Adding a main shelf underneath my bench is a questionable addition except this time I am going to take control of it. Over the years it proved useful more as a catchall for stuff that just does not fit elsewhere rather than an organised system of storage. It did hold my electric grinder, my metal […]
It’s fitting for a workman to establish things. As a boy I watched men do this from time to time. People then didn’t flit, they stayed. By that I mean from job to job, place to place, change homes, such like that. They simply established themselves and stayed. Sometimes a new man came. There were […]
Making a workbench drawer is a good way to familiarise anyone for drawer making. It’s certain to demolish anyone’s fear that half-lap dovetails are hard to deal with. The system I developed and use almost every time for half-lap dovetails guarantees good fitting dovetails and an outcome designed to last for a century of daily […]
Adding the upgrades to my workbench makes me feel more settled in; like I’m here to stay! When you get used to something being the way you intended and then it’s disrupted for a period you realise a bit how you spoiled yourself. But it’s even more than that really. After two years at my […]
Many of you on a more local level said that you hoped to come by and visit us when we were more settled and that’s just about where we are. Next weekend, Saturday 23rd, we are opening up the garage workshop and the studio in Abingdon, UK and we will be here to talk about […]
Storing my wood Our economy’s different than business economy, more sort of domestic, kitchen-like, gardening-like economy. We work in different realms of domesticity and woodworking has always been part of my family and domestic life. Never distinctly sawn off as somewhere I go to from. Oh we still have constraints, but it’s not so much […]
How can you measure it, bottle it, sell it? Often, at different points in my life, I have found myself setting out in one direction only to find myself somehow going full circle and ending up at the very point where I successfully began. The first workshop I ever owned and set up properly, built […]
It’s coming together. We have already filmed several videos and I’m adding the missing bits as we go. This week I have been building my shelves for the wall behind me whenever I had a free minute or two. It’s hard to workout why it’s called work. I have it together and now I am […]
Hand routers come in a wide range of types and sizes, wood and metal ones work the same and there are advantages as always to wood on wood. You shouldn’t think that the ones with adjustable depth control or superior to the pinch-adjust types nor that metal routers are better than wooden ones. They each […]
When I was 14 I made my first keyhole plate (pic here). Well, four of them actually. I used them to hang the wall shelf I was making for my parents. They are not hard to make and at 14 they would be considered especially fun. I replicated my schoolboy project recently for a video […]
