A Hood That Catches Most of It
People will tell you that if you want a clean workshop, you need to go out and spend a month's wages on a high-end, industrial-grade extraction system. That’s a load of rubbish. I spent years watching young lads at the college try to solve every problem with a bigger motor and more electricity, only to […]
Reviewing for Someone Starting Out
I spent forty years on-site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets my blood up, it’s the way modern "experts" try to teach you how to review tools for a beginner by reading off a spec sheet. They’ll talk to you about torque, RPMs, and battery voltages like those […]
Running a Workshop Other People Use
Most people think that if you want to start a maker space, you just need to buy a load of expensive, shiny power tools and plug them into a heavy-duty circuit. They’re dead wrong. I’ve seen community projects crumble in a month because they focused on the noise rather than the discipline. If you're trying […]
Costing a Job Including Your Hours
I spent forty years on site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that grates on my nerves more than a dull chisel, it’s the way people treat their own labor. I see young lads and even seasoned makers getting tangled up in expensive software and "consultant" jargon, trying to find […]
Whether a Premium Plane Is Worth It
I’ve spent forty years on-site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets my goat, it’s the glossy, over-polished nonsense you see online these days. Most people don't know how to review a premium tool; they just read a marketing brochure and repeat the same tired adjectives like "revolutionary" or […]
A Router Table From Scrap
You don't need a bank loan or a showroom of shiny, cast-iron machinery to get a clean edge on your joinery. I’ve spent forty years on site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that most of those "all-in-one" workshop stations are just overpriced scrap metal in disguise. […]
Photographing Work Before It Leaves
I remember sitting in my workshop back in '94, staring at a pile of mismatched timber and a stack of coffee-stained scraps of paper that were supposed to be my plan. I’d spent three days on a bespoke sideboard, only to realize I’d miscalculated the mortise depth because I couldn't find my original measurements. It […]
A Wooden Mitre Box Worth Making
I remember standing on a site in the late eighties, watching a lad struggle with a cheap, plastic mitre box that wobbled every time he touched it with a saw. He was sweating, cursing, and trying to force a straight cut through a piece of oak that just wouldn't cooperate. That’s the problem with most […]
A Working Tool Kit for Under Two Hundred
I spent forty years on site and another ten in the classroom, and if there’s one thing that gets my blood up, it’s watching a young lad walk into a hardware store and spend three weeks' wages on a bright yellow, plastic-heavy power tool set that’ll be in a landfill by Christmas. Most people think […]
A Shooting Board That Stays Accurate
You can spend a fortune on a high-end track saw or a precision miter gauge, but if you’re still fighting to get a perfectly square end grain on your tenons, you’re just fighting the wrong battle. Most folks think they need more power to get better results, but I’ve spent forty years on site learning […]