Search results

I understand/have heard that yew is pretty durable, although have to say that I've never used any. Presumably air-dried would be better for an outdoor project than kiln dried material (or at least kiln drying would be unnecessary) Cheers, Dod

Gary, Another vote for the Philly method, I have a really cheapskate biscuit joiner with a fairly poor fence and I find that registering everything off the table top gets me decent results (and will put the slot in the middle of a three quarter inch board). Cheers, Dod

Bean, Thats a great looking box, did you spalt the timber yourself or did you obtain it in that state? Can't say I've ever seen any spalted sycamore for sale around these parts. Cheers, Dod

Some quite big things have been made from wood though.... :D ..although I expect a steel frame might be stiffer or lighter. Dod

Bob, Thats a great box. It must feel quite good to have seen the timber right the way through it's life and then use it. Cheers, Dod

Ewan, I really like them, and as for the handles well they must be right if they were specified by the recipient. I rather like the nickel finish. Jobs a good 'un. Dod

Phil, One thought to consider may be the "foot print" of the design. I made a similar one, very crudely I might say, and whilst extremely comfy to sit in it was absolutely huge. I've been thinking about building a couple more similar but not sure what I'd do with them for the eleven and a...

My view on this (perhaps wrongly) is that there has been something of a Darwinian "survival of the fittest" going on for all of the old stuff. The poorly made stuff has largely fallen by the wayside/gone the way of all flesh, and what we are left with these days is the "better" stuff. I'm sure...

Dave, I have both the lathe and chuck that you mention. I have found it to be pretty good (considering the money) and made a variety of fairly useless artifacts with it. Mine came with a stand, which is pretty poor - I am thinking about building a better one, but probably not all that soon...

Thats exactly it. I do some of my own basic carpentry, but that is because when I do it myself it doesn't need to be a profitable activity. More often than not it takes longer than it would take to wait for a pro, and probably costs almost as much, and is probably not done as well, but...

Mailee, I managed to get a small tin from Gnomebase recently... :oops: Cheers, Dod

Steve, Whilst I've never actually felt the urge to make any of your projects, I have really enjoyed reading them. Personally I tend to prefer the furniture stuff to the jigs. One of the things I like is the process of how you arrived at the design that you did - i.e. the why and how of it...

Personally I doubt it, the whole point of preservatives is to kill the bugs that eat the wood. I believe that CCA sucumbed to the same legislation as creosote. Creosote is a fairly potent carcinogen that is absorbed through the skin. CCA contained chromate and arsenic both of which are...

Rick, Is it like this Cheers, Dod

Rick, A 7 fiit top, with a foot of overhang at each end would only be a 5 foot span. I would have thought that including some deeper boards in the top would make a tremendous difference to the vertical stiffness (a bit like a floor with in-built beams). I have no idea if this would affect the...

Jacob, Believe it or not, it certainly didn't seem to be an obvious thing to me to cut the tails in pairs. I can assure you that the method I used last time I cut dovetails was a little different (i.e. I cut 1 joint at a time). I'm sure that you wont be surprised to hear that it was a rather...

Thanks Dave, I'll get another coat or two on and pick up some of those grey pads to give it a quick rub down. It's not because I'm particularly enthusiastic about washing up :D Cheers, Dod

I've just finished making my first hardwood project, a kitchen table in sycamore, which has taken quite some time. I've now started to finish it with tung oil and have put on the first coat, thinned to about 50% with white spirit. It seems to have dried OK, and perhaps a bit quicker than I may...

Does anybody know if there is much of a difference between Wych Elm and English Elm? Is most of what has been said above equally applicable to both? Cheers, Dod

Jack, Not terribly helpful in your search for softwoods, and not desperately close to you either, but I've had some nice timber from Lanarkshire Hardwoods. Good and dry, even in sunny Scotland. Cheers, Dod