Really Striking Mayflower Log

Two years ago we had some very blustery conditions as storm and then hurricane weather patterns which originated in the Atlantic Ocean, made landfall and descended on our part of Snowdonia. The result of these heavy winds, squalls and gusts was a number of old trees came crashing down.

One such tree was a Mayflower thorn tree, which had been growing in our garden hedge for as long as I can remember and in all likely hood had been planted pre-war.

It was quite a gnarly specimen and sitting quite close to the lane had lost foliage to passing tractors and the bank in which it was growing had suffered soil loss and erosion over the years, so it was no surprise when this lovely old tree lost its footing and plummeted into the lane. Luckily it did so during the night when there is no passing traffic, as it probably weighed around two tons! 

A neighbour arrived with his chainsaw and cut the tree into several pieces, which I have added to the pile of wood I have air drying in the garden. The base of the tree was cut into logs  and these I put a the top of the garden to dry out. 

I noticed the other day that one of these logs was drying with a most interesting and intricate pattern and is pictured above.

Pallet wood phone cradle

For many years we have not been able to receive a mobile phone signal in the cottage, or workshop, due to the property being surrounded by steep hills, which are planted with Larch and Oak woodland.

In the last year the forestry company, who manage the Larch woodland, discovered Larch Die Back Disease in many of the trees and as this is a notifiable disease, agreed with the owner of the woodland to clear fell the whole plantation.

In the 32 years that we have lived here, these magnificent 60 foot trees have been our friends and we felt very sad when the harvesters and chain saw gangs descended on the forest and began felling in earnest.

Now several months later all the trees are gone and only stumps and brash remain. With the canopy gone, we are seeing self seeded Oaks, Birch and Cherry coming into leaf. The management company tell us that Coronavirus depending, they are going to plant additional Cherry and Oak trees, so in 10 years or so, the hill should once more have a canopy, but this time with broad leaves. Although not in my lifetime, these new trees, will one day provide timber for wood workers and furniture makers.

There is now a mobile signal at the top of the kitchen door!

The cutting of the trees has brought an unexpected benefit in that there is now a weak signal on the mobile inside the cottage. There is now one bar on the mobile, in the corner of the kitchen by the washing machine and the front door.

I discovered this quite by chance and in order to lock onto this one bar and keep it stable, it is necessary to hold the phone close to the door and not move too much, which is a bit trying when wanting to make or receive a call, 

To address this problem, I have made a simple holder out of pallet wood, which I cut to size on the bandsaw and screwed in place on the door.

The holder made from pallet wood screwed in place on the kitchen door

I waxed the uprights of the holder with candle wax and the phone slides easily between the uprights and is held snug by the cross piece at the bottom.

The Nokia easily slides into place between the uprights and is held securely by the bottom piece

For sending a text the phone can be raised to use the keyboard and for receiving a text or a call with the phone in the lower position the control are easy to operate. 

At last a simple solution for using the mobile inside the cottage!

Once a call is connected, the loudspeaker button is pressed and then one can walk around the kitchen or sit down and the two way conversation can be clearly heard with out the need to shout.

The door is a stable door and the phone holder is screwed to the top section. I have tried opening and shutting the door and even slamming the door, to simulate it being caught by the wind, but the phone did not budge at all, which is good to know, in case we forget that it is there!

This simple holder made with three pieces of pallet wood, screwed and glued together and screwed in place now means at last our mobile is connected and those annoying codes that banks and Internet sites require these days to authenticate who is who, can now be done so with ease.

Making a narrow rip jig for the Festool TS-55 track saw

I bought the Festool TS-55 plunge and track saw for cutting sheet goods safely and it excels in this respect, producing clean cuts of all types of sheet goods, with excellent dust extraction, coupled to the Festool MIDI 2 dust extractor. I have found the saw very versatile and not only for sheet goods. It works very well cutting hardwood and softwood boards and now I have added the UJK PARF long super dogs, it is also brilliant for trench cuts in wood up to 100mm x 100mm. Although I do have a table saw in my workshop, I now use the Festool TS-55 for all cross cutting and trenching.

Thin rips cut with the Festool TS-55 track saw

Up to now I have cut thin rips, say down to 5mm on the table saw and when I wanted even thinner cuts I have used the band saw. I was looking at a Festool product video which showed a special jig to produce thin rips. Upon further investigation I found third party jigs as well, but for something that I might use now and then, I could not justify the expense, so I decided to see if I could make my own.

TS-55 set up to cut a 2mm rip

The MFT top that I built into my bench has a grid of 20mm holes, which with the use of the UJK parf dogs, allows for perfect square and angle cuts. UJK also make clips which slide on to the Festool guide rail and these allow for perfect alignment of the rail and keeps everything square. These clips also allow for the rail to be raised to 90 degrees to the workpiece or removed altogether and then when you fit it again, you know that the rail will be in exactly the right place. Neat.

UJK guide rail clip attaches to the rail and the UJK PARF Dog

With this in mind, I thought that I could use this feature for my thin rip jig and the rail would help hold narrow workpieces in place and with the ability to lift out of the way, it would be easy to adjust the cut.

The UJK rail clips allow the rail to be easily raised and lowered

The jig for this exercise was simply made from six pieces of 13mm soft wood

.

The workpiece overhangs the table but is held securely by the end stops and the guide rail

The two outer pieces labelled Fx, are set up as end stops and once set do not move being held in place by screw clamps.  The pieces marked Adj are secured by quick clamps and can be moved back and forth to set the depth of cut. Note that the workpiece is held in place by the end stops by a friction fit and this prevents any lateral movement. The example in the photo above was set up to cut thin rips from boards 330mm long. The jig on the MFt can be adjusted up to a width of 630mm as required.

The depth of cut is set with a combination square allowing for the kerf of the blade

The TS-55 blade kerf measures 2.2mm, so when setting my combination square to the width of the rip that I want, I must add the the kerf thickness as well. First I release the quick clamps and with the rail raised I set the workpiece in approximately the right position by eye, then I lower the rail and check the actual depth with the combination square. Once I am happy with the position, I secure the depth stop first on the left and then on the right, checking the depth each time. With a bit of practice this only takes about a minute. 

I have set the jig up using the Festool 1080/2 guide rail

Using the jig I was able to make repeatable 2mm cuts and all these have a superb clean edge with no tearout thanks to the precision of the TS-55. 

I cut this thin 1.42mm rip from the edge of a jointed softwood board 

Finally, I wanted to see how thin a rip I could cut with this jig. Selecting a board that had been planed and jointed I adjusted the jig first for a 2mm cut as before. Then after three incremental adjustments the TS-55 produced a cut of just 1.42mm as the photo above shows. 

Triton TDJ600 Dowelling Jointer Review

Triton TDJ600 Dowelling Jointer

I have been looking for a power dowelling jointer for a while and the choice was limited to one budget machine that I could afford and three very expensive machines, which were well outside my budget! These are the Triton TDJ600 costing under £200, the Mafell Duo Dowel Jointer at £850, Festool Domino DF700 at £1000 and the Lamello Zeta P2 for an eye watering £1300! 

I am going to be making four new lower windows for the workshop and I want to use 12mm dowels in their construction. Two of these windows face the lane so I will make these from Welsh Oak and the rear two face the veg garden, so will be made from Redwood.  

As an amateur woodworker on a small budget, the choice was simple, the Triton was the only machine that I could actually afford. I looked online and saw that Toolstation were offering the machine for just  £129.99 with next day delivery. 

The machine is supplied with 8mm cutters, but I had been using 10mm dowels and have a big box of these, so I also bought the 10mm and 12mm cutters from FFX, together with additional packs of dowels in 8 and 12mm. The total purchase price came to just under £195 which is a quarter of the cost of the cheapest alternative!

Next day this big box arrived from Toolstation

Inside the big box and wrapped in oodles of bubble wrap was the jointer

Usually, cheapest does not mean best and I had read reviews of this machine and watched various woodworkers struggling on YouTube to get it to produce accurate results. I had watched two videos that showed work arounds to improve accuracy, so I bought the machine with an open mind knowing that a certain amount of fettling could be required to produce accurate repeatable results.

The TDJ600 can use 8mm, 10mm and 12mm dowels

As it turned out, the only fettling required on my machine was to find a way to connect it to my Festool MIDI extractor. The Triton has a dust port on the bottom of the machine underneath the cutters. I tried my various dust adapters but nothing seemed to fit straight out of the box.  However, I stripped down one of my Cen-Tec adapters and this fitted both the Festool 27mm hose and the dust port on the Triton, albeit a bit loose. The addition of a strip of gaffer tape to the Triton made for a good airtight fit and that is all I have had to do in way of improvements to my machine!

A piece of gaffer tape makes an airtight seal for the Cen-Tec soft adapter

With the Festool plugged into the Triton, dust collection is impressive with hardly any wood dust ending up on the floor.

The Festool MIDI now plugs straight into the Triton

 

Various reviewers made mention of poor accuracy with the machine, but I have not found this to be the case. I have now used the machine for several projects and am very satisfied with its accuracy and its ability to produce accurate repeatable holes, that match perfectly. To test for accuracy, I performed a number of tests and some of these are shown below.

A simple jig makes lining up the holes easy

The cutters are spaced 32mm apart, so I made up a simple jig with reference lines for the cutters and centre lines, when working with long work pieces which require multiple dowels.

Eight 10mm dowels produced perfect results
 (wood is square but looks bowed due to wide angle lens!)

In this example I am using eight 10mm dowels to join a length of 45mm x 35mm to a piece of 125mm x 47mm, leaving a 5mm gap along its length. I felt that whilst it would be easy to fit a dowel at either end, but by using eight dowels, there would be a much greater margin for error and this would have a direct impact on the accuracy of the 5mm differential that I was looking for.

All the holes lined up perfectly

By using the jig to mark out the workpiece it was easy to accurately mark up prior to cutting and all the holes were evenly spaced. I cut the 10mm dowels in half with a Japanese pull saw and sanded the edges with 120grit paper and all the dowels slotted into place.

The 5mm riser is equidistant along its length

I cut the eight holes into each piece of timber with the Triton dowel jointer, using the alignment marks on the faceplate 

There are three alignment marks on the faceplate which show a midpoint between the two cutters

lined up to my pencil marks, that I had transposed from the jig. The line of holes in each piece were spot on and the two pieces of timber slotted together easily. The result as you can see in the photo above is a rise of 5mm equidistant along its length.

A good tip, when using the machine I found that by keeping my thumb pressed down on the horizontal fence this kept the machine nice and steady throughout the cut.

Pressing down on the horizontal fence with my thumb kept the machine nice and steady

In order to prevent tear out, another good tip is to let the cutters come to a halt, before releasing the plunge action. Doing this the holes have been clean and without tear out every time.

In this second example I have used the jointer to reinforce a 45 degree mitre in two lengths of 47 x 47 Redwood. I could have changed the cutters and used two 8mm dowels, but instead decided to remove one of the cutters and use a 10mm dowel instead to see how it would cope with narrower stock.

Using one 10mm dowel to reinforce the glue joint in 45 degree mitre 

I like the fact that you can if you so wish remove one of the cutters when working with a narrow workpiece. I cut the 45 degree mitres on the table saw, using the sliding mitre gauge. There is a certain amount of slop in the gauge so I was surprised that the cuts proved accurate as they did. When you consider that my table saw cost only fractionally more than a good after market mitre gauge, it does show that some cheap tools really can be quite good if you take time to set them up properly! Review on the table saw to follow.

Using the included 2.5mm allen key to remove one of the cutters

The cutters have one flat side and are easy to insert and remove using the 2.5mm allen key which is included with the jointer and is stored neatly in the carrying handle. It is simply a case of rotating the cutters until the grub screws are at 90 degrees, then just loosen the one you want a couple of turns and withdraw the cutter. You do the same, but in reverse to fit the cutter. So if you want to change sizes up or down, or as in this case remove one of the cutters, it is a simple and straightforward procedure.

The two pieces slotted together correctly and made a nice tight joint

In this third test I used the jointer with four dowels to join two pieces of 70 x 70mm treated rough sawn timber, which would form one of the corner supports for the new chicken house.

Cutting the dowel holes in the face of the timber

and in the end grain of the corresponding piece

By using the MFT table with either the Festool or Axminster F clamps holding the workpiece secure for cutting is quite straightforward. I used the the Triton with the two cutters, first in the face and then in the corresponding piece of end grain.

This was the first test that I made with the Triton jointer, so I was a bit unsure if it would line up properly, but as the photos show, there were no problems.

The four dowels lined up beautifully and produced a tight 90 degree joint. Very impressive!

The jointer is supplied in a smart soft case which is handy for keeping it clean when stored under the bench.

The machine comes with a manual which like a number of machines from China is rather vague, but most of what you need to know can be found online anyway, so no worries there. 

The controls are quite straightforward, with cutter plunge depth and fence angle adjustment on the left hand side and fence height control on the right hand side. The fence height is adjusted with one knob to release or tighten the setting and another to wind the rack and pinion lift.

Fence height adjustment control on the right side of the machine

Close up showing rack and pinion lift

Cutter plunge depth control

Plunge and Angle controls are found on the left side of the machine

The machine comes with a 12 month warranty and if you register online within 30 days as I did, this will be extended to 36 months.

The machine weighs just under 3kg so isn't tiring to use for long periods.

I can only assume that Triton took on board the various criticisms that had been levelled at this machine over the years and fixed them. For me the machine worked straight out of the box and the only fettling required was to connect my 27mm dust hose to the 30mm dust extractor port, which can be a common problem with incompatibility of dust ports between manufacturers.

In conclusion: I bought this machine with my own money and have no affiliation with Triton or Tool Station. The views expressed in this review are entirely my own and have not been influenced by a third party. That said, I am very pleased with the Triton TDJ600 Dowelling Jointer and think it is exceptionally good value for money. The test results above speak for themselves and I have not had any reason to regret my purchase, quite the opposite in fact, as this machine does exactly what I need.

Titan TTB5175 STP 18Ga Brad Nailer Stapler Review

Titan TTB517STP nailer/stapler loaded with 22mm galvanised staples

The Titan TTB517-STP Nailer Stapler from Screwfix is listed on their web site as being rated for 25mm, 18 Gauge brad nails and 22mm staples, but in fact it comes marked for sizes 15mm to 32mm and I have used 32mm brads and 15mm and 22mm staples without problem.

The machine is marked 15mm through 32mm

The machine costs just £34.99 inclusive of VAT, plus postage from Screwfix and comes with a two year warranty. If you spend £50 or more at the same time, then postage is free.

The Titan nailer/stapler comes with a 2 year warranty

The nailer is powered by a 240v electric motor and features a grey plastic body with all controls in contrasting yellow, see photo below. At the back of the handle is an on/off switch and a rotating knob to deflect the spent air away from the user.

Body colour is grey, controls are a contrasting yellow. 

The firing button is the yellow switch forward on the hand grip, which is comfortable to use.

The safety catch for the magazine is easy to open and close

The nails and or staples are loaded into a spring lock magazine on the bottom of the machine.  Before loading make sure the power is turned off. Loading is simple and straightforward. Depress the locking safety catch to release and the magazine pops open. Load the nails or staples making sure the tips are pointing down. Then carefully push the gate shut until the catch locks. The magazine will take the long strips that come in a typical suppliers box

Tacwise brads and staples in suppliers boxes

but it will also take an assortment of broken strips, so if you have the misfortune to drop them, don't worry. I bought Tacwise nails and staples from Amazon, but these had been packed badly and the staples arrived with a burst box and broken strips of staples everywhere!

Amazon did not pack these Tacwise staples properly and the box burst in transit

When using the nailer I always wear safety glasses and ear defenders, as whilst the machine is generally quiet, when you fire in a nail, at that moment, it is very loud indeed and ear protection must be worn.

Safety kit when using the nailer includes safety glasses and ear defenders

In a previous article about making the mitre saw station, I showed the nailer being used to pin 18mm plywood together for glue up and the nailer punches the nails in cleanly below the surface, as long as I keep some top pressure on the machine with my other hand.

Using the TTB5175SFP as a nailer with 32mm brads

For the chicken run that I am building this comprises a number of 4 foot x 3 foot frames, clad with 18 Gauge galvanised mesh and the stapler has been brilliant adding one staple ever two inches. Much easier and quicker than the old method of hammer and staples!

Stapling 18Ga galvanised weld mesh onto wooden frames

I had heard of other low budget nailers that were prone to jamming, but during both nailing and stapling, although the machine has been worked quite hard at times, I have not suffered a jam.

As you can tell I am very pleased with this nailer/stapler, but it does have one rather annoying feature, which I have had to work around.

A piece of red insulating tape makes for a good sight mark

There really is no accurate mark for placing either nail, or staple and to start with I found this rather frustrating and a lot of staples missed their mark! To overcome this problem I attached some red insulating tape to show the nail slot as I look down on the work piece, now I have no problem placing my nails, or staples first time, every time. Why it did not come with something like this, who can say?  It is a shame as a simple aiming mark, would have been so easy to apply at point of manufacture.

With the corners stapled it is easy to cut the wire ready for the next frame

In conclusion, I think the TTB5175 STP is a great addition to the workshop and at this price point great value for money.