Search results

I used to do a lot of GRP repair work on boats plus wooden & GRP boatbuilding, when i started on my own in 1984 my Dad & i bought 2 Racal Airstream powered respirators. In those days these were state of the art & there wasnt much other choice. I wore mine for years grinding fibreglass &...

Now Sold.

Still for sale.

Sorby Pro edge sharpening system, comes with all the various bits in the photo listed as follows. Woodworking Chisel jig Standard Gouge Jig Cutter tip holder Pro edge Proset Fingernail profiling kit Skew Jig Belts Alox 240 grit x 3 Zirconium 120 grit x 3 Alox 120 grit x 3 It was my late father's...

When i had my old workshop i often used to get people asking if i could cut or thickness some timber for them. They would always say, "Its ok i have checked it for nails". Nine times out of ten on checking i would find one they had missed. Most would baulk at the idea of paying for new teeth &...

We have a small independent Ironmongers near here, Macgregor Hardware near Vic house corner roundabout on the A13 at Hadleigh. Shop was owned by an old boy for years then bought by an english guy who if anything got it going even better, he moved oop north & sold the business to a young asian...

The Woodland trust was recently giving out packs of native trees free, Think it was the first 5000 people to apply got a free pack of 30 small saplings (whips) I applied on behalf of our club for a hedging pack, hawthorn, dog rose, hazel, crab apple, field maple, 6 of each & was sucessful, i...

Though not a workshop, when we had our extension built on our house i foolishly allowed the architect to specify a truss frame roof on it. The builder liked it as it was easier for him. In reality we ended up with a roofspace mostly filled with timber braces. There is room in the middle for the...

Trouble with 304 or A2 is half the time you really do not know what grade the stuff is, i have seen some screws that rusted nearly as fast as if they had been mild steel. If its going outside I would use A4. I usually use Anglia Stainless, https://www.angliastainless.co.uk/, good people to deal...

Having been a boatbuilder most of my life i have seen a lot of stainless steel used, To be honest Stainless is probably going to corrode in oak because of the tannic acid. A2 grade probably faster than anything else, Galvanised bolts are probably as good as anything if well greased.

At School I have a 1970's Startrite in my prep room, In the workshop itself we have a Minimax S45N, though smaller the Startrite is more accurate & better made. The Minimax is a good enough bandsaw but seems to have quite light wheels & seems rather more flexible than it could be. I couldnt...

Actually there is a way you can boost the cure of polyester resin & gel in cold conditions. Adding a percentage of cobalt accelerator to the resin & mixing it in well before you add the catalyst can allow it to cure down to very low temperatures. Most resin & gel is sold pre accelerated, the...

If it hasnt got chippings on it you could sand it down & re gel with Flo coat, this is just Gelcoat with a wax in styrene additive mixed in. This sits on the surface upon cure & excludes air thereby causing the gel to cure glossy. This is usually what fibreglass roofs are painted in when they...

I have moved a lot of machines in my time, first thing you must remember lathes are top heavy & a lot of others are too. A Harrison 140 or similar goes 750 Kgs on its stand & the centre of gravity is literally at the tray level. They tip over far easier than you would imagine & if it starts to...

Two strong blokes & a pile of strong timbers & pipe rollers & a turfor & that would be out of that back garden in a day or so. Few years ago a friend & i moved a 3 ton mill into a college, they had just laid new carpets in the corridoors so we had to lay a trackway of 1" plywood for the...

A builder i know was working on a house & one of his mates discovered a large wasp nest in the loft, it had to go due to the works so he drew the short straw. Arming himself with a tin of fly spray & tin of aerosol wasp nest destroyer he went up into the loft to give the wasps what for. One of...

At the school where i work we have a Union graduate wood lathe, it has a Numatic NVD750 as extractor, this is basically useless & does not extract anything but the minimum of dust. Woodlathes need a high volume low vacumn type of extractor that shifts a lot of air, the Numatic is a high vacumn...

Paragon paints are about the same price as Craftsmaster ie expensive. A friend of mine did a lathe in Tekaloid enamel & it came out really well, quite a bit cheaper. you can get that from Smith & Allan. I jusy ordered some for a machine im doing so see how it goes!

In my school we use pine, With dept budget slashed 40% last year & due to be cut again this year its simply down to cost. I have had to recost every woodwork project we did & most have been canned as too expensive to make any more. We have classes of up to 25 with most of them having a practical...

Watched a couple of them with the family, the guy restoring the stained glass window was a real craftsman. This weeks episode i was not so impressed, that rocking horse was a bodge, using pliers to mangle a nut & pouring glue into craked paint, then using body filler to pudden up the missing...