Category: Projects
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English Walnut Bowl
English walnut is an absolute pleasure on the lathe. It shears cleanly under a sharp bowl gouge with minimal end-grain tear-out.
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Sweet Chestnut Bowl
Sweet chestnut behaves much like oak on the lathe—strong growth rings, coarse open grain, and plenty of tannin—but without the heavy medullary rays. Medullary rays (often called wood rays) are cellular structures that run horizontally from the centre of a tree outwards towards the bark, perpendicular to the annual growth rings.
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Spalted Beech Bowl
Beech is the classic candidate for spalting, but catch it a month too late and you end up turning something that feels like wet cardboard. When caught at the right stage, it offers a canvas of pale straw tones crisscrossed with black zone lines, and textured with a pattern more complex than the grain is visually.
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My first bowl in ‘Spalted Hornbeam’
Hornbeam is notoriously hard, earning its historical reputation as 'ironwood', but when fungi get into it, that density works to your advantage. The wood stays structural enough to hold a clean, sharp edge along a rim even as dark fungal lines web through the pale sapwood.
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Glasshouse Speakers, Mighty Mini Monitors
This is a pair of speakers built based on a kit from Hi-Fi Collective, the Speaker Kit No. 1. You are provided a basic kit including a set of CNC-machined enclosure panels, electronics and drive units.
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Project Leoht V2 Progress Update
A year ago I introduced Project Leoht, my take on an ultra-low mass turntable inspired by Rega Research. I learned a lot from that project and version 2.0 has been in development, with physical part prototypes in my hands and several new ideas in my head and on paper.
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MarkAudio Alpair 10.3 Speaker Build
My friend Michael Fidler was having a clearout, and offered a surplus pair of MarkAudio Alpair 10.3 drivers. He imparted to me some of his knowledge in loudspeakr design, and leant a hand in the box modelling to create the speakers herein.
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Acoustic Research AR35BX restoration Project
A pair of AR35BX were local to me and the price was right. They needed some work, with pealing vinyl, degraded driver foam surrounds and failing components in the crossovers.
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A Few More Pens – Laburnum, Maple, Tigerwood, Sycamore
More pens resulting from my latest hobby / obsession. It's somewhat ironic that somebody who can't write (not with a pen at least) has found so much enjoyment and satisfaction in making these.
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More Padauk Pens
More pens in Padauk wood, mostly using slimline and 'fancy' pen kits. I've discovered that the quality of the bushings you use to set your diameters when turning these is extremely important.
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Pens in Padauk and Laburnum
Laburnum wood is not a widely used timber but possesses a distinct character that makes it interesting to turn. It has a rich golden-brown hue, often with darker streaks and irregular figuring.
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Pioneer PL-12D Classic Turntable Restoration
This classic turntable needed a lot of TLC but it had the makings of something great. The original plinth was a bit tatty, missing the lid and barely held together by failing glue.
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Monkey Puzzle Bowl
On my last trip to my preferred wood supplier, he handed me a piece of Monkey Puzzle and challenged me to turn it. It was a cutting that, he said, would be uncommonly tricky and he wasn't wrong.
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My First Attempt At Pen Turning
As someone who can't write (in teh physical sense at least) I do see the irony in wanting to give pen turning a go. The intricacy and precision required to turn the perfect pen appeals to me, especially as precision is harder to achieve on a wood lathe than machinist tools.
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Jewellery Bowl / Trinket dish
A decorative yet functional jewelery bowl, ring dish or trinket dish. Finished in a natural oil finish.