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Might it be a swageing tool for lead pipe to make wiped joints? Though I have no idea what the chunky washers might be for?

I know it’s not wood carving but masonry. All the way around St Paul’s Cathedral there are carvings of pigeons most of them are quite unique. It’s almost as though the masons had a competition with a sense of humour. I noticed them when I went for a walk because I was early for a lunch with the...

In the old days of the ilea when I was a woodwork teacher our benches were about 30 years old and needed to be resurfaced. The technicians came and reversed the tops so the underside was revealed. There were fixing points that had to be plugged but with new vice jaws the benches were as good as...

Thanks you saved me yet another horticultural disappointment! Martin

I once saw a YouTube where someone drilled holes into logs and put plugs of spoors in and got a fabulous harvest of edible mushrooms. I have several logs I intended to turn but never got around to that might be suitable . Does anyone know about doing that?

When Design and Technology was going to replace CDT when the National Curriculum was introduced, the new examinations suggested that all specialist workshops should just be considered D&T rooms, where any material could be used , even textiles!! Head teachers and timetablers loved the idea...

I knew lots the people who follow this site were like me. If I can I fix. My proudest repair was when I was trying to break the concrete lump at the bottom of an old lamppost in my garden. A flint shard was sucked into the kango. I took it apart and discovered there was a break in continuity in...

This article in yesterdays paper gives the evidence for low emission zones. I live in Bromley, one of the outer London boroughs effected. I support the scheme and was financially effected by it. We had two 20+ years old cars, we kept on the road because I could still work on them. But living...

Just in case you have missed it Fred Dibnah’s programmes are back on BBC 4. This evening one of his best was on, about the building of Norman cathedrals. It can be found on the iPayer. what I really enjoy is that he and his producer must have been really interested in the topics, not the...

Es and Ms are spacers when setting up type as mentioned above, though I thought that the width depended on the font size and was not uniform. Though I'm remembering school lessons from 60 years ago so I'm probably confused.

I’ve never had much luck drilling deep holes on the lathe, I’ve presumed that the stiffness of the bit, the bit following the softest part of the wood and one side of the tip of the bit cutting better than the other cause the wandering. So taking care as mentioned above probably is very...

Looks remarkably like a it of burnt toast!

The talk of accidents in school workshops brought back some memories of my 40 years as a D&T teacher. I didn’t have any serious incidents. From my earliest days my primary objective was to make sure the children left the room in the same or better condition than they came in in. In my first post...

An amazing and impressive piece of work. How did you ensure that the table didn’t tip over as the central support seems to have a small footprint? I presume that the table will be an heirloom and not just a celebration of you and your wife’s special day!!

This is an interesting TD problem. When I taught this we found the best way to understand the problem was to make a model. Obviously your bed should be made of more robust material than cardboard and the rollers would have to be better than paper fasteners. My brothers had wall beds which had...

My father used to tell that when he was trained as a pilot in Edmonton inWW2 it was so windy that he could occasionally take off in a tiger moth backwards.

What a brilliant introduction to this group. I spent the last 20 years of my career teaching D&T to profoundly disabled young people. The satisfaction and enjoyment so many of them achieved from designing and making was wonderful to be part of. I had adjustable height work benches, a bench top...

I really like the detailing at the top of the leg nearest the camera. The little chamfer at the top of the leg catches the light just right. It makes it look like the quality piece It is.

Thanks, I hadn’t thought of magnet catches, I think they would probably better than the ones I got.

Thanks this exactly the advice I was hoping for. Martin