The English Woodworker » Archive
Videos Are Coming!
Since announcing about our online videos at the beginning of the year we’ve been taking advantage of every spare moment we can find to bring our plans together. We’ve kept pretty quiet about them for a while now as we wanted to get our ideas clear and create something concrete to show you rather than just talking on and on about them forever. The exciting news is that we now have a fair bit of footage to … Read entire article »
Filed under: General
Golden Coins
After what turned in to an extensive session of building the Little John workbenches we received some lovely feedback, appreciation and photos from our customers as they were being put to work by their new owners. The comments below were sent through to me earlier this week. Hello Helen, My ‘Little John’ bench arrived today, it was well wrapped and protected for transit. Once I’d got the bubble-wrap, plywood and polythene off and having checked out the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Maguire Workbenches
Cherry Bomb
For those of you who think a workbench should be rough and ready you may well cringe at the bench I have to show you today. In fact when this customer enquired with a request that the workbench should be built from cherry even I thought that was pushing things a bit posh. The workbench was to be a French bench (to be more specific a very chunky Roubo type French bench) made in solid cherry with a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Maguire Workbenches
Metric Vs Imperial
Since learning metric measurements in school I’ve always been a user of the millimetre and never questioned its suitability. Richard was also taught metric first but as soon as he was out in to the practical world of work he adopted the use of imperial finding it much more intuitive. If he hadn’t put up an argument every time I presented a drawing in mm I think I would always have called the inch outdated and inferior. It just makes so … Read entire article »
Filed under: General
Customers’ Bench Builds
So far this year we’ve been busier than ever with our vices and we’ve been boxing them up and shipping them out to every corner of the globe. Many customers are kind enough to take the time and send us through photos of their completed benches and here’s a couple that have been finished up this week. Martin – UK Building a workbench can be a special and sometimes daunting project and the journey can involve a lot … Read entire article »
Filed under: Maguire Workbenches
The Next Little John’s
Now that the long dark, days are behind us we’d like to look forward to the Summer and our next batch of Little John workbenches - we will be starting on the builds in August. Until now we’ve continued to advertise the introductory price of £785.00 but I’m afraid this does have to increase for the next batches. The price will rise to £865.00 although we would like to give a heads up if you have been contemplating taking the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Maguire Workbenches
Under Rated Tools
I was thinking this morning whilst pluging down on the slightly broken handle of my pillar drill that I am always stood at this machine. It’s a tool that I barely take account of and really didn’t give any thought to it’s quality or durability when I bought it as I’d expected to need it only now and again. It’s main purpose has been for fitting vices as there’s always a lot of very large and … Read entire article »
Filed under: General
One Thousand Steps…
What are the pitfalls of being in a workbench business? This is not your everyday question but is something I was asked recently by a chap who is interested in setting up just that and hence it’s a question I’ve been giving of thought. Most of the time I don’t really consider our business to be all that businessy, and what I mean is if you wrote it all out as a proper plan on paper … Read entire article »
Filed under: General
Maguire’s Second Hand
Advertising workbenches on here is not becoming a habit, it’s just pure coincidence that after making our old demonstration Artisan available for sale last week we have yet another second hand workbench up for grabs. This workbench is not being sold directly by ourselves but as far as we’re aware is the first Maguire Workbench to be brought to the second hand market by one of our customers – quite a strange prospect really but very … Read entire article »
Filed under: General
Workbench Height
What is the perfect height for a workbench? This is a question I get asked weekly and if you’re planning on building a workbench it’s well worth giving it some thought before you jump in with the tools. Getting your bench height completely wrong will cause you some discomfort and inconvenience while you work but I always like to make it clear that it isn’t worth fretting too much about searching for a formula for the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Workbench Design
Recent Comments
- Richard on The Holdfast and the Batten – VIDEO
"Thanks Kees, an interesting point to bring up but no old paintings I'm afraid ;)…" - Richard on The Holdfast and the Batten – VIDEO
"Thanks Arthur, and again if you do manage to give this a try then we'd love to h…" - Richard on The Holdfast and the Batten – VIDEO
"Hi Lars, that's a great point and I'm sure it could be a relevant issue for many…" - Richard on The Holdfast and the Batten – VIDEO
"Thanks Patrick and best of luck finishing up your bench build. That's a very rou…" - Richard on The Holdfast and the Batten – VIDEO
"Hi Graham, the top on my workbench is 68mm thick - certainly thicker than many o…"