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Whatever you do do not use beech. I worked at a boatyard in Old Leigh back in the 80's, there was a timber company there that imported beech from the continent for the furniture trade. Of course a board would often "fall over the wall into the alleyway" In exchange for a few beer tokens. The...

A heads up for all you woodworkers who like a bargain, Lidl's are doing a special on powerfix japanese saws at the moment, a small dovetail or flush cutting saw with one fine & extra fine blades & a larger rip & crosscut jobbie with double sided blade. A penny under seven quid for each. I bought...

As has been said before, the bottles are Boc property & are rented. They have tightened up to the point it really isnt worth trying to have them refilled. Unless you really need oxy acetylene it isnt worth the hassle. Most people today use Mig welders & the price of Tig gear has come down...

I worked as a boatbuilder for most of my working life, this meant using machines with no extraction at all, they just spewed to the atmosphere. Also did a lot of repair work on GRP boats which meant a lot of grinding GRP. Back in the early 80's i was one of the few who wore masks regularly. When...

I still have a rawlplug chisel, it has removeable star drill bits that go into a tapered hole in the end, bit like a morse taper. I also have an old blue & orange rawlplug tin that used to contain blue asbestos, this was the stuff that you mixed into a putty with water or spit & rammed into the...

Jennor timber, very good to deal with. I use them a lot ordering timber for the school where i work.

I was given an ML4 some years ago, its headstock was rattly to say the least, On pulling the spindle out i found it heavily scored & bearing worn badly. My father in law suggested a novel repair he had learnt when on national service. I put the spindle in the Super 7 & got rid of the scoring...

My first lathe was a Myford Super 7, a good machine but i always found it limited due to its tiny headstock bore. Myfords are also quite light & somewhat flexible. They are a modelmakers lathe & Myfords marketing was brilliant! It was replaced with a Bantam 2000 (im lucky in having 3 phase...

As a boatbuilder i have used a lot of Iroko, i have never thought it to be an oily wood in fact far from it! Well seasoned stuff tends to be rather dry. In fact the dust from old stuff is positively lethal & comes of the saw or planer like smoke. I have never degreased it & never had any...

Having worked as a technician in a college & school i can say that hss is definately the way to go, carbide tools will be rapidly wrecked by the kids, it doesnt take long to learn how to grind hss tools & they cut far better when sharp.

I just found a toothed iron while sorting my late fathers workshop. It was made by Aaron Hildick (diamond) mark warranted cast steel, fine teeth 26 to the inch, never really knew what it was for but having read about them i think i will hang onto it!

Thanks gents, thats saved me a few bob!

Its similar to the one in the photo except it has imterchangeable jaws each attached by 2 allen screws. Seems like i might be ok!

I recently acquired an ex schooll Union Graduate lathe & its now wired in & running, It had quite a bit of tooling including a 4 jaw scroll chuck. Unfortunately all but one set of jaws were lost. Its an APTC Toolmex made in poland with part no 3704-100. Im assuming it was originally supplied by...

The only time i have seen Boschmann tools is in the back of vans that appear as if by magic near building sites & industrial estates. Usually being flogged in a very pushy style by Irish "Travellers" who insist they are "Bosch". Just like the orange chainsaws that look like Stihl. And generators...

Thanks for the info, great site! nice to know who made it. From that site it would appear to have likely been made before 1914, so Reg would have not have been the first owner by a long story. The base on mine had lterally come right off, i think it was glued on with hide glue or similar &...

I just restored this wooden plane, probably German? it once belonged to Reg Patten who was a well known Shipwright & builder of Sea King yachts at Leigh on Sea. I acquired it last year from a scrap dealer who had cleared Sea Kings yard when it finally closed down. Unfortunately it had got damp...

I work in a school as a workshop technician, now most schools used to have small scale metal casting facilities in D&T normally in aluminium. Today many wont do it due to being risk averse! However its still on the syllabus & often acomplished using low temperature casting systems. I remember at...

Well im very new to this so not an expert at all. East coast Fibreglass & Easy Composites both sell the Javac rotary vane or clones thereof. The Airtech pump is also a javac clone. The Javac are sold as being for continuous duty. One thing that i have learnt is that regular oil changes are...

I just bought a two stage vac pump from Airtech UK of ebay, 4.5cfm 1/2hp motor. Its virtually identical to the Javac but at £142 rather cheaper. I have bought it for vacuum bagging GRP laminates, resin infusion & veneering mainly on boat parts. The size is ok for doing quite sizable mouldings or...