Abranet

It’s official. I am now a fan of Abranet abrasives!

I only wish I’d invested in their discs sooner… As in, before I started sanding those cutting boards!

Prior’s Wood

There are a lot of little things that I’d like to update you on but, first of all, I’d like to share with you a little evening walk I went on with the group last Wednesday evening. These evening walks only occur in the summer months (for obvious reasons) and I didn’t honestly think I’d have the energy left, after nine or ten hours at work (not to mention the early starts). But I’d booked Wednesday off in order to get my van serviced (apparently, the wheel bearing had fallen off and I was very lucky that the wheel hadn’t done the same) so, I didn’t really have much of any excuse not to go. I was worried about turning up to find a small selection of people I didn’t know (which did happen) but even the weather was against me – it was sunny!

It all started in the village of Portbury, North Somerset. A stone’s throw from Junction 19 of the M5 motorway…

Part 2!!

I’ve been having great difficulty with Windows Live Movie Maker (now known as just Movie Maker) of late and that is the main reason I’ve been unable to upload Part 2 of my latest cutting board series until today. It’s been a month since part one otherwise and I had been struggling to find the time to sit down and chop through over one hour’s worth of footage but, it’s online now and is available for you to view, share and critique.

If you’re struggling with the same program yourself, here are some tips that I tried to get it working…

Your First Project?

This evening, I write to you with a question and you’ll find my own answer to this same question further down the page…

My first; circa. 1997-1998

What was your first woodworking project?

A Great Afternoon

What a difference seven-days can make, when it concerns the British weather… Last weekend was glorious, if a little windy on the Saturday. Waking up today, it’s like it has been for the last few; wet and windy and it looks as though it’s set to last a little while.

Brunel’s S.S. Great Britain – Bristol

I have plenty to do in the workshop this afternoon but I’d like to first share with you a little outing from last Saturday afternoon. I’m not sure why I haven’t blogged about this sooner… Time has been a bit of a issue and I’ve wasted a couple of evenings this week in trying to upload a new video, only for the program to tell me, after hours of editing, that several video files are corrupted!!

Cyclonic Thoughts

Lately, I’ve been thinking and Keeking about dust extraction in my workshop. I’ve twice had to endure the dreaded bag-change on my large chip extractor during the process of making these chopping boards, which are very near to completion. At the other end of the workshop, I’ve been experiencing a long-term drop in suction, between my vacuum extractor and bandsaw, which suggests air or pressure is being lost within the Triton Dust Bucket.

Extraction setup for fine dust particles.

While investigating this without finding a single leak (by hand), I decided I would build a new stand for the dust bucket. In the photo above, it’s resting on an damp-ridden MDF construction that I’ve never fitted in my Workmate as a height-adjustable outfeed support… This has often been slightly too high, with the hose fouling the locking lever for the bandsaw’s rip fence.

Toolmaker

In case you don’t follow me on Keek, I’ll try to keep this brief… I got up on Sunday morning with a view to replacing the fence posts after repairing and reassembling the panel (as you saw in my previous post). For this, I would need a sledge hammer. Not owning one and knowing that, if I did buy one, I might not use it again for a very long time; I turned to Freecycle for some assistance, asking whether anyone might be inclined to lend me one for the weekend. No such offers came in, until I received an e-mail from a woman who offered me a head without a handle. As a woodorker though, that didn’t seem like much of a problem!

Sledge hammer with a bespoke handle, wedged in to place.

That was my thinking when I collected the lump on Friday afternoon. By the time Sunday came around, I decided that I wanted to get the job done and headed to Toolstation to buy a handle (along with some other bits I needed) in an effort to save myself some time. That didn’t fit and I would end up making one from scratch, which did occupy my time until lunch.

There’s a video of this whole process below and, underneath that, you’ll find photos and details of another ‘agricultural’ tool that I made yesterday.

Over the Fence

With a long weekend and clear skies forecast, I decided I would use this time to try and replace the fence panels that blew down sometime in, erm… February! That’s without mentioning the two fence posts that had each rotted away at ground level. It had seemed like a monstrous job; the kind that I detest, with my general hatred towards pathetic fence panel construction. Each morning I’ve driven to work, each evening I’ve come home; that gaping view on to the neighbour’s weathered decking had been haunting me for far too long. I was tired of tripping over the old panel remains just outside the workshop door. Something had to be done!

A reminder of how things had been for the past three-months…