The Brace Does Things a Drill Cannot
I remember standing in the workshop during my first year as an apprentice, watching my mentor reach for a heavy, cast-iron brace instead of the cordless drill sitting right there on the bench. I thought he was just being old-fashioned, but when he started boring through that thick oak, it was silent, steady, and precise. […]
A Banister That Must Hold Weight
Most folks think that fixing a loose handrail means dragging out the heavy-duty cordless drill and hoping for the best, but they usually just end up stripping the wood and making a mess of the joinery. I remember a lad I taught back at the college who spent three hours trying to force a new […]
A Compost Bin With a Front That Comes Off
You don't need a plastic kit from a garden centre or a degree in soil science to figure out how to build a compost bin. I spent forty years on site seeing people buy expensive, flimsy equipment that’s designed to crack the moment the frost hits, and frankly, it's a waste of good money. Most […]
Workshop Electrics and the Rcd
I remember a lad I taught back in the college days, a bright enough boy, but he had this habit of daisy-chaining extension leads like he was stringing Christmas lights. He thought he was being clever, saving time by plugging one lead into another just to reach a router across the bench. Then came the […]
Biscuits, Dominos and Dowels Compared
I remember standing in a college workshop twenty years ago, watching a lad try to justify buying a top-of-the-line, computerized biscuit joiner that cost more than my first motor. He was reading a glossy brochure that promised "unmatched precision through digital calibration," but all I saw was a machine that would be a paperweight the […]