news/average-rent-london/

No not at all Diver Fred said he's selling up anyway. The general point I'm making is that the private sector has completely failed to solve the housing problem since it was freed up over 40 years ago. In fact it has made it worse and turned it into a disaster. Like the curate's egg I'm sure it...

nor me. Lowest level of state pension for me and 'er indoors plus small savings after selling up and downsizing.