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3" is about the maximum thickness that can be easily, cheaply, and reliably dried. Above 3" and the costs skyrocket, plus you'll get dramatically increasing problems like checking as corners get cut with the drying/kilning. There's a lot to be said for buying really thick blanks direct from...

Congratulations on a tidy and ingenious job. One possible opportunity for improvement. I see you use the BenchDogs fence, excellent isn't it? When used with a flag stop I find their short fence, the one that locates to the right of the cut line, invaluable for cross cuts shorter than about...

You made a very tidy job of your table Bernie, breadboard ends are always challenging but you've sorted them just so.

Good for you for sticking with it. 👏

I've used most of the main diamond stone brands, I believe the best to be Atoma. I've also used the Ultex/Vaunt stones, they're not as good as Atoma, but for most applications they're good enough. And the price difference is just so big that you'd be crazy to disregard them.

Congratulations on gettng your project to the home straight! And kudos for pausing before plunging into finishing, a mistake at this stage is a sickener. I've posted before on finishing pale timbers like Sycamore. There are a few traps that you need to avoid. You mention Polyvine, but be very...

+1 Yesterday I had the freedom to live and work anywhere in Europe, waking up today that's no longer the case. I get that the vote's done and it's time to move on, but the truth is that right now I feel the loss of that freedom sorely, a lot more than I expected to. I've got duel citizenship...

Step one. Calibrate your Domino. There are two things to be calibrated, the location of the central scribed line on the transparent window, and the location of the pins/paddles to the right and left of the cutter. They're not shipped calibrated, although as the years have gone on there's a...

I'll leave others, better qualified to answer your question. But I'd love to see photos of the finished project, sounds like a lot of fun, if my daughter heard of this I bet she'd want one for festivals!

Do you mean the hole drilling guide? I've got one, I don't know if it's a Mk 1 or a Mk 2, but it's unused. Incidentally, I don't know what the difference is between Mk 1 and Mk 2 but it can't be much because the two options were sold side by side for quite some time. If you're interested it's...

That'd be a great workstation for dovetailing. 👏

I agree that a lot of ingenuity went into building that bench, but I'm not sure he's ended up with anything worthwhile. I suspect it's more gimmicks than practical solutions. It's basically a lot of small capacity, economy machines that swing from underneath the bench to on top. Woodworkers...

Incidentally, couple of tips for squeezing that extra bit of accuracy out of parallel guides, 1. When calibrating only use a ruler to set one of the guides, set and calibrate the second by butting it up next to the first guide and align the two stops. That way you're guaranteed that the cut...

Benchdogs have a manual for their parallel stops, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F_0IOZy81vYWvfmfsQsVHdu5bbf5SZKz/view but it doesn't show how you might rip anything less wide than the rail itself. I'm interested in this as I use a few Benchdogs products and have generally found them to be...

Exquisite work, it's all delightful but the escutcheon plate is just sublime! 👏

Just be aware it's not foolproof, this won't mean much until you've got one in your hand, but when you do you'll see it registers from both the inside and the outside of the drawer side, but with no indication which is the correct option! So don't assume that a firm registration is...

The workshop where I trained were steeped in the Arts & Crafts tradition, and consequently used to air dry a lot of their own timber. They had the most picturesque drying sheds I've ever seen. Those were indeed happy days!

You'll normally get spalting when the felled log has lain on the ground for any appreciable period of time. Incidentally, the way this often works is the landowner will fell trees and stack the logs into discrete piles, when there's enough piles to warrant it an auction some weeks or months in...

That's a great question! And I keep meaning to start a thread addressing exactly this point. IMO turning a bench from this, Into this, Adds hugely to its practicality. Besides the obvious advantages of having your tools right at hand, you also then have a useful shelf where you can park...

I've never come across Himalayan Cedar, but most cedars will do for drawer bottoms. I've been using Spanish Cedar, sometimes called Cigar Box Cedar, for drawer bottoms recently as I picked up some wide, quarter sawn boards for a good price However, for the very best aroma I think Cedar of...