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Almost forgot to report that my flu vaccine hasn't killed me yet. Still time, of course. I've not been reading the latest conspiracy theories, but I do wonder how they cope with Trump joining the conspiracy by catching coronavirus :) Me, I'm more a cockup theorist. That's what the explanation...

The main reason Amazon pays little corporation tax is because it's not a UK company. It's residence is Luxemburg. The international tax law rules I mentioned in a previous post say that such a company only pays corporation tax if it makes sales (not delivers, that's a separate function) through...

I use shellac on my ukuleles and guitars. These get lots and lots of handling, and shellac holds up very well (but don't handle it much for the first week or two, to let it harden fully).

True, but then you're taxing profits, not income, which is in fact the current system! Moving all tax to VAT has regularly been proposed, but it's known that this puts a far higher tax burden on the least wealthy and a lower burden on the most wealthy. Complex, huh? Which is why it's worth my...

The deed is done, my arm was perforated an hour ago. So far so good. But I promise to report back if it kills me.

Amazon's corporate tax payments aren't an unexpected side effect. They are exactly what nations intended when they agreed the international tax law system. They agreed this because they didn't expect any significant cross border selling to consumers. Oops! Now the loser countries want to change...

As I'm just too young to get it free, I'm paying for the flu vaccine tomorrow. It costs the same as a very moderate bottle of wine. There is a risk of serious side effects, but much lower than my risk of being killed or injured by a lightning strike. I'm spending a few days a month in London...

Well, I'd do it the easy (though ugly) way. Overlap the faces, glue them together, and run a couple of M6 coach bolts through to take the load.

Good point, though with luck not human bodies. I have a disused chimney previously used for an oil-fired Aga and have twice had to remove pigeon corpses from it during the summer - crazed with avian lust, they swoon and fall in (or so I guess). One of those would generate a fine crop of flies.

They might be cluster flies, which come in as a gang from outside to hibernate. This link seems to have useful information: https://www.charnwood.gov.uk/files/documents/cluster_flies/Cluster%20Flies.pdf

I've seen a few ukes and guitars made from London Plane. To me they look best with a spruce top, which helps the lace wood pattern stand out rather than detracting from it. The nicest ones have the top bound in rosewood, separating the lacewood and spruce. So I'd go for a maple top, with the...

Sounds like you're a "micro-entity", so you can file simplified accounts. https://www.gov.uk/annual-accounts/microentities-small-and-dormant-companies

I do with Companies House for my gliding club. The web filing system is simple, and all they want is a very basic set of accounts. I used to have a consulting co, and did all the accounts myself. But they were simple, income/expenditure, no difficult allowances or apportioning of expenses...

Pumice pore filling works, but it still takes time. Maybe 2 hours total finishing for each item here, if you set up an efficient production line, but I'd budget 4. I've discovered there is no short cut to a high quality finish :( Like you, I'd run away from this deal.

The view of this lawyer is that the court would throw out such a claim. Judges are, amazingly, quite shrewd people. There's some very good academic research which shows that people aren't guided by the law, but rather by what they think the law says (which is usually wrong, even habitual...

I've recently tried pore filling with pumice. Not the proper french polishing version but my own lazy adaptation. 1. Two or three coats of shellac allowed to dry. 2. Sprinkle a little pumice on the work. 3. Moisten a pad with dilute shellac, rub away in a circular motion. 4. Gently sand...

Lacquer keeps shrinking, so even if you spray enough to sand level, the pores will reappear a few weeks later. If you repeat the process then you might be lucky second time around (or need a third go). Pore filling is the answer. Even then, a high gloss finish is a lot of work, it shows even...

A hand held belt sander is cheap as a way to start. A coarse belt and a fine belt would do a decent job. But you do need some reliable way to hold the piece you are sanding. From memory (I rarely use my own sander), if it's not clamped solidly the sander will shoot the workpiece back towards...

Destructive Dave, I think you need to see this with your own eyes. Take an offcut of your pine, plane it to 2mm thick, then glue two moderate sized pieces of the 2mm piece together with the grain at 90 degrees. Hang it from a nail and watch it curl and move over the next week! Rare earth...

If you char it the whole way through, yes. But wood constantly absorbs or loses moisture to the atmosphere, as humidity changes. Across a panel that size you could see 10 mm or more of movement across the grain, and that's enough to bend your ply over time. Building to account for humidity...