Search results

The 3.5:1 by volume ratio is critical. Personally I mix in two stages. Start with all the powder and half the water, mix until it resembles the crumbly mix you might use in baking. This first stage takes some determination, it's all too easy to think it's impossible and slop in some more water...

A work bench is a great place to learn about edge jointing, the quality standards are lower than with furniture so it's a gentler introduction into what can be quite a frustrating process. You don't need ever longer straight edges, I edge joint boards for 16 seater tables with a 600mm straight...

I discovered the Chris Pye book after I'd successfully done some basic letter carving using just the chisels and gouges I already owned. I agree that in many ways it's a terrific book, but I was astonished to learn that I should have had lots of expensive carving chisels and honing slips that I...

I know one guy who stood some 2" wet Holly boards directly against a radiator, it took two or three months to get down to where he needed it to be, but the warping was pretty bad and he ended up with 3/4" boards.

I don't know why, but you can get away with far cruder filling on a floor than on furniture. It's almost as if the eye applies different standards, look carefully at the wooden flooring in commercial properties and you'll suddenly see loads of not very accurate filling, often just grey epoxy...

If Holly stains it looks awful, and as long as the moisture is above about 15% it's at risk of picking up airborne pathogens which cause staining. Therefore most woodworkers I know force the drying even though they know they'll lose a fair bit of the timber to splits. The alternative is losing...

Blimey, is that what they now cost. I got my DF500 shortly after they were first launched, it's one of the original type with sprung spacer pins instead of folding pegs, I can't remember the exact price but I think it was about £300. Incidentally, it's performed faultlessly ever since, despite...

That's impressive! =D> I regularly make pieces with cross grain stringing, sometimes just 1mm wide, Cross grain stringing is one of the trickiest jobs I do as a cabinet maker, right up there with making a classical jointed chair or sunburst veneering. So I take my hat off to you, that's...

Why do hobbyists keep doing this to themselves? Don't start a project without a plan and a cutting list, then you can check that you've got sufficient timber before you make a single cut. Give yourself a safety margin for error, have some extra timber on hand in case of ****-ups. Timber is...

I'm with Andy/Tasky. There's loads that can go wrong using a roundover bit in a router. The router references off the workpiece, so if the workpiece isn't dead square and true the, the roundover runs in and out accordingly. Also setting up a roundover bit accurately isn't all that easy...

Laburnum occupies a special place in traditional British furniture making, apart from Bog Oak or iron stained Oak, it's pretty much the darkest British grown timber you'll find. Furthermore, it's one of the few timbers that darken upon exposure to moderate amounts of light, so even relatively...

How urgent is it Mike? I'm absolutely chocker at the moment , but if you can give me two or three weeks I can post you some Sweet Chestnut scrap for finishing experiments. As a rule of thumb, apart from medullary rays then anything you can do with Oak you can also do with Sweet Chestnut.

You'll be fine with a 2mm or a 3mm cutter, obviously 3mm gives you a bit more tolerance for sawing so that's what I'd recommend for your first go at this technique. The price you pay is that flushing down the sawn edge is a slightly longer job. Personally, I prefer to get a coat or two of...

In this month's "Fine Woodworking" (December 2018, number 271) there is a fairly detailed guide to making a country Chippendale style chair. It's quite an in-depth look at the project, well illustrated and running to about 15 pages of the magazine. The article explains many of the methods that...

Not so much a jig as such, just a platform set at 25 degrees for the tool to rest on. You're right that the tool holding platform can be an issue. I've seen and used plenty that are pretty bad, either tilted at an angle so you can't get the tool square to the belt/wheel, or that won't hold the...

Power grinding removes metal quickly and with little effort. If you're using thick plane irons made from A2 steel then life's just too short for the massive honing sessions you'd need without a grinder, before long you'd be talking 100+ manual strokes on even a coarse diamond stone to raise a...

This is a whopping great plinth for a sculpture. It needed to be knock down for transportation to France and installation indoors, yet also retain very high accuracy in order to accommodate a turntable mechanism inside. XL Connectors worked a treat, I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

The question what’s the strongest, dowel or M&T, is a pointless red herring. The fact is that for domestic furniture in almost every case they’re both plenty strong enough. It’s like asking if a Porsche is faster than a Ferrari when all you need is a car for the daily commute. A second reason...

I believe Festool are soon to release a second range of connectors that can be installed with the smaller 500 Domino. I've used the XL700 connectors and they're very high quality, not cheap but they certainly deliver.

There's nothing wrong with dowel joints, but a problem you may well encounter is sourcing good enough quality dowels to make a decent dowel joint. You need a dowel where the grain doesn't run out, and one that delivers a snug fit without any "ovalling". Find those and you're laughing, without...