LET'S BUILD & EQUIP A WOODWORKING SHED:

I was lucky to be born in an era when craftwork at schools and colleges was still fashionable; and I have been doing woodwork as a hobby practically ever since. Many years later I was lucky again when the schools and colleges stopped doing craft and I was able to buy some really good quality equipment for very little outlay.

Let's rewind back to my school days, which, as mentioned above, were in the so called good old days, when we were still taught craft, alongside academic subjects. Although I did very well at school I cannot say it was something that I particularly enjoyed. Aspects I did enjoy were the woodworking and metalworking lessons.

Fast forward to the middle 70's and I had already been a soldier in the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, (REME), for 15 years when I was posted as one of 11 soldiers to a civilian establishment with hundreds of employees.

Having so many employees there were a lot of retirements, certainly 1 or 2 every month. It did not take 11 young soldiers very long to realise that in many cases shortly after the collection for a going away present we were having another collection for a wreath.

As you can probably imagine 11 young soldiers soon developed a gallows humour about it and started running a book. From our observations of the people concerned we used to estimate their future lifespan. "I know, it's a bit sick isn't it! but you have to remember that over 40 years ago we were young and immortal."

Fast forward to just a few years ago and I was surprised to hear that the government had carried out a survey, (costing how many £millions I wonder?), and they had determined that pensioners with no interest in life didn't last long. Now why didn't they ask us? In the 2½-years we were in that posting we had achieved a very high success rate in forecasting the future, or perhaps the lack of it.

That experience was indelibly printed in my brain, and I was determined that it was not going to happen to me! I would go into my retirement with two very well equipped workshops. One for my woodworking and one for my metal working interests. These would keep me alive! Hopefully beyond my 3-score years plus 10. So far it appears to be working as at the current time I am nearly 4-years past that milestone.

My book describes 'The Twilight Club', the woodworking shed, where I intended to, and still do, spend part of my twilight years. It discusses selected tools and their usefulness or otherwise, including if appropriate, the 'Generic Safe Working Practices' and 'Generic Safe Systems of Work' related to each machine.

My book contains the following Chapters: Prologue - Health and Safety - The Twilight Club - Electricity Supply - Electricity & Electrically Powered Tools - Wood - Hand Tools - Measuring & Marking - Hand Saws - Files & Rasps etc. - Cabinet Scrapers - Planes & Shaving Tools - Wood Chisels - Drill Bits - Clamps - Roller Support Stands - Electric Drills - Hand Held Angle Grinders - Routers - Biscuit Jointers - Hand Held Circular Saws - Electric Hand Planers - Belt, Rotary & Orbital Sanders - Bench Mounted Pillar Drills - Bench Mounted Grindstones - Disc Sanders - Circular Saw Table - Wood Lathes - Sliding Compound Mitre Saw - Bandsaws - Scroll Saws - Router Tables - Universal Saw & Router Table - Planer Thicknesser - Slot Morticer - Dovetail & Comb Jointer Jigs - Spindle Moulder - Glues & Finishes - Tips & Hints - Epilogue:

Most Chapters consist of; - An Introduction - My tools - Main uses - Generic Safe Working Practice and a Summary.

My book is available as an Amazon e-Book for £2.99

My Son's Shed

My son professes to be a minimalist. He lives 120 miles away so we don’t get to see him very often although we do speak on the phone on a weekly basis. For the last couple of months he has been working on a secret project in his spare time. On 9th May 2019 we paid him a visit and were invited to inspect his new workshop. 

Are you impressed? I was, but don’t be misled, as with that amount of cupboards I too could have a tidy workshop.

My son has his own one man band kitchen fitting business which is reflected in the way he has designed/structured his workshop. 

As well as kitchens he specialises in bedrooms and bathrooms and offers a full be-spoke service from design through to completion. If you live in the Wakefield area and want a quality job done then please ring Andrew on 07810 643 943.

Whilst he has his kitchen etc. cabinets made to order by a quality provider, the cabinets (and doors), in his workshop are all made from MDF (luckily he has a very dry workshop). Believe it or not he used forty 4' x 8' sheets in the construction of the cabinets, doors and wall coverings etc.

I particularly like his home made router table! Which was used to finish off and put the pattern in his cupboard doors and drawer fronts etc. The router table is made from MDF which Andrew covered in Formica laminate. The parts/fittings to make the table were from a maufacturer whose name appears on the router base-plate. Other router table parts from; UkJ Technologies for the fence (off shoot of Axminster). Mitre track and fence track from Incra, (the bits in gold). Router lift from Jessem (Canadian company but the metric version that takes European routers). Clean cut stock guides from Jessem (the black hold downs fixed to the fence)

One last point, mainly it’s because my son has admitted making a mistake, which is quite unusual as the male members of our family simply don’t make them. At 1053hrs on the 9th May 2019 he uttered the immortal words. “I’ve made a mistake Dad, I’ve built the router table too close to the wall and I can’t use it with long pieces of wood.” “Well,” I replied, “it’s not the end off the world you can always fit a hatch (cat flap), in the wall so you can pass long pieces through the wall.” I don’t think that he was impressed enough to cut a hole in the workshop wall.

Behind the door on the end wall is an annex where he keeps an air compressor, dust extraction unit and his mountain bike.

This bench pillar drill is used almost exclusively for drilling the hinge recesses for kitchen cabinet etc. doors.

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