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Yes laburnum -- it's like many sought-after protected tropical woods, with a very exotic character, but grows here in the UK. I love the look of it - especially some trees seem to give a really deep chocolate colour (others a little more grey-brown) and the white to yellow outer layer is quite...

On the brighter side -- like lichen, it suggests low air pollution. the places I've seen most are in shady and clean air parts of the wet west of the country, with big trees nearby. I'd leave it unless/until it's obviously a problem for gutter blocking, even then may be easier to just clear the...

very nice -- I can never get my picture frame mitres just so but watch your finger tips I believe that for a short while Oliver Machinery also manufactured in Liverpool, including a wood-working vice - anyone know more about this?

I have only had limited experience with this, but I watched a demonstration fine rebuild of a couple of tenon saws where a large crack and a handle horn were rebuilt layer by layer (not as slow as you'd imagine as this stuff sets fast) with poundland superglue and a careful choice of sawdust ---...

I'm sure you have seen those little NO2 bottles (usually silver/chrome about 60mm long 20mm diam) littering some darker corners of our world --- these are used as some kind of 'recreational' stimulant ('laughing gas' - med students used to misuse it) I have sawn a couple up for use as file...

Suggest ignoring the screw-thread and a stubby woodscrew from the 'newer' (metal) side (although I have a couple of woodworking vices from about 1860s - not Record - that have holes with no thread and screw chamfers obviously meant to be screwed in from the iron side into the wood - so not that...

A couple of years ago I chanced on a very expert flint-knapping for tool making demonstration by an interesting man with long hair and dressed in an all-animal-skins outfit. Quick, impressive, highly skilled ---- anyone recognise this description? The results were faceted flint tools of high...

A lot of worker co-operatives haven't worked out but if the rules are well sorted, it's a fine way to go --- Swann Morton here in Sheffield is the best example I know, and John Lewis is fine too as a 'mixed economy' example ---- didn't work so well for Triumph m/cycles.

I've kept on with hobbies and sports/exercise in retirement, and combining both on the allotment and in the workshop, but the new thing for me was volunteering in the medical sector - starting with local hospitals and then national organisations like BHF and NHS_NIHR (in both cases on the...

looks like it would have been a standard English woodworking vice by Parkinson, Record , Woden or similar --- would need to know the width of the bench-top section removed for suggestions - these vices were mostly made in widths 10.5, 9, 7, or 6 inches, some featured quick release.

Agree re the nut on bolt -- thread should be OK. especially if you put a wood block in between. another way if it's a really large bolt is to use a steel drift of slightly smaller diameter than the threads

Amazing, would never have chosen those colours, but do like it, and very well executed - especially like the 'frame' lines -- seen a few of these now and wouldn't agree with the post saying the original background would be a (boring) Record/Woden blue -- I think it was a very garish emerald...

In the financial pages there is concern by some that UK (ie London) should not miss out on the big investments in SPACs (special acquisition companies), so popular in USA. I remember reading about the 'South Sea Bubble' of the 1700s - the height of folly was when investors poured money into a...

Thanks - I have a handful of metalworking carbide tips (failed qc at work, but fine) - will try those -- not a high output turner, but still.

Are these tungsten carbide tips?

for perspective: US deaths from Covid now just under 500,000 US deaths in the many years of Vietnam war I believe about 55,000

my hi-fi has gone down the plughole, it should have been washed in a jug

Back to your question DW: US news today reports that Opioid and Fentanyl deaths in the US totalled nearly 85000 in the last year -- the level had flattened off as opioid prescription by physicians dipped but now it's rising fast again with illegal fentanyl. I think deaths from Heroin, crack...

Thanks for quick response ------ About 8ins - I have some poss longish throw drivers already, my Q was rather about the frequency splitting options given a standard 2 channel stereo output.

If you already have a good vice with wooden jaw inserts, the classic method was to make a vertical groove centrally in one jaw -- then a block of wood with the rear face sawn into a V cross-section will give you what you want (not fixed in place except by tightening) - that variable angle jaw...