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Following on from my comment about the cutter protruding from a very flat sole, I've exaggerated the cutting depth in the attached diagram hugely but in the middle of a board (on edge and narrower than the cutter) wouldn't the geometry look like this with the plane sole making contact with the...

As someone who has spent a few hours flattening my 5 1/2 plane to less than +/-0.75 thou, and not really seeing an advantage in actual practice, could someone explain to me what happens if you have a truly flat plane sole and then you have a cutter which protrudes more than a few thou beyond...

Check out the Projects page, I've just posted some photos of it. Clive

I posted a photo of this in the "post a photo of the last thing you made" thread a couple of days ago, but I thought I'd add some more detail here. This was my first attempt at building an acoustic guitar. This is a steel string guitar based on a Martin 0-28 with a slotted headstock and 12...

True, I do buy pencils by the box, no idea where they all go to. However, I've given all the pencil pots away.

During the build of my acoustic guitar I decided that I needed a paring chisel to carve the heel. Rather than give in to my natural impulse to buy yet more tools, I decided to make one. And here it is: It's made from oil hardening tool steel (i.e. O-1, or gauge plate) with a beech handle and...

I posted a quick photo of the finished guitar in the "Post a photo of the last thing you made" thread a couple of days ago. I am putting together a more detailed post which I will post in the near future. It's based on a Martin 0-28 design with cedar/mahogany construction, slotted headstock and...

Here's a couple of pen/pencil pots, elm and ash (l-r). 100mm high by 75mm diameter approx. Inspired by a Richard Raffan design in one of his books. These make great gifts. Clive

I thought that scraping doesn't actually provide a smooth surface, for a machine tool slideway this is an advantage because it traps oil for lubrication. When I tried to scrape a plane body a while ago I just ended up with a rougher surface which provided much more friction than the original...

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Rob, I've used the plane mostly for the guitar struts, which are spruce, and the edge holds well without any visible chipping. I've not given it any heavy use. I believe that the tradeoff of hardness versus toughness depends on the choice of tempering...

I needed a slim screw jack for a specific setup on the mill so I turned this one - The base diameter is 25mm and the height is adjustable from approx 50 - 125mm, with the two spacers. The only "novel" thing about this design is the use of a commercial spherical bearing to support the top so...

I needed a small plane to help shape the struts on my acoustic guitar project so I made this little plane:- It's made, from beech, in two halves, split right down the middle with each side of the cavity sawn/chiseled out before gluing the two halves together. After a little fettling, this...

One more project from me - an audio rack. This is a very simple minimalist design in steamed beech, constructed with mortise and tenon joints. Now I may be kidding myself but the sound from the cd player is now better than it was with the previous metal hifi rack (manufactured by Target), my...

Here's another recent project - a TV stand. A straightforward simple design using oak, with mortise and tenon joints and an oil finish. The solid shelves gave me some practice with jointing, but the oak did give me some issues with tear out. Still, that gave me some further practice (or...

Here's a steel string guitar that I recently completed. It's the first acoustic guitar that I've built. It's based on a Martin 0-28 design with western red cedar soundboard and african mahogany back/sides. The neck/body joint is a traditional spanish style (i.e. no dovetails, no bolts). Sounds...

Is this any use - a brief guide to EN steel types:- M-Machine Engineering and Fabrication.

Try M-Machine:- M-Machine Metals, Engineering and Fabrication. Clive

My 1800W ceramic fan heater warms the workshop up much quicker than my previous conventional 2kW fan heater. The ceramic heater has a higher air flow rate so for providing localised heat it is surprisingly effective when I'm standing at the lathe or workbench. Some manufacturers state what the...

Hi Mark, Maybe I'm chasing my tail trying to get the perfectly even rim. I did try to form the rim before I hollowed out most of the inside, but clearly that didn't work quite so well. Clive

Yesterday, after my last post, having re-turned the outside to a satisfactory roundness, I then proceeded to turn the inside of the bowl. Having finished this, I see that the outside of the bowl is now 0.9mm wider on the diameter along the grain whilst the inner diameter is nicely round. The...