The wood speaks for itself!
Naughty Fun Making a rubber band gun is a bit of a dilemma. Is it an encouragement for naughty behaviour? Is it a precursor for violent solutions to problems? As a child, the rubber band guns I made were delicious! Mum didn’t like them; that made them more fun! I didn’t shoot dogs or people;…
Enthusiastic, beginning woodworkers look for a place to discover their skills. They read about traditional benches; material costs and required skills are both intimidating. Such great fulfilment can be had when woodworking that I hope the people to whom I talk feel encouraged to go out and experiment with their own creativity. How simply and…
I Broke a Promise… …but I also made a discovery. When I began doing wood projects among my disabled friends I made some promises to myself. The promises were a personal, but unwritten, statement of policy. I promise to: do work that is engaging because the thing we make is interesting, never to do all…
Here are the parts of our back scratcher. As with most of our work, fixing is achieved by belting 6mm dowels into 5.5mm holes. The handle is well suited to batch production but the body of the scratchy bit took a while. Each had to be individually marked out. It was the least efficient part…
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…
Everything my friends make begins with best laid plans. But they do go astray! In this case there were aspects of the construction process that were so difficult that I needed to invent some extra help. Here is little bench clamp that holds up the basket end. At the beginning stage the unsupported end won’t…