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Hello, Everything now planed smooth after the cauls were removed. Happily, all the long mitres joined up with seamless apexes and the boards look like thick lumps of walnut, but are hollow on the back and have no criss grain conflict, so they can be joined onto the solid timber sides without...

Hello, All the cramping of the long mitres done and left to cure overnight. Now comes the job of removing the glued on cauls. The ones on the edges, were easy to rip off with Tilly, my band saw, which just has the capacity to do it with the fence. After each one is removed, leaving about 1/16...

Hello, With equal respect, I have not said they shouldn't be used. What I did say is that there is always a tool which will perform the task a dado stack can, which is true. Absolutely true. And tools which are more commonly found in European workshops than dado stacks. So my point is, there...

Hello, Even if the piece was manageable, the board in the photo was, it took a minute to set that up for my reply. There is no case where a through housing is preferable to a stopped one, unless you can't do a stopped one because you are disadvantaging yourself with a dado head! Have you ever...

Hello, Arguably not one bit! A guide bush in a plunge router, run in a tee square, simple as you can get. Just line the routed cut out in the jig with the layout marks an rout away. You might need 2 passes, but this is what plunge router is for, a seconds work. But housings are shallow, so...

Hello, Grooves, along the grain; Dado, across the grain. These are optimised for rip cuts, essentially, the tear out cross grain would be horrendous. I have used a dado stack in my friends workshop in the USA. It was the only time in all the decades I have done woodwork and I have never found...

Hello, The cramping cauls dried overnight, so it comes to glueing up. First thing, always, comes a dry assembly. This gets all the cramps needed to hand, all set to the right size opening, glue and brush and damp rag to hand and is a good check to see if all the joints will pull together with...

Hello, It was the bottom photo of the Birdseye maple that I understood to be ambrosia, I didn't realise about the beetle thing. My legendary ripple, spalted, ambrosia board had the colouring of your Birdseye board, so I think it does exist without the Birdseyes. I'll see if I can dig out a...

Hello, Next comes cutting the slots for biscuits. Setting the biscuit jointer to reference from the inside face can only be done if all the components are precisely the same thickness. Ordinarily this is done with man made boards and not a problem, but with solid stock, extra care needs to be...

Hello, The panels for he top, bottom and drawer pocket bases were left to dry after glueing and clamping. Flattened with planes and sandpaper, edges trued for a datum and then sawn on the TS to size. Front to back dimension is fixed at precisely the size of the side panels between the heels of...

Hello, I think it is just a colour the wood takes on as it grows due to minerals in the soil. I had a piece of spalted and rippled, ambrosia maple once. Cheeses it was beautiful and I'll probably never see the likes of it again. Mike.

Hello, The holes in the screw blocks will be oversize to allow seasonal movement. Notice the large washers beneath the screw heads, to span the big hole underneath. Mike.

Hello, In fact the bed is supported by a heavy casting at the centre. The cast bed is full thickness in this area, to receive the mounting bolts, where the rest is webbed. It is possible the cast has sagged towards each end over time. It is actually not a terrible idea to put on a secondary...

Hello, As far as I can tell, it is an apex like a shallow roof. I will have to take the table off to investigate further, the cutter block, feed rollers and steel frame is in the way. And find my feeler gauges. Could be a lot to scrape flat. I'm not sure it is not intentionally machined that...

Hello, I've just been thicknessing some timber, nice new set of knives installed and I'm getting a bit of snipe on the infeed end. TBH the machine always has a bit as long as I've had it and I've always just hand planed it out. But today it was bugging me a bit, I should be able to get better...

Hello, The two side panels and the four, what will be stiles, were run across my spindle with a 45 degree chamfer block. The idea is that the stiles will join to the sides with a long mitre, so the scallops will continue, folding around the front. I can now measure the width across the sides...

Hello, I'm not too familiar with that bandsaw, but the likes of these I've seen before, it is usually to do with the blade guide/post fixings to the body of the bandsaw. I'm guessing there is a rack and pinion rise and fall that is housed between a a couple of metal plates, which is bolted to...

Hello Paddy, It depends on the application, there is no 'only one way does all' solution. For a wall hung cabinet, for example, I would likely put the tails in the sides, as the weight of the cabinet will tend to cause the joint to open and dovetails will resist that orientated this way. A...

Hello, Perculiarly, those dovetails are orientated the wrong way! Tails should be on the top and pins on the sides, the idea being, the sides do not part company from the top, outwards.. This is one instance where (when done correctly orientated) tail cutting first is probably better, as the...

Hello, It was a piece workers plane, so they could carry on planing during the long winter nights. A stand has been added and it has been modernised to electric light, it was originally a gas lamp. :shock: Mike.