My grandmother laced pieces of old greeting card together with her crochet hooks. Her arthritic hands never stopped achieving! This wooden approximation of her work is clumsy by comparison. But the act of weaving edges together relieves the complex geometry of joining compound angles.
Sometimes the universe sends cool stuff my way. A good friend took delivery of a large machine from Europe. He discarded the packaging timbers in my direction. They were 2400 x 120 x 90mm and some species of pine. These two projects are a response to this good luck. Workbench When talk turns to…
What Do You Like? Not liking hammers doesn’t make you a freak. It gives you the opportunity to like something else. One of my friends has trouble concentrating for more that a couple of minutes. He will stop work, stand up and walk away! Hammering, sanding and lacquering just don’t hold him. BUT, when he…
Small workbenches are a continuing theme.This bench is a commission.The brief prescribed 1000mm x 500mm with dog holes that are not obstructed by objects beneath them. For instance, it is not uncommon for a dog hole to be installed directly above the screw of a vice and long hold downs become useless. There was also…
Stable Work Surface Jobs in wood offer incredible variety. My brief, on this occasion, was to make a strong and serviceable workbench. It was to be big enough and stable enough for multiple workers to use hand planes. It wasn’t to cost too much for it would be disposed of after three days of use….
Footstools It is a permanent source of inspiration to me that problems posed to woodworkers have no single correct response. If asked to make a footstool, what would a valid response look like? If a footstool is a small flat platform supported 100 to 300mm above the floor, how many ways could I make it?…
There is a quiet room where the more stressed of my friends find gentleness. Fixed to the wall is a plywood panel that enables us to stick stuff where ever we feel. The stuff is really a collection of toys that have something sensory about them. It may be a movement or a gentle noise….