Crafts / Craftsmen / craftswomen (craftspeople, I suppose)

make 2 cuts and knock it out with a razor sharp mortice chisel of exactly the right width. Would be my 1st attempt :)

I like a rebate plane for this kind of thing, a little bit tricky with the angle you have but they are usually very quick if set up properly.

That was what I ended up doing but with a firmer chisel, I don't like mortice chisels.

Rebate plate wouldn't have worked with the angle tried a plough plane as well but same story.

Of course a firmer will do it. I started to use mortice chisels a bit more once I discovered how good they are at cutting mortices! The Ray Isles 'pig sticker' is a favourite but the Narex range are worthwhile too.

I find that I can get cleaner edges to mortices with a cheap firmer chisel.

I don't think the edges of mine could get any cleaner. :)

You should try the pig sticker. It's very good at mortices. I had been considering a mortice machine but the pig sticker made the job too easy. I don't do a lot of them though. I use the domino for smaller stuff and I only make doors from scratch occasionally.

one for @bobbo or @Airhead perhaps

looking to upgrade our workshop thicknesser from a metabo one, to possibly this Axminster one.

The strange method of the tables swinging up out of the way to go between planing and thicknessing causes me pause for thought. Need I worry?

Any other suggestions?

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I have two hollow chisel morticers, one bench mounted one and one that clamps onto the workpiece for large scale joinery. They are great in a lot of ways but have definite limitations:

1. They are a faff to set up.
   
2. They are an even bigger faff to change the chisel.
   
3. There are limits to the dimensions of timber they can handle
   
4. It is a pain in the arse sharpening the chisels and the bits that go in them, you will cut yourself.
   
   

Because of all this I find that they are good for production work where one set up means that you can drill a series of mortices quickly and accurately but use a chisel for everything else.

Had a look at those pig stickers and they look nice but I've been using the same set of wicks firmer chisels that cost me £20 for that last 2 years I think I'll stick with them as I can buy another 2 whole sets for the price of one of the pig stickers!

I got to a point where I'd bought all the cheaper tools twice and was making enough profit to buy the good stuff!

Ashley Iles was the last of the sheffield tool makers who had apprenticed in the three main areas of steel tool production, his son Ray Iles is carrying on in the tradition.

If the new stuff seems too expensive there's always second hand Sheffield steel chisels, they're not a secret so you still have to pay reasonable money but I've not been disappointed by the results.

p.s. I've had mine for a while and didn't realise how expensive they've got.

We had a (significantly older) Axminster planer - thicknesser at work where the tables could be pivoted out of the way.
As I remember it, we rarely did - the planer guard was long enough to cover the blades when thicknessing with the table down, which was most of the time.
The table only needed lifting to feed short lengths into the thicknesser, i.e. so short that the table was in the way of feeding the timber. Rotating the table for thicknessing also required a different guard fitting on our machine - it would only be done if a longer piece couldn't be found or if the wood was expensive or in short supply.

I got to a point where I'd bought all the cheaper tools twice and was making enough profit to buy the good stuff!

I don't mind buying expensive/good stuff I have a mix of Japanese, Lie Neilsen and Veritas chisels for fine work. But for chisels that take abuse I find the cheap ones work fine. The ones I use for morticing are sharpened on my tormek at the beginning of every day they're used to a 35 degree primary bevel which means that the edge is more robust. They do loose their edge quicker but I just keep my strop nearby and give them a quick polish every 5 minutes or so which maintains them nicely

By all accounts it's a very good unit with the big plus of having a helical cutting head.

That said I wouldn't trust the lifting table mechanism either. It will be fine for the first year or two but as with all things like this the more it's used the more slop will increase in the mechanism. It's one more thing to go wrong and waste time calibrating - let's face it a planer that doesn't plane square is a VERY expensive paperweight.

It will cost more but I'd be tempted to get this planer with this thicknesser for the following reasons:

1. You can have the two machines running at the same time, or at the least not waste time converting between planer and thicknesser
   
2. Higher capacity thicknesser.
   
3. Easier to calibrate planing plate.
   
   

I try to choose from a mixture of different carbon steels to suit different purposes so totally understand your preference for the softer steels so they can be resharpened easily.

It's a complicated subject.

It's a complicated subject.

That's prone to causing pointless arguements in otherwise sane, rational people.

yes, the cutting head is the main attraction. Has to be one unit for both jobs though, no space for two.

Maybe look at getting an old Sedgwick from a liquidation sale and upgrading the cutter head.

Moving on from my last issue I now have to cut a series of dados to accept the louvres that will form the wall of the apple store.

Here I've run into a problem because I'd assumed (I know ass out of u and me) that the dados on neighbouring studs would line up and I could story pole it to mark and accurately place my template. This is not the case because not only do the dados on neighbouring studs not line up, there are irregular gaps between the dados in the first place so I'm going to have to do everything by eye to make sure it looks right, which will take a lot longer.

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These juggling balls (ovals really, but let's pretend) are the most satisfying things I've made in aaaaaages.

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Ha fun!
You printed the pattern?

Yeah 3d printed the yellow template.

Am making a 2nd batch now. Will be doing live webstreams on how to make them within a week :)

time on my hands. still can't juggle though

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Impressive

Mrs got a day off today and volunteered to look after the kids meaning I could take a day in the workshop. Decided to make a door with hand tools only. Have got as far as planing the styles to 4 square (forgot how long this takes with a hand plane), cutting the dados for the panels, and one mortice for the top rail.

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Very good choice of fabrics.

Yeah, I know, dredge etc...

thanks, I have just got another sewing machine which I've modified slightly and some new fabric, going to make another bag but with some changes on the first one