Search results

Village carpenter - EXCELLENT! Top sawyer was "top dog" and the one in the pit the "under dog". Once had the luck to stay in a genuine Arts/Crafts country house (B&B was very reasonable). The hand made doors were panelled in style. Those to walk in cupboards, store rooms etc had finished rails...

What's a perfectly flat plane sole for, if you could scrape it so? Take a final shaving from a flat board; the No.7 is running on a narrow part of the sole just in front of the mouth, and the heel right at the back. However, once running on the board, all downward pressure is at the tote. This...

Amazon have some really HD castors. These have a cast body, containing a screw down foot, to level the item. Search for Skelang castors. these go from 250 to 500 kg per castor, depending on model. Total capacity best rated at 3x a single castor. Just got a set of the smaller ones for the band...

how does this compare for cutting ability against a standard 1/2", 2 odd kW router?

I bought a 4 column router lift from Ali Express to play with. Further investigation sugests that a Chinese CNC router motor might make a suitable power source. Air cooled motors go up to about 3 HP and water cooled more still. A 4kW 220v motor is around £150 +VAT. The 400 Hz 3 phase reminds me...

We started with the Ninja mini, which just about cooks for 4. Ours is the older version with 2 lids - the second for pressure cooking. It does this well, with no loud hissing. If it's a joint, you can swap lids and brown it crisp - magic pot roast! Air frying is good - toss in a little oil first...

In the past have (self) put in 2 gas systems with home built electronics linking circulating water temp to external temp / tank temp. I presume this is standard now on wet systems. For the last 30 yrs we've had no gas available, and have been all electric storage heaters - 10 in all spread over...

If you want a small square and a 45deg reference, you need an engineering square. These are available in a ranage of sizes from very tiny 30mm say to very large 1000mm, at a range of accuracies. I got my small ones from Kinex (in Czech or Slovakia?) when we were still in the EU. About £10 each...

The use of one or two small rare earth magnets to hold sash clamp blocks appeared in a FW methods of work some years back. How simple are good ideas (why didn't I think of it first!). The magnets cost only copppers each. It works a treat on my chinese? cheapies, but did need the odd casting mark...

The spring steel is good for shaw guards. No one seems to sell these, but any spindle HSE drawing always shows them. Work well with router table too. The spring steel can be drilled when locally softened. This is best done in a drill press by attempting to drill where required with a suitably...

Mine is a Fercell, with welded ~6mm steel impellor; there's no grille. Small offcuts that get drawn in from the saw do boing around now and then, but no daamage. Grille needed for plastic or ali casting tho'.

Mine also twin bypass motor. Easy to dismantle, sensible construction, just screws. Google numatic spares, some suppliers have exploded diagrams so you can see about any new rubber gaskets, etc. Prices do vary between suppliers so worth hunting. If I recall right, original motors are Mitsubishi...

I've been using Ali Express for some years, though it's not so cheap now it adds post brexit VAT! I'd not heard of this (Lazada)Ali Express alternative, until it was mentioned here in a post, so I thought to give it a try. I attempted to set up an account on the Singapore site. However it does...

The angle on my 310 Jet PT knives is about 35 deg - if it was a plane blade you'd be sharpening at 35 deg. New blades the same angle. Probably chosen for softwood? Cuts hardwood better but slower with a backbevel of about 10deg, with less chipping out of difficult grain.

One point no one has mentioned so far is the weld quality; not is it well stuck together, but is it stuck straight? Test the join with a ruler. Particularly with a small saw, a slight lack of straightness can cause all sorts of tracking problems. Generally speaking coplanar crowned wheels track...

Our tension guage is made from a £9 Aldi digital caliper. The 2 jaws are each clipped to the blade so the caliper measures the stretch in the blade over the distance between them. The general arrangement was outlined in Fine Woodworking 147 some years ago. You measure the extension due to...

I have 2 Mafell saws, an older version that plunges like a router on 2 columns, and the current one with a pivot. Both came with exceptionally thin blade bodies, which are OK on MDF and ply, but at 24 tooth, the cut is a bit rough. Both seem OK with standard Festool blades in both man made and...

I can reccomend the 1mm thick Chinese el cheapo diamond plates. They cost about 3-4 quid each and do well for bevels. Grades from ~120 up to 3000 are available. these are about 7x3" in old money, larger are available if you search. The thin plate is quite stiff; if it bothers you stick it onto...

No doubt we'll all have electric cars one day, but for me, not now, not yet. Early Vauxhall Leafs (leaves?) now have dying batteries, car virtually worthless. The batteries are getting better, but a 250 mile claimed range necesitates 30mph, just try 70 on a motorway in winter, heater on, wipers...

True! the compressor type are cheaper to run, but only useful at indoor temps or a bit below. The dessicant type like the Meaco Zambesi work down to 1 deg centigrade. They also give out more heat than the compressor type, which is why they cost a bit more to run. I believe Meaco do both types...