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I got 99 problems but a wire aint one :-)

The only way I have managed to fit everything into a single car garage (and exactly what car would ever fit into a single car garage anyway - mine would just about fit a mini into it providing you were happy getting out of the sunroof) has been to buy an old transit van and use it as a woodshed...

I'd pockethole screw it underneath where it wont be seen - and glue for extra bite - hell, I'd even fill the screw holes with dowel because I'm like that :-) It wont go anywhere, end-grain or not. But seriosuly, I'd say that's a good time to use a pockethole jig without shame or a crushing-sense...

With regards to that table priced at £499: buying in turned legs at roughly a tenner each and making the rest from laminated furniture board (I'd bet a tenner thats what it's made from) all materials should come in at £100 ish. Set up to with jigs and templates, loose tenon joinery, biscuits and...

For me a 3d object is square when the distance between opposing corners is the same on each corner - not how it looks to an engineers square because wood is a natural product and never glass flat in truth. So, I try and separate out square and flat as measures. I'd examine every cut and every...

You want sprung beech slats - £20+ on ebay for a double http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replacement-5 ... 3a8e363bb2 Otherwise your mattress will wear much faster and a decent mattress should cost twice the cost of your bed at least so £50 is nothing in the long run

I'm going to be building my first drawers and want to create simple yet effective centre drawer runners - I find the bulky metal side brackets too "IKEA" and ugly and yet I dont like how side drawer runners stick. Can people offer advice on the pros and cons of centre runners and if they are the...

A moment of epiphany for me was many years ago when my partner bought one of those mini bamboos from IKEA - technically a grass not a wood it should be said. It must have been 4 inches when we bought it. It was put in a jar of water on the turn of the stairs and only and a couple of years later...

Axminster do a kit especially for sharpening mortice chisels but its a bit pricey at £40 http://www.axminster.co.uk/morticing-ch ... pening-set I watched this recently on cleaning resin off blades - seems decent and the same would apply to any drilling or cutting tool...

Looks a bit like red oak - was everywhere when I lived in the states.

A cheap and cheerful handheld circular saw (properly set up - and tested with some test cuts) can be adjusted to set its angle of cut and so will cut you a perfect 90 or 45 degree edge - set it up in conjunction with a decent angle measure (digital bevel is perfect - like this...

Thanks for sharing your experience Hemsby, I will have to do some research into chisel sharpening. I too have a lot of sideways play - the manual is next to useless as you no doubt know and I assume that the adjusters for that are the screws on the sides which seem to pinch the dovetailed track...

Check out the woodtalk podcast from iTunes as I'm just starting out at 40 and have picked up tonnes of useful info from listening to the back episodes - the presenters attend all of the very large wood shows and fairs in the USA and one of the comments I heard them joke about is the average age...

Thanks guys, some great advice and wisdom here - really pleased I asked this question as I can tell it will spare me a few rookie mistakes. I like the adage of keeping timber as long as I can for as long as I can - simple and memorable and I can see a good rule to stick to. Thanks also for the...

Sorry to launch another "beginner-stupid" question but I have been offered a few oak boards (kiln dried) some of which are a bit split at the end (10 to 20% of the length). To make usable stock from it is it best to rip a split board either side of the split and discard the centre section to...

IMHO there are so many in-built electrical safety mechanisms in todays homes, fittings and appliances that paying £45 an hour (plus VAT) and twice the actual cost of all fittings supplied is massive overkill for many smaller jobs. However, I think as far as tradesmen go, electricians and corgi...

Hi, thanks for the advice, I suppose I just underestimated the pressure required. Seems I will need a more sturdy table for it in that case. The chisels do have machine marks on them. Do I rub them over a standard chisel sharpening wet stone or do I need honing spatula types? I assume that a...

I picked up one of the Dakota morticers from Rutlands while the sale was on over the weekend. It seems a substantial piece of kit and generally good value and well built for a modern bit of kit. Being new to woodworking, and given the woodworking machine tradition of providing the worst assembly...

Stu, I'm not suggesting that I could have easily done what the electrician did with my eyes shut at all - he did a good job for the money and I was happy with it and he did things I could and would not have tackled. Just that having observed him fit out sockets and lights I realised that it is...

I get your point but I have a brand new house RCD installed and each machine is fused - extension leads surely cause more accidents through trips than they save by having an unnecessary fuse. They only need to be fused because they trail across the floor - if that makes sense. Otherwise sockets...