Keith Smith

Keith Smith  |  Oct 03, 2008  |  0 comments
Building your own kitchen cabinets gives you the ultimate flexibility of a bespoke kitchen design. All the units can fit perfectly, without the use of fill-in panels or wine racks where you least need them. They are reasonably easy to make too; the unit can be screwed together because the outsides of the cabinets can’t normally be seen. The downside of making your own cabinets is that it can be time consuming and then, if you have a lot of…

Keith Smith  |  Oct 03, 2008  |  0 comments
 

Modular cabinet construction follows the same, or very similar, steps whatever material is being used. Some jointing methods suit one material more than another; for instance biscuit joints particularly suit MDF, and pocket-hole screws work particularly well with plywood. MFC (melamine-faced chipboard) is probably the most difficult material to joint strongly and so I’ve tried making a few sample joints and testing them…

Keith Smith  |  Sep 02, 2008  |  0 comments
The moisture content of a piece of timber is something many of us take for granted. We buy timber from the wood yard and expect it to be fit for purpose. Timber is normally kiln dried down to about 8-10% moisture content but it will quickly reabsorb moisture if it’s stored badly. Does it matter? As the moisture content varies, wood expands and contracts, mainly across the grain. Using timber that has not been dried properly is a sure way…

Keith Smith  |  Sep 02, 2007  |  0 comments
Air Drying Air drying is the traditional method of drying timber. Once the log has been sawn, the boards are stacked on battens or ‘stickers’ These should be made of softwood to prevent marking the boards. Stacks are built up which should be protected from rain and sunlight. If green wood is exposed to the elements the heart doesn’t dry and the outside keeps cycling from wet (when it rains) to dry (when the sun shines) this is one cause…

Keith Smith  |  Aug 02, 2007  |  0 comments
...After Before and... My workshop used to be a stable block and I thought that trying to insulate the whole area effectively would be an impossible task. So I just insulated and heated one of the 11ft square loose boxes and tried to work on smaller projects in the winter. This year I had some larger commissions and needed to work through the cold weather. I then had a little accident. I was planing the edge square on some…

Keith Smith  |  Jul 25, 2007  |  0 comments
There are two basic types of extractor, the coarse dust or chip extractor and the fine filter extractor;

1. The chip extractor has a centrifugal fan which draws a large volume of air along the inlet pipe, past the fan blades and into a collection bag. This produces a high volume, low pressure airflow and its performance rapidly reduces if used with pipes or ducting smaller than 100mm. Also the filter has to be relatively coarse or it will…

Keith Smith  |  Jul 25, 2007  |  0 comments
Protecting yourself against the hidden dangers of dust is a must. Keith Smith, The Woodsmith, unravels the myths and facts of dust extraction. Modern woodworking techniques involve the use of powered machinery and tools which create large amounts of chips and dust. Efficient extraction ensures that not only do you protect your health, but your machinery works more efficiently, and the workshop is a better and safer environment to work in.…

X