2011 in Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 40,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Again, I’d like to thank everyone who has read, subscribed, followed and commented on these pages throughout 2011. 2012 is finally here and, I wish each of you the very best in the months that lie ahead!

Olly.

Preparing for 2012

A brand new year is only days and my mind floods instantly with thoughts of all the things I’d like to make and accomplish within my workshop!

2011 wasn’t as ‘successful’ as I was hoping it would be, for various reasons. Moving further away from my workshop hasn’t been easy but, in some ways, I’m fortunate to still have access to this space right now. I cannot say with any certainty that I will still have this workshop one-year from now… Regardless of whether or not the world “ends“! So, there could be a lot of questions surrounding that – can I afford to rent somewhere? What will happen to all of my machinery? If the economy’s in a better state, I may look at restarting a business to keep my workshop dream alive – but, uncertainty is the word of the moment.

There is one new area that I’d like to explore next year and that is the art of guitar making…

Christmas 2011

This isn’t going to be as scintillating as I would like. At least, not on the woodworking front, anyway. I’m sure there are others out there who discovered several wood or tool-related gifts lying under their tree this year and that’s great. I rarely ever ask for woodworking kit at Christmas because I fear that the buyer won’t fully understand what they’re buying or what it could mean for me. Neither am I in favour of identifying the item in a catalogue – where then, is your surprise and delight on the big day? Not to mention the fact that woodworking, as a whole, is rather expensive; regardless of whether you’re an occasional hobbyist or someone who works with their hands full-time for a business.

This year, I didn’t ask for anything at all! There are one or two power tools that I’d like to buy in the new year but again, cost becomes an issue and, really, I should be looking to invest in some timber for 2012, as I really don’t feel like I got much done in the past twelve months. If I have to, I can certainly get along with what I already have. It’s not as if I ‘need’ even one small item that’s otherwise halting all progress in my workshop. If anything, it’s a combination of the weather and life in general that’s keeping me inactive right now.

Regardless of all that; I was very happy to receive one particular gift, this year:

Pondering the Plunge

Whether you know them as ‘track saws’ or simply as ‘plunge saws’ that fit on to a compatible guide track, these circular saws  have been around for a few years now. I could be wrong but, I think it all started with a predecessor to Festool’s hugely-popular TS55. In the last three years alone, we’ve seen rival competitors release their own plunge saw/guide rail systems. Some might say that it’s never been a better time to be in the market for one of these power tools… To others, perhaps there is too much to choose from with not an awful lot to separate one saw from the next…

How Cyclones Work

I’m sure I briefly mentioned the emergence of a small company in the UK called Cyclone Central, who produce flat-packed CNC-machined cyclone kits that you can assemble yourself and fit directly in to your dust extraction system. If ever you’ve wondered how these kits go together or, exactly how a cyclone dust collection system works then, with the aid of one of their first customers, there’s now a video on YouTube that will tell you all you need to know, without going too far in to the science of it all:

I have no affiliation with either party here; I just thought the video would be of interest to other woodworkers. There are some web pages and other videos that delve in to great detail on the subject of dust extraction, which tends to almost over complicate things and can make it all difficult to follow.

Delivery within the UK and EU is a standard service. If you live outside of these boarders then, it may still be worth contacting them directly, as these kits are flat-packed, after all.

Thanks for reading.

Recent Shopping

As I recently posted that rather blatant advertisement for Workshop Heaven’s ‘Free Shipping Fortnight‘ on these pages recently, I may as well show you what I ended up buying. I didn’t spend nearly as much as I would have like; most of the small items I purchased will simply aid me in my day-job, where we regularly have to drill precisely-sized holes in combinations of timber and plywood.

One thing I neglected to mention is that, after moving premises recently, Workshop Heaven have also revamped their website. There may still be products to be added to the database and, at these early stages, you may encounter one or two ‘hiccups’ with site navigation but, it has to be said; it is even cleaner and much faster to load than their previous pages.

Wet Rot Replacement

If you were to go back to the final part in my Making a T&G Gate series, you would see that I made a reference to the state of the door frame surrounding the garage I also like to refer to as ‘my workshop‘. Wet rot clearly set in some time ago. It’s hard to say why though, on this occasion. It could simply be a case of neglect and an overall lack of maintenance (the paint, which must have been applied over eight-years ago, is crumbling off all round). Or, it could have been that moisture found its way up in to the end-grain of the timber with rising damp.

Either way, it was time to do some more work outside of the workshop…

Free Shipping at Workshop Heaven

Without discretion, this is a brief reminder/alert for anyone in the UK that Workshop Heaven are offering free delivery on all orders up until the 26th of November – meaning you have only two days left in which to place your order! If you’re subscribed to their e-mails then, hopefully, you already knew this and had’t forgotten. To all others, I apologise for not bringing this to your attention sooner as the offer was introduced to last a full fortnight.

My order went through on Tuesday night. I haven’t spent nearly as much as what I would have liked. I merely needed a few new drill bits and a 1¾in wide Clifton chip-breaker/cap iron for one of my ‘specialist‘ hand planes (I can’t figure out why these ones are slightly dearer than the 2in irons…?) – more on that in a future blog post!

So, if you haven’t done so already and you’ve previously been putting off from shopping with Workshop Heaven because of postal charges (???) then, you have forty-eight hours left in which to do so! Why not buy yourself something you really want for Christmas…!

Thanks for reading.