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I did a spiral wooden stairs once with an acid catalized lacquer - Sadolins PV67. I had to evacuate the house for a few days due to the pungent odour. The plastic looking finish is not that attractive and not bulletproof either. I think you are just as well off giving it a few coats of a good...

Any burr veneer is liable to chip out if cut with a router. You are better to use a twin bladed marking gauge ( yes, another tool to buy ) . If you cut the inlay lines about 30 mins after glueing down the burr maple it will lift nicely as it will not have fully dried.

What a nice piece of furniture. I have lots of American Black Walnut pieces that I made and they all have turned that ' muddy brown ' finish. That is why it is worth trying to make a piece out of one lot of timber to keep the colour constant. I now spray walnut with a spirit dye before...

I built a small reading room with a telly many years ago and I'd add the following. Only ' coffee table ' books are worth storing unless you are into collecting fine books. It's pointless storing paperbacks as they are rarely read twice. Slanted shelves look like they are overcrowded from day...

It's pointless trying to blend a filler to try and hide the splits. Buy a box of Liberon shellac sticks and choose a colour. I would just use black shellac filler which runs into the cracks by a kind of osmosis. Black sticks can of course be bought individually.

Not so sure. I've been to Germany where they like to serve beer in stoneware crockery. I find it unnerving as I can't see the beer. ! Maybe make a nice box with some presentation glasses ??

Not me, a local small business and probably about 3-4 sharpenings. They were taking off about a mm at a time. I have two old Scheppach P/T s so not much chance to change the blocks out for a disposable system.

Correct. I should have said depth rather than width. I tried to sharpen the blades initially and found they would not touch the stone. Measuring confirmed they had reduced down from 19 mm to 13 mm from repeated commercial sharpenings. Can't believe I didn't actually notice . :rolleyes: . I now...

I bought the Scheppach version with a jig mainly to sharpen my planer knives. www.fine-tools.de carry range of Japanese water wheels and it's worth investing an a finer grit than the standard. However I found the blades had reduced so much in width from repeated sharpenings I had to buy a new...

Had one in my shed once. The bu##er would jump 8 feet to the rafters when I turned the light on. I couldn't figure out what he was feeding on until I found a chewed bag of bonemeal. He succumbed to a steel trap which I had to screw to a board to stop it flipping. Rats in the yard are manageable...

A typical female rat can have up to six litters per year, producing up to 12 pups per litter. They reach sexual maturity at nine weeks so in theory one female rat can reproduce 1250 offspring per year. Of course there is a natural death rate but if you have rats around the house it's time for...

A miter protractor is a handy tool for laying out angles. Just lay the sleepers at the desired angle and take a reading. The better protractors tell you the exact angle to cut. Don't bother with digital models - an analogue dial type like a Starrett work very well. The question is how to cut...

The sad truth is that cheap routers are usually badly built. You won't know until you switch it on and feel how rough they run. For a small router you don't need 1200 w. Smaller motors at 500 - 600 w are fine for 1/4 " trim routers. I recommend the Makita range as they are exceptionally smooth...

Far safer to mount the chuck in the headstock and make a horizontal jig to hold the workpiece. Start with square stock and turn the piece after the hole is drilled.

Cutting multiple dadoes to construct cabinets has kind of fallen out of favour now. We probably all watched too much Norm Abraham back in the 90's :rolleyes: However a table saw with a dado head is still the best way to do this IMO. A router table will not give you the blade to fence...

Wouldn't we all like to start again. :rolleyes: 5 x 3.5 will soon fill up so keep the machinery in the center and power tools around the periphery. You can't run underground pipes to everything so plan for some overhead ducts, preferably metal. The big argument against an outside extractor is...

I think you are referring to the beading used to hold the panels in place - technically referred to as a bolection ? I have to ask why is the original ' shot ' if it's a new door ! ? Originally mouldings were made with hand planes and there were hundreds of patterns. Nowadays most people will...

People have gravitated from the table saw to the miter saw for all crosscutting nowadays so I would try and buy one with maximum capacity. That means a minimum of a 10 " blade and preferably a 12 ". The quality of the cut is also important. A cheap saw is fine for 2 x4 carpentry but if you are...

As above, I think it's best to get it to a Makita service agent. Prices can be stiff however and it may be more economical to buy a new one. I always find Makita routers to be exceptionally smooth running.

Yes, same here with a sliding table. My only gripe is that the table takes up a lot of space. Before that I had an Electro Bekum with a drop down table- a much better design. Americans don't seem to have the same space constraints that we have.