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Nothing wrong with a bit of weight. Give me a heavy plane every time in preference to a light one, weight gives momentum which carries the plane through tougher areas and it's not as if you need to lift the plane off the work between passes; just slide it back. Jim

I have only the small version but have never trusted the fence because of the dubious stability inherent in hand held use that several have referred to, For this reason, I always use it on a flat reference surface with various shims of known thickness under the machine or the workpiece. If I...

Interesting devopments. That's a big drop for a domestic garden. I'm not qualified to comment on Johnny's interesting contribution, but looks very helpful and it certainly shows the value of sharing technical problem on UKW. As for 11mm OSB as a stopgap safety measure, I think it would be...

That certainly is a lovely piece. Beautifully proportioned and nicely detailed. Congratulations. It would be interesting to see how it fares in the long term. I made this firescreen and accompanying stationery box in brown oak and sycamore. After 20 years in a room that gets only a little...

What a beautiful outlook. The paved area looks quite large, have you considered the possibilty that the loss of the decked projection altogether might not be such a huge thing if you could optimise the design and use of the paved area? I guess that's probably too radical. Rather than have a...

I've had decling for at least 20 years - never wanted it but my wife did .... I insisted on hardwood but caved in to treated softwood joists - contractor insisted they would be fine. Thery aren't. Started rotting away after about 10 years. and quite a bit of the decking itself I have had to...

John, The usual arrangemnt for this sort of thing is a box at the back of the machine connected to a powerful extractor which creates a strong rearward air flow past the machine and can be pretty good at capturing dust. Some thing around 300mm square should work but it ishelpful if this can be...

Hi Chris, A window behind the bench is exactly the problem I have too and another reason why I have to shuffle things around. It's also the reason why I have a basic mitre saw rather than the more versatile sliding type and the fancy Bosch £1300 glide arm solution just doesn't pass a...

Yes, I agree. Looks sound to me. I've thought about doing something similar for my mitre saw but the trouble is the bench it occupies has to double as the site for occasional metal working and has my engineeers vice on it, so I need to be able to shuffle the mitre saw around a bit to avoid...

A drawing of what you propose would help, but I would suggest that, at least for horizontal load bearing surfaces, I would use 18mm ply. OSB has its uses but I would avoid using it in anything where dimensional stability is important. Jim

Steady on, that sounds a bit above and beyond to me, although I must admit to an aversion the oil and grime associated with anywith an interal combustion engine. Must be something to do with a youth spent messing around with push bikes and old cars - I still have memories of lying on my back in...

Saw one working the other day at a commercial joiners shop. It was built on to the extraction set up and turned out one about every three seconds, They were about 50 mm dia. x 30mm. Fairly sure it just relied on compressing the material with no binding agent. Can't imagine these would have...

I live quite close to the sea but that does seem a bit extreme! The only time I clean it thoroughly is for a visit from a fellow woodworker - not sure why - shame, wanting to appear more virtuous than I really am? Whatever, it is a useful motivation because it gets rid of the layer of dust...

Will do. Jim

Many years ago, when ordering my Emir Supercabinetmaker bench (sadly no longer available) it seemed like a good idea to order it with a tool well; it proved to be a seriously bad idea. In practice it quickly filled up with tools and shavings to the extent that it was hard to see what was in it...

Sadly, no. I am one of those dinosaurs who doesn't have (or want) a smartphone and my ancient Nokia dumbphone lacks a camera. It does, however, have the advantage that you can leave it on a cafe table to reserve your place while queueing without fear of it being stolen, so the mystery of this...

Having done a bit more googling I think what I was looking at on the very dirty machine plate was the serial number, so if it was no 30 I guess that makes it a pretty eary one. Jim

Had the opportunity today to have a look around the workshop of Wests of East Dean near Chchester, a very trad joinery and furniture making business. They have lots of machinery from Wadkin, Sedgwick and other makes up to rather more recent SCM stuff, but nothing digital. But the machine that...

I think it's a matter of temperament, some of us are tidy some not - including me. My bench gets messier and messier until I can stand it no longer, then I have a putting away session and the process starts again. Not a fan of sweeping - it puts a load of dust in the air and we all know how...

Thanks Vann. What a beast. I'm a big fan of Wadkin restoration threads - never going to own one, but I love seeing them being lovingly restored. Are you aware of any restoration posts anywhere for an RM? Jim