Lol…he ‘plainly’ needs to invest in a door stop…I can just see all the wood plane affectionardos having nightmares over that… I have two…both are pretty much ornamental when it comes to making anything with wood, one I bought and one I inherited from my father, so they both have meaning to me…one sentimental, the other financial…
…but if I need to plane…I always seem to reach for the powered plane…
That is …pardon the pun…a plainly stupid set of comments ref No 4 plane. One of the most versatile tools ever invented.
I work in my garage all hours, if the sound of my sharp no 4 were to be replaced by an electric plane my neighbours would not be very impressed and I WOULD NOT GET THE SAME FINISH.
Tell me where you pal lives and I will make him a door stop just to be able to rescue his plane…what a wind up
My workshop is very well insulated for warmth in winter, and also keeps it cool in summer, with the added advantage that standing immediately outside, you can hardly hear any power tools being used, and at a distance of a few metres away, nothing at all…so my neighbours don’t even know when I’m working in there, even with the noisiest power tools running… and this time of year, the two small tube heaters I have keep it warm, at a temperature ideal for working, as well as helping to keep tools in good condition, dry, and damp/rust free…
Well that is most enviable Stuart and well done you for being organised to the point where your neighbours are not obliged to listen but most people are not in your, with respect, league.
Doesn’t bother me to hear the sound of other people doing what they want or enjoy. I own a power planer and used to use it for hacking of sides of doors, perhaps I am not sufficiently skilled in its use but I always reached for my handrolic planes to finish off. The thought that people will use them with disregard to No 4/5 is, I feel, a shame.
It was our friend Mr Woodbloke above who, when I started this Handrolic blog, said Mr Chippendale would have jumped at the idea of using electrical gizmo. I am sure he would have been amazed at it’s ability but the noise…dust…danger…cost …space requirements and total inability to produce his beautiful walnut veneered pieces and of course no electricory, turned him away.
I am but an over opinianated amature with a love for my hand tools and the desire to improve…it’s just that I hate power tools.
Lastly can I say well done to Axminster for starting this chat thingy BUT would hate to think they might have their people posed as genuine woodworkers??
Yes, the noise suppression is simply a very nice bye-product of investing in insulation and some small bar heaters to keep the place dry and not freezing cold, which is what it used to be like… I built the place 16 years ago, brick and block base up to 1.2 metres off the ground, and a timber frame built on top of that…I got the bricks and blocks second hand off a self-build project but not enough to completely do it all in brick and block - hence the timber frame top, with a flat roof… I installed the insulation after extending it about 6 years ago, I had already put in celotex between the bricks and blocks originally, but with just 3/4 ply sheeting covering the timber frame it got freezing inside and as a consequence was taking its toll on my tools…so I ordered a load of rock wool and some rolls of silver foil bubble-wrap type of insulation…then emptied the place out one weekend, installed the bubble-wrap (stapled and sealed with silicone to form a vapour barrier, then the rock wool on top…I then lined the inside, over the 150mm depth of insulation with another load of 3/4 ply… After this over another few weekends I installed a new electrical supply (buried armoured cable), to new electrical circuits for power and lighting and got it inspected and tested by a qualified electrician who lives across the road to get the test and inspection and Part ‘P’ certs necessary. Following this I installed a couple of small bar heaters (plug-in wall mounted) and two new upvc double glazed windows, as the original hardwood widows from Wickes were falling apart…
Lastly, I installed 100mm thick celotex into the underside of the flat roof, between the joists…this came from a large load I got as I was refurbing the flat roofed extension we have on the side of the house, so got it all at once for a better discount, but it was a pain having to keep moving 2.4 x 1.2 sheets of stuff around whilst doing the DIY work on the extension… and even getting it in the workshop roof was a pain, having to move everything around to do it in sections…and messy, foam bits from sawing the stuff everywhere, but now it’s finished, and what a difference it makes…I can work in there and remain warm in the coldest weather, and the knock-on effects, apart from standing right outside when tools are running and hardly hearing a thing…is that my tools no longer suffer either, so a definite benefit…
All I have to do now is try and sort the place out to rationalise some decent work space…which, in this conversation, is where I came in…lol…
Well that is all very interesting Stuart you are a man after my own heart, I can’t pass a skip without a glance and your constructional skills on a parr to mine, well done. Very wise to get part p etc. All sounds very cosy, like you I respect my tools and take great care of them.
My set up is an integral garage on the side of our semi. So fairly well insulated 4" brick filled cavity and 5" Thermolite blocks. Solid floor and three Very solid mahogany doors to front, with middle cut into two.
Although I drone on about handrolic I do have a very nice bandsaw on cabinet (Tesco trolley wheels) a combination machine = thickness/planer …circular sawn and spindle moulder, all on another set of Tesco wheels, plus a jet lathe. And water cooled Tormek stone.
I have some 50 lovely moulding planes apart from 3…4…5 6 Stanley beautiful 22" wood jointer plus plus …I bought two 10" wide x 10" throat quick release vice on eBay for 99p!!! Beat that. Perfect condition…I have a 1/2" router under the bench, and that is where it will stay!! Bench 7’ x 3’6"
I scrounge good wood from my local timber yard, they are very good to me I think because I used to be a good customer when I worked. I intend to make a saw horse as can be seen on utube…do you watch Paul Sellers
Best John op
As the man said ‘calm down dear’, it’s only a wind up after all. Nice to see you have a sense of humour!
Keep it coming I can take it…some time ago when fitting a kitchen a rather cocky electrician turned up…“that’s it he said the pros have arrived” as he tried to push through the door I said " well you can sod off cos you’ve just stepped on me No 4". Ha ha
All very industrial a veritable man cave …not a bench vice in site.
On a very envious serious note a lovely work shop …love the old timber studwork. Now you won’t find the like in IKEA and not made with electrycle gizmo either
Couple of other pics for you:
The studwork is actually the old cattle feeding trough
Barn roof prior to being re-laid, now has a resident Owl.
Sounds like a nice set-up…Tesco wheels, lol…I pictured you raiding the local trolley park and secreting the trolleys in the back of a van before making your get-away 
…
I have a Jet wood lathe too…1224 with bed extension, planer/thicknesses, Makita floor standing band saw, Table saw (crappy fox make which I hope to replace this year) bench pillar drill and Jet bench mortiser, and various power tools; drills, sanders, two routers - 1/4 Bosch kit new from Axminster this year, and a 1/2 ebauer that I have had for years and refuses to die, circular saw (ditto), power plain, belt and disk sander, Makita mitre saw, and a host of other bits and bobs…
We too have a garage on the side of our Semi, the flat roof extension is over the top. It was full depth of the house, and when we first moved in, 26 years ago now, it served as my workshop, but I converted the rear half into an extension for the kitchen, must be 24 years ago now, so the garage was reduced to about 4 foot less than normal size, and so serves as a bit of a junk store…never had a car in it…but have a driveway that takes 3 cars, so not really any need…I have been asked by the wife to think about making it into another room, so anything stored in there will need another space…my que I think to suggest I need to build more storage space in the garden…a cunning plan eh…
If you are a woodworker or DIY’er you need a sense of humour with the price of wood, tools and accessories etc these days…I guess someone somewhere is making mega bucks… 
Blimey, nice photos… do you own that…looks like you have just enough space there then…!! is the structure protected…looks pretty old…
…
The best way to treat electricians is to ask deep and meaningful questions about circuits and size of wire, resistance (that’s always a good one), ‘mega testing’, always gets a stupid response…and the value of earthing rods for aerials and roofing, and Whether or not you have a ‘hot site’ in respect of your earthing and ground resistivity…when you get towards the latter questions you will find the work rate speeds up and they’re out of there in no time at all…lol…
Yes we own it, its attached to the side of the house… about 13M square and two storey… not listed as its in France where protection is only on ancient monument not domestic properties even though its early 1500’s.
Early photo, prior to any work on the place.
Interesting comment about so called 'professionals (pros) and amateurs, or hobbyists. A professional is one who simply gets paid for the work he does, regardless of the quality of the finished item (or service in this case) which often means that the pro is up against the clock. The amateur, on the other hand, is under no such restrictions and as such the quality of amateur work is very often superior to that from a professional. Not a blanket case or true all the time as many excellent pros in the (furniture making) trade know all the tried and tested short cuts which save time and money, but also produce quality work.
A pro, at the end of the jour, has to produce the goods in the requisite hours (or less) in which case he’s buying the beers on Friday lunchtime. If not, he’ll be out the door on the same day, taking his gear with him.
Sorry I’m not into deep thinking, all that sounds to involved for my simple noddle. The pushy electrician lost all his cred with me cos he walked on my No 4
As far as being a pro…I was instructed, when caught running a new ring main when I was refurbishing a property to get an earth continuity check on house by a certified electrician. So I, being street wise, chose another co. and guess what…my work was ok but the “pro” electricians previous lighting circuit was not.
That was ignored because he gave brown envelopes to the maintenance officer…such is life and I am very glad to say behind me. Now I just play in my garage and tell boring stories on the internet…best John
Wow now that is seriously tasty ( said the bishop to the actress ). There’s me trying to pluck up courage, seeing previous picture, to say “are they Norfolk Pantiles or Kentish Peg tiles”. Now I can say and who will believe me, the barn construction did not look familiar?? John
OK, Having gone off-topic slightly, lol… I have now made a BIG decision…I am going to do away with some of my fixed benches and construct a moveable workbench of the type that can have some of my machines ‘embedded’ into it (see the photos for an example - and likely what mine might ‘resemble’). I also intend to see it I can also add some bench top ‘flip-overs’ so the drill press and something other can be place on flip-over sections within the workbench, so when not in use can be ‘flipped’ under the workbench - so a usable workbench space is not permanently occupied…
In addition to this, having trawled the internet at depth, both in respect of photos and on YouTube - which is a great source for inspiration for me personally and an endless source of ingenuity by others - I have also decided that some of my other machines, mig-welder, plasma cutter and tools etc can be put onto carts with castors too, and additionally, I shall be constructing an exterior (adjoined) storage area to house my compressor, and hopefully a dust collection system that I am going to have a go at designing and building (thanks to the ingenuity of YouTube makers posting their videos of how they did it)…so a lot of planning, designing and work ahead come the spring/summer…in the meantime I am gradually getting some of the smaller tools I need, and hopefully by end of summer I shall also have enough saved to replace my table saw (the new one will be built-in to the new movable bench) and planer/thicknesser…and will be ready to, as they say, rock and roll…
Further on the subject of electrical supply and overhead small-power outlets, and hanging cables…I think I have resolved the issue simply… 1) All power tools will be connected to a single supply point under the workbench (as I can only use one tool at a time, so there should not be any issues here), which means I only need a single drop-down cable from an overhead supply to the workbench. 2) I am looking at using a hanging cable overhead, together with a small power outlet mounted on a box that can traverse up and down the workshop (overhead -on a beam fixed to the underside of the joists), so this will enable me to use the workbench in virtually any position in the workshop without getting in the way…My thinking is of a cable suspended and affixed to sliders of some type, that will run along side the overhead runner on which with small power outlet is fixed…so at full extension the cable is not stressed, and when not extended the cable can simply loop down say 300mm or less, which will not get in the way… I have played about with sketches out using some lengths of ‘Dexion’ and home-made brackets with small roller bearings that looks promising, but we’ll see how it goes - watch this space for photos later in the year…
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Cunning; different to my approach for machinery/tool organisation but it looks like it’s going to work for you. Would be good to see some more pics later on when everything’s sorted and up n’running - Rob
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