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I thought followers of Mark's excellent Wadkin threads might appreciate this https://www.youtube.com/user/tool613. Apologies if it has already been posted and I have missed it. Jim

Keith, As long as it sits flat and won't rock there seems little merit in screwing it down. If it's going to be a close fit it might be worth thinking about fitting one of those flush fitting hinged ring pull things so that you can easily get it up if/when you need to without resorting to...

Pete is absolutely right and the QS would be a good choice, but given that it is very likely that your block plane will turn out to be one of the planes you use most, it is important that you find it comfortable to use. Many block planes are too low if you have average or larger hands because...

My suggestion would be that you put a length of cork between the cross-grain side of the hatch between it and the skirting. This will allow for expansion of both the hatch and the main floor by compresson of the strip. It might be a bit of a struggle to get the hatch up and back again at times...

Completely agree with this - you have to apply some pressure somewhere, otherwise the wood will simpy vibrate over the cutters giving a very poor finish. The only qualification is that, if you are trying to plane out a bow you need to avoid pushng down on the bowed section, so a combination...

Yes, a very small home-made one held in a vice , with a pivot pin to rout some ply discs which had been roughly bandsawn in advance. The first three went well with no problems - kept my hands away from the cutter as I fed the ply through. Really can't say exactly what happend with the fourth...

Good idea to have a graduated set. Think I might have to do something similar. In a similar vein, I have a set of those precision machined brass discs available from Axminster which can be used in combination to arrive at any total thickness up to about 20mm - invaluable when setting depth...

Glad you're OK. I seem to have a switch in my brain that sets an alarm ringing when I put a digit in front of a chisel so, (tempting fate) I 've never seriously injured myself with one. I did have a nasty accident with a router resulting in the loss of three finger tips.. Routers shred flesh...

What a good idea. Do I assume from this that you much prefer to use your Domino on its base? I certiainly do. I've done a lot of very tricky jointing of curved components and found it much better to use the base on shims and ramps adjusted with wedges to exactly the required angle. I find it...

Her approach looked pretty casual and the safety aspects made me wince but the outcome looked OK. I did notice a nice flat polished back on her chisel too. Jim

You definitely need toughened glass and I would go for 6mm. You could probably go down to 4mm for the sides but again, have toughened - a necessity for any situation where children might be in close proximity. Laminated would be equally suitable but probably more expensive without any real...

I bought a piece (about 2"x22x24") of Masur birch some years ago. I think the Masur variety is just the normal species but highly figured. It is stunning and despite really wild grain and lustre it planes beautifully by hand (very sharp blade required) to a lovely silky surface. I really must...

I have had this and a sharp chisel and auger certainly help, but technique counts for a lot too. I find it helps not to bite off too much depth in one go, keeping a rapid but short plunge rate so that the chisel isn't buried in the wood any longer than really necessary. If you can organise a...

I certainly agree that it is much better to extract at source and I have an Oneida cyclone system for that, but there are situations where it isn't the answer. An example is where a lot of free hand sanding needs to be done in a situation not easily served by a ducted inlet. Here I use a...

That's really nice. Looks more like "conservation" than "restoration" but there's nothing wrong with that. Jim

That's right, it really is very secure. Jim

Mark, If you are maki ng more plane holders, you might want to consider smething like this, you only have to lift the plane half an inch to take it out - the top recess being bigger than that at the bottom. I find it very convenient. Jim

I recently had a conversation with a friend about saw blades. He had been out to Italy to look at Irwin's new multi million pound state of the art saw making plant. Subsequently he has done a lot of work using their new Weldtec blades and has been highly impressed by the quality and...

Son-in-law has recently bought a '66 850 Morris Mini-Minor, just like the one his Dad used to have even down to the colour, of which he has fond memories. The car has been christened "Morris" and looks good but in reality, is in need of restoration which starts this autumn. One problem is a...

One thing I seem to remember from somewhere is that in the immediate post-war period aluminium was a lot easier to obtain than steel; the reason that many relatively low production cars of the period which were not likelly to contribute to exports were made largely from aluminium. Jim