• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Recent content by Eric the Viking

  1. E

    Google AI or ChatGPT

    I'm old enough to have been taught about Eliza, which almost passed the Turing test. Mine ewe, that was back when humans were really gullible regarding AI. They werent well educated, and accepted all sorts of weird stuff as fact. Couldn't happen now, Shirley. I've used ChatGPT, Google's thing...
  2. E

    Found This Piece, (yes), At The Dump

    The No.80 surprised me - easy to use and surprisingly easy to sharpen too. It encouraged me to persevere with scrapers, and I'm glad I did, although I've never tried using my No.80 for paint removal. Does the paint matter? As long as the sole is flat and pretty clean and smooth I'd not worry...
  3. E

    New vs Old Machines + Optimum Drill Press

    Love the quill handle! And I was going to say, "get a light on a stalk" - I haven't yet, but really should, as the built in one on my press is in just the wrong spot - bright but usually unhelpful. Quick question - I was originally considering a radial arm one, but stuck with a straightforward...
  4. E

    New vs Old Machines + Optimum Drill Press

    This one (left) seems to be a cost-reduced version of mine. The quill handles look horrible though. Slow speeds: I think it depends a lot on the stock you're drilling and the tool you're using. For example, spade bits simply don't work* at slow speeds, but auger-style bits are better slower. In...
  5. E

    New vs Old Machines + Optimum Drill Press

    My pillar drill is a floorstanding "Clarke" brand, from Machine Mart. It has terrible runout, and it's the replacement as the first one was even worse. I suspect non-Chinesium bearings would fix that, but I havent got round to it. I bought a Röhm keyless chuck for smaller diameters, which was a...
  6. E

    CCTV?

    I am looking forward to installing Ubiquiti cameras: Unifi Protect is built into the Gateway/network controller I have (a Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber), It's included with Unifi, so cameras and cabling are the only additional cost. All of Ubiquiti's cameras use standard Power-over-Ethernet (PoE)...
  7. E

    BBC Engineers - very interesting older man.

    On a point of detail, m'lud, ornery Nagras were not allowed to be used by journalists - too technical. They got Uhers ("and be thankful"), There were a couple of producers in my day who were allowed Nagra 3s, having previously been engineers, and later on we had a Nagra E (i.e. mono) that was...
  8. E

    BBC Engineers - very interesting older man.

    The unofficial term for Nagras was "luggable". You could spot a recordist because of the lean when they weren't carrying anything. That said, the audio performance was superb. I spent many hours, mostly happy ones, as a sprog, cut-editing tape on (1/4") A80s. With a well-marked-up Any Answers...
  9. E

    What I have fixed today

    Cat hair? Wow. Do you keep a leopard? Being serious for a sec, having unbunged my late MiL's Dyson several times (both she and her daughters had long hair), it's the only domestic brand I've refused to have in the house. Thus we've had Henries* for decades: they've been brilliant, and spares...
  10. E

    Geberit Type 240 and Type 340 mechanisms

    Completely agree regarding syphons. Ballcocks? I used Torbeck valves for years, and they've been excellent - quiet compact and reliable. The problem is I think that the British company that last owned the brand was bought out by an American monopoly (name escapes me), and they stopped...
  11. E

    Blood pressure

    Roger, if you need to use a tyre pressure meter to get a BP reading, go see your GP at once!
  12. E

    ‘Stop’ butt hinges

    I think Andy's "trick" from Cabinet Construction is probably better than those expensive hinges. The force of holding the lid up against gravity is spread along the edge of box and lid, rather than an almost point load onto brass, particularly with the Brusso hinges. Yes, you still need to...
  13. E

    Fixing a Chipped Japanese Chisel Blade

    The ones I have look the same as the ones Workshop Heaven sell, apart from the brand name.
  14. E

    Fixing a Chipped Japanese Chisel Blade

    That's about what I paid for the second one - I think the original one was a bit cheaper on offer. I'm inclined to agree that they're worth it - you can work for longer, and/or get a better finish with difficult woods. That said, I have a couple of planes - an apron plane and a spokeshave -...
  15. E

    Fixing a Chipped Japanese Chisel Blade

    I have a couple of Japanese "Smoothcut" plane irons (for Nos. 5 and 5 1/2), which are brilliant. All I usually do with them is scary sharp normally. They don't take excessively long to do, but they take a wicked edge and they last around 50% longer than the "stock" irons I have (Record...
See more
Back
Top