Before I delve deeper in to the subject of workbench design I’d first like to draw attention to one of the unsung heroes of my workshop. My Saw Donkey’s (as I like to call them) are my more humble yet resilient version of a saw horse. Alongside a well designed workbench I don’t think that any … [Read more...]
Medieval Cupboard – The Timber
Before we had the design for the cupboard finished I knew that the timber would have to be oak. It’s my favourite timber to work with so it usually is my first choice and for this piece of furniture it’s certainly in keeping with what was most commonly used in the period. Initially I thought I … [Read more...]
Making Shavings With ‘Little John’
Here's some footage that I took a few weeks ago when we first received our video camera and it makes a nice demonstration of our new 'Little John' workbench. We had an hour to spare and though Richard was in a rather grumpy mood (see if you can tell!) he decided to knock up a simple box so … [Read more...]
Medieval Cupboard – The Hardware
We had a lovely surprise today when we found out that the hardware for our cupboard had been completed early. To be honest that’s an understatement, unwrapping each piece was definitely more exciting than Christmas. I was fairly anxious because I knew exactly how I wanted each piece to turn out but … [Read more...]
Cross Cut Complete (With Video!)
I say complete but to be honest there are a few tweaks left to be made although we have got far enough to show you the cross cut saw up and running again. When we had the motor collected for being rewound the electrician also took a look at the starter unit for us. This was very old and oil filled … [Read more...]
Medieval Wall Cupboard
As we’re always writing about workbenches we thought it’d be a good change to take a look at a piece of furniture. I’m just working on the design of a small cupboard that Richard will be building shortly and it seems like a nice little piece to go through with you in some detail. Like much of our … [Read more...]
The Oak ‘Artisan’ – Part 5, Nearly There!
The best and most efficient way to mark out mortices for me is to use a story stick. It’s just a simple stick with all of the measurements drawn on to it so I can reference from either the top or bottom of the leg and mark on the appropriate line. I just make a little scratch on the leg and then go … [Read more...]
The Oak ‘Artisan’ – Part 4
Once the top had been glued together and fully cured I removed the clamps and left it one side to allow it to stabilise. I don’t know the exact reason but after such a large glue up the top can be quite unstable for a short length of time so I give five days or so for it to settle, this also lets me … [Read more...]
Cross Cut Clean Up – Part 2
Once we’d made a start at cleaning up the saw we had to bring our attention to the electrics. We knew that they would work as we’d seen the saw running back in Kent but they were very old and we’re not that keen on fires! The bearings inside the motor didn’t appear to be in too bad condition but the … [Read more...]
Cross Cut Table – A Fitting Support!
I just popped out and left Richard to get on with building the new table for the cross-cut saw. I got back to find what looked more like a workbench. This rather sturdy looking table design has been giving him a bit of mental grief for a couple of weeks now as he's been trying to plan for all … [Read more...]