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I have found this thread most reassuring, for years I thought I was the last person on the planet not to use a mobile or smart phone. The only time I miss one is when I meet family at the airport.

I've found this thread rather depressing, as a retired D&T teacher. I had very few colleagues with proper practical skills. only those who had converted from industry weren't frightened of a lathe. My replacement was even scared of a CNC lather we had been given by the Worshipful Company of...

I have taken to clearing up every time I leave my shed, since I had to help sort out the workshop for a friend's widow. There were so many bits and pieces he was unable to come and finish or put away but until the end he expected to be able to.

The survivors and relatives of lost loved ones in Grefell Tower wish there had been better standards, which were actively applied. When products are traded internationally it is even more important. One thing that must not happen is "marking of their own homework" Boeing 737 MAX.

When I built my kitchen 35 years ago I measured the spaces I had and what we wanted to use the spaces for and designed the units to fit and made the doors in the style we liked and have never wanted to change. When I helped my son a couple of years ago do the same in his place we didn't have...

I don't think for a lamp the wandering of the hole will be too great. I've recently been making slide whistles which require a piston to go up and down easily. I turned both ends to fit in the chuck, between centres, Drilled from each end of my blank with a good 8 mm bit (I started the holes...

It is possible, at least for me. I have been really lucky, I enjoyed my whole career. I went to technical school, then art school (brilliant experience). Worked as an industrial trainee/Toy Designer (until the 3 day week ended that). Retrained as a D&T teacher in Inner London, discovered I was...

I want to build a musical box for my granddaughter, who will soon be two. I wonder if anyone has any advice, particularly about a suitable movement. I think I would like it to be battery driven or if it is a wind up that the crank is one she will be able to turn herself. Also it would be nice to...

This flexible elephant was an experiment inspired by previous comments here. A cyclist recommended saving old inner tubes and using the rubber and a reply in a turning thread which suggested super glue to mend cracks. I made slots in the body sections with a dovetail saw, ran the glue into the...

We had this from 1994 until last autumn. I had to move our VW Type 25 TDI on because of the changes to the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London and that I cannot continue to maintain it. If only there was a current vehicle half as useful!! Airport pickups of our children, grand...

You are obviously far more experienced than I am but a thought occurs. It is obviously very fiddly fitting a thin blade and tiny shim in the clamp, if you are using thin blades most of the time couldn't you stick the shim in the clamp? Perhaps you could stick it with a weak glue and make it so...

This may be a stupid question but how do you hold your blank while you turn the foot without screwing the blank to a face plate or screw chuck? I remember turning the outside of the bowl to match a pre-turned plug with PVA cartridge paper PVA (modern equivalent your hot glue) but I always had...

I spun a copper dome when I was at teachers training college 45 years ago. I wanted to make a mould to form expanded polystyrene domes in. As mentioned above I used a very tough lathe even more solid than my graduate . As I remember It had a live centre to press the metal onto my pattern which I...

Other teachers were sometimes heard to say that practical lessons had an advantage because children enjoyed them. But I can tell you that what makes our subject interesting is the quality of teaching, the knowledge and enthusiasm of the teacher. Of course we here, I'm sure, all agree that our...

That's not quite fair, in my day I could get a class enthralled when I demonstrated a set of dovetials. I even got them laughing with the trick demonstration of the difference in strength of long and short grain.

I turned this in 1987 from a tree that fell in the "hurricane". I left it without any finish. I think when it was new the dark wood was a little more ginger but not much and the yellow only a bit brighter.

Freds show this evening if you didn't catch it is worth watching. Its about carpentry and wooden houses. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074n9m/fred-dibnahs-building-of-britain-3-the-age-of-the-carpenter

I'd be interested in seeing a picture of your set up. Also to hollow the pot what sort of chuck do you use to hold the piece?

Where is this done, anywhere in the southeast? I'll certainly keep some for turning.

We have quite a big Holly tree at the front of the house. Its roots have damaged a drain's inspection pit and it is pushing over a rubble wall and that could be dangerous. It has also ruined our path several times. The trunk of the tree is substantial about 30 cm diameter for about 2 meters and...