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Today I finished (give or take painting it when the weather gets warmer) a home-made woodturning lathe that I've been working on over the last month: View under the cover (which is there to stop wood bits getting into the motor, but is very quick to remove): My first ever attempt at...

I bought one of those and sent it back within a few days. It's been designed assuming a spherical head and mine isn't. It didn't seal around the face and the (optional-add-on) ear defenders didn't seal against my ears so it was next to useless.

First of all, I'll comment on your "first cheap combo square": these things are quite easy to adjust (although I realise it's probably too late if you've binned it). Get a needle file and take a bit off the bottom of the slot that the ruler bit runs in. Depending on which way you need to...

A small square. I really don't need any more squares: I've got loads of them. Nevertheless I thought it would be a quick and interesting project. I had never cut a bridle joint before and this seemed like a perfectly reasonable project to try one out on. I'm very happy to say that it appears...

That's right: OnShape don't own your drawings, they're just not private. Good choice: it's much better than Fusion.

If I were you I'd pop over to Wentwood timber near Chepstow. They won't have much pine (although they sometimes have some), but most of the timber there seems much cheaper than anywhere else I've looked so you'll probably get some nice Ash for less than you'd pay for pine from Nick's Timber. I...

I just followed the instructions in the maintenance section of the manual. I also lift the outer end of longer boards a little as they're going in and similar on the way out.

Have you considered etching rather than engraving? I've got a (home-made) pantograph (CGTK - Pantograph), but I think the etching process is more versatile and a bit easier. I'm sure the easiest and best option would be a CNC router, but then you've got all the space requirements. There are a...

Wheeled stand is definitely a good option. I've got the Makita and it works very well, but I obviously can't compare it to the Metabo or Dewalt. I had to do a little adjustment on the tables, but now it cuts with very little snipe, which is quite important. There are some pictures of the...

Were you tempted to mount the fixed jaw of the vice flush? I like having mine flush as I can hold longer pieces against the side of the bench when required.

Thanks. It definitely was hard work, especially since I was stupid enough to choose a cross-cut saw instead of a rip one. To be honest, with a rip saw instead of a cross-cut saw & with the addition of a vice, a sharpening stone and something better for groove making (plough plane or router...

I didn't make or use a doe's foot. I did notch a board as an upright planing stop: I guess that's what you mean. It was difficult to decide where to draw the line. I chose to class anything that was a single piece cut from the source timber as "free", but anything where two bits were joined...

A simple sliding lid box made out of a single plank of 22 mm thick rough-sawn Ash: What makes it unusual is what it was made with: Exactly 8 tools: a Stanley 4½, a combination square, a 3 mm chisel, an F-clamp, a pencil, a (poorly chosen) cross-cut saw, some glue and a leather strop. No...

Once the glue had been left for enough time to dry, I planed the face on the side with the gap-fillers and the bit that had previously snapped off. Once that was done I got back to the lid. First of all, I trimmed it to width (having trimmed an offcut to width first to use as a reference)...

To help planing the sides without a vice available, I cut some notches in some of the leftover ash: Unfortunately, as soon as I did the first pass with the plane, the bottom of one of the sides snapped off: I guess the groove wasn't big enough. At least it was a fairly clean break, so I...

After struggling with the marking up method shown in the last post, I decided to try something different for the last two: That worked much better and gave me a crisper line to work to. Unfortunately, on one of the joints I then proceeded to saw very carefully on the wrong side of the line...

That is a perfectly valid question, but it isn't the point of this challenge. I wrote the challenge rules with the explicit aim of minimising tools, not with the aim of minimising build tasks or maximising efficiency. There's no way I'd go about making this challenge box in the way I am if I...

As described in the first post, a workbench is assumed (and doesn't count), but only as a surface to clamp to / work on. Another beautiful box Derek, but I still don't know the tool list, so I don't know whether it qualifies as a "minimal tool" build. Without much to go on, I'll guess what you...

Yeah, it probably is a bit harsh ;) When I was writing the rules I was trying to encourage finding alternative ways of doing things. For example, using the plane iron as a marking knife. How about using a handful of plane shavings instead of a rag: they work very well for getting rid of excess...

Before moving onto cutting pins, I wanted to get the grooves ploughed in the long sides. The main reason for this is so that I could figure out what to cut out for the open end of the box. Ploughing was done by marking the sides of the groove with the straight edge of the combination square and...