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Thanks Bern, this modern lifestyle is anything but simple. Profit margins for many businesses are fairly slim and with some banks taking close to 4% of the gross amount and sometimes holding the...

On a slightly different matter but still related to Ubeaut, does anyone have any idea as to the real costs of using a wireless credit-card/EFTPOS machine? What are the ongoing fees and charges like...

For some people, 30mins is just down the road, for a trip they might make 4 times a year to get what they otherwise can't get, that's not too bad. I wouldn't drive to Newcastle but I would drive from...

"The pressure reduces the air to extremely small or dissolved into the resin. Once the resin has set, the air cannot expand again, nor can it come out of what was solution. Hope this makes sense."
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Just a thought.....If there were air bubbles in the resin or air in the wood and they the mixture was cured under pressure in a chamber, when the pressure in the chamber is released after the resin...

Having bought stuff from Timbecon in the past, they send me emails of other stuff they have on sale and this CA glue ( ...

Don't they have a "click and collect" option on their web page? Here in Port Macquarie, if they haven't got it or can't get it from the warehouse they will order it from another store via the...

Can't they get you one in from another store?

As well as all the things Ironwood said, you need to look for weight. Weight equals rigidity and stability. A "midi" size lathe should go around 30-odd Kg and a full size machine should need at least...

Wow, 1920 eh? Back when all the product was exported as a concentrate and then diluted and bottled locally. Those were the days.

Thanks Treecycle, I'm now running the lathe fairly fast, somewhere close to 2,000 rpm. I filed the toolrest flat, got rid of the grinding marks and cleaned up the bottom of the chisel. Things have...

One thing I have noticed is the amount of pressure I need to put on the tailstock to keep the square blanks rotating while I reduce a blank from square to round. I worry that I will round-over the...

WOW! And how long is it since the syrup was transported in a wooden barrel? That must be close to being an antique by now, especially in this age of stainless steel and plastic.

What sort of load and what RPM? Fitting a Jacobs chuck to a rotisserie motor could be an option if you can find a cheap chuck to adapt. Then you would need to support the outside end of the rotating...

How long does it have to run for? For the price of a Jacobs chuck you could almost but a 12V Ozito drill skin and hook it up to a 12V power source (a car battery?) and use a cable tie to set the...

Well, this is probably the last instalment for this saga. 3 pens from the same lump of Forest Oak, each with a different finish:
On the left, we have "Feast Watson's" French Polish which seemed to...

Gary, I just could not help myself. I had this "dead", almost antique, cheap and nasty battery drill sitting in it's box on a shelf. The batteries were buggered and the speed control on the trigger...

This is the gadget I made for spray-finishing pen bodies. I had the "dead" drill, just needed a speed control and power supply. 3-jaw chuck solves connection problems. It turns the pen bodies while I...

Looks pretty good!

I guess it all depends on your budget and what you want to rotate. 3 phase motors and VFDs are not cheap and if you buy the things off evilbay and they die an early death you are snookered. Plus you...

If it wasn't raining I would go out to the shed and photograph the gadget I just built using a supposedly "dead" cheap battery drill powered by a 12V plug pack and speed-controlled by a "Jaycar" 12V...

Just replied to your PM.

Well, I just clicked on the green "ubeaut'' thing then found the "send message" thing, noted that you would be able yo know my email address and wrote the message and clicked on send. Only God and...

PM Sent.

Well, you are right there Pete but some people just want to turn little things like pens. They don't have a big lathe or even a "midi" lathe so by the time you subtract the thickness if a 4 jaw chuck...

Quite simply...WOW!

As Scotty M would say, "how good is that?!" Very unusual indeed.

I am surprised that some enterprising person involved in pen turning hasn't developed a track for a hand/battery drill that would hold both the blank and guide the drill bit into the blank. I can see...

That puts it well outside the travel of an ordinary drill press so do you drill the blank in the lathe or sort in the drill press and finish off by hand? My drill press does a squeak over 75mm but...

Thank you Biggus, very nice work, very nice indeed. Are the mechanisms difficult to install?

Interesting, it looks boringly normal. I assume you got the same saw back or did they replace it?
I did look at the dust extractors on the floor at Total Tools on Monday when I was there and the...

Neil, the same would apply to Taree, Port Macquarie and all the way to Coffs Harbour. The problem for us people in rural areas is transporting the products listed as "dangerous goods".

Yeah, got me beat. The proof of the pudding will be in the posting. Got to work out what else I might need because their prices seem a bit high, but I could be wrong there, I didn't do a whole lot of...

You seem to be correct Old One, which raises the question.....How can they ship a product that others claim not to be able to dispatch? Their shipping and handling charges don't seem to be excessive...

I will have to try to find some "white" shellac flakes and try to make some friction polish based on shellac, metho and boiled linseed oil. Or perhaps try for something like clear acrylic from a...

Well, the finishing experiments continue. The pen on the left, the first one I made, was finished with Feast Watson's French Polish which, I thought, made it look too yellow/tobacco coloured. So, in...

Or are you just a penoholic? Is there a difference? Can you start out as a penoholic and refine your tastes and skills, keeping only the finest examples of the art that use both the best mechanisms...

Biggus, we all need counselling for something......:U But at the moment you still have room for a few more pens.....

Trust some clever bugger to come up with a simple solution!:U But how do you keep little flying critters from committing suicide on the wet paint and leaving little bits of themselves on your hard...

Biggus, A few years ago I helped a friend who was distributing lubricants all over NSW. They went via Fastway. Some were dangerous goods, some were just boring old grease. The boxes were weighed, the...

Addiction, What addiction? Just because I am eyeing off various shrubs and trees and working out what the timber is like and what I might be able to make out of it, nah, I'm not addicted! Obsessed...

Mature One, I see EEE Ultra shine is available from Timberbits as a mail-order item but Shellwax Creme is classified as Dangerous Goods and is only available as a pickup only item Which makes life...

You are right Biggus, it's not got the "character" of the Allocasuarina, sort-of more plain but still interesting. I did notice that the blanks I used were a little "patchy", some sections were a bit...

Thanks for the comments QC, I guess I was excited when I made that pen. I had the lathe and all the other stuff and the pen kits had turned up the day before so I thought I had no real excuse not to...

It's all about experimentation Biggus. Who knows what wonders lie hidden in fallen timber?
Years ago I made wooden buttons for spinners and weavers that were entering garments in the local show. I...

Thank you, Simplicity. I am pretty happy with the way things worked out considering I took note of some ideas from Youtube. I used a belt sander to trim the ends of the blanks before turning them...

Thanks Biggus, I really need to go for a walk along the river bank. We had a good "fresh" go down the river a couple of weeks ago and there may be some River Oaks that have come down that I could...

488817Probably not the finest example of the art of pen turning and a bit of an experiment with finishing but it turned out OK. The timber is what we call Forest Oak (Allocasuarina torulosa) that...

As I recall, skeetas, there were mains monitoring gadgets that you could plug into power points to check on power consumption of devices that were connected to a power point. These also gave you a...

I think, Les, that it's the operating environment that restricts the choices for overload protection. Any of the new batteries have regulation for charge, discharge and cell balance built in. Draw...