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A nice find…

norris-27
I cleared an old workshop yesterday and found this little gem. A Norris ’27’ bullnose plane in gunmetal with a steel sole. It has the later rosewood wedge (circa 1928), rather than the earlier ebony wedge (circa 1914). A lovely little plane I will put to good use on special projects.

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Walke Moore

Walke Moore router plane unboxing…

Back in March I put up a post about the Walke Moore router plane, a great-looking tool based on the scarce Preston 2500p.
Walke Moore Router Plane Unboxing
Bill Schenher over on Billy’s Little Bench has got one and has put up a video of the unboxing. It’s a nice plane with similar features to the Preston and the build quality looks excellent.

Update: If you read Ralph Boumenot’s excellent (almost daily) blog, ‘The Accidental Woodworker‘ you will see he has purchased one of these planes and goes into more detail on the pros and cons. What I love about Ralph and his blog is that he gets right down into the nitty-gritty of whether something is a good design, or not. As you can read, he has some reservations on the depth stop and the fact it conches down on the thread.

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Bill Carter Jim Hendricks Richard Arnold

The Brits!

Richard Arnold
Richard Maguire & Shane Skelton
Bill Carter
There are some really lovely videos over on Jimi Hendricks’ Youtube channel from Richard Arnold’s charity sale day this year. The videos feature, amongst others, Richard Arnold showing us some plough plane technique, Shane Skelton with his new panel plane (being checked out by Richard Maguire of ‘The English Woodworker‘ fame). There’s also another video where the excellent platemaker Bill Carter shows his favourite plane and one of his most-used tools. Newcomer Ollie Sparks pops up in one of the videos also, definitely a very talented maker to watch for now and the future. A great set of videos showing lots of British tool talent!

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Festool

Tooling up with Festool

It’s nice to have a moment to write a blog post, it’s been way too long.
I won’t bore you with the details, but the house renovation I’ve been working on has taken much longer than I thought it would, mainly because I get there only for one or two days in the week.
I’m finally onto some joinery however, having finished with all the ‘wet trades’ long ago. The electrician had a final visit last week and from this Monday, the plumbing will all be done with too.
I’ve turned my attention to some Shaker-style doors I’ve been meaning to make for a long while for the bedroom cupboards.
As I’m trying to finish as fast as I can now, I figured I may as well invest in some Festool power tools. I bought the TS55 track saw from a friend a while back and this week added a Domino DF500.
If you don’t know the Domino, it’s a nice tool for cutting mortises which Festool’s own ‘Dominos’ fit into. It’s basically a fast way of making a loose tenon. The machine works very well and I had the doors made in no time.
Festool Domino 1
Festool Domino 2
Festool Domino x
Festool Domino 3
Festool Domino 4
If I did have a problem, it’s with the saw. The TS55 seems to be holding back by 1-2 degrees when it should be full open at 90 degrees. It’s annoying as it means when you crosscut for a Domino joint, the joint has a tiny gap when you Domino it. Then when you join and glue, the pressure from your clamps pushes the joint out of shape.
Festool TS55 problem
If anyone has details about how I can fix this saw issue, can you please let me know?
I have already fiddled with the two silver adjustment screws, and I thought I had pulled the base plate in enough to make it perpendicular to the blade. But when I used the saw again today, same problem, the cuts weren’t straight.
The pic below is how the blade looks when the saw is fully open. (I can’t hear a click or anything else to suggest I should move the saw back a degree or so, for me, it’s useless if it doesn’t click to exactly 90 degrees.

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Uncategorized

1/10th scale tools in upcoming auction

Miniature Woodworking Tools
There is an interesting lot coming up in a C&T Auctioneers sale on 25th May 2016. The set of tools are all at 1/10th scale. An interesting lot for the collector that sort of thing. Listed as American 19thc. Reminds me of the modern-day maker Marco Terenzi, who also does incredible miniature tools. Will be interesting to see if this lot goes for it’s reserve.