Craig Sawyers

Have a truly spectacular day! Happy birthday!!

OK - I'm a great fan of simple glued joints for long grain. But I have used other forms of joinery. My speakers (Linkwitz LX521.4) have the bass unit dipole assembled with biscuits (into marine ply, right angle joints), and I have a de-Walt biscuit jointer. And on my bench (a Klausz), the underframe is wedged tenons (sapele) and the top boards and apron are a mixture of glued floating tenon and dowel (I didn't have a biscuit jointer then). One of my cabinet making heroes is James Krenov. He used dowels in his exceptionally superb cabinets, usually on end grain to long grain joints. But in his later years he was clear that if biscuits had been available when he was making he would have used them in a heartbeat. I have to say that with biscuits you have to work fast. They swell once glued, so you have to assemble and cramp fast.

The alternative is to buy Linear Systems LSK170/LSJ74 matched pairs, quads and even octets from DIYAudio's store.

Here too. Plane the boards true and do a trial assembly, apply glue (I tend to use Titebond Extend), clamp up. Job done. I use homemade clamping jigs, pieces of chopped up bike tire (minus the steel beading) to protect the board edges, and ratchet straps. The clamping jigs hold the board flat. I'll see if I can find a picture of this arrangement.

If you find yourself in my neck of the woods near Oxford UK on your way back, there are cold beers in the fridge with your name on them...

PA Princeton did not come through. Trying again.

He designed the buildings I used to work in - PA Technology in Melbourn (near Cambridge UK) and in Princeton NJ, below (designed 1985) After that he became too famous and expensive to do little jobs like the above! But what an architectural titan. RIP Richard Rogers.

Norma Jean Mortenson, before she became Marilyn. Aged 20, in Kodachrome in 1946.

You telling me it arrived Naaman? If so that was bloody quick. UK to Arkansas in three days!

? I can't open that? What is it?

Hear hear!

Shit that is sad news indeed. RIP.

My cousin Roy was a set designer and head carpenter for Pinewood Studios. His two most famous ones were the original Superman movie (the ice palace was one of his), and A Fish Called Wanda. Alas most sets were (and perhaps still are) made from MDF. A lifetime breathing in MDF dust did him no good at all, and while working on a Bond movie maybe 20 years ago in the Philippines, had a recurrence of a breathing crisis and sadly died. Before breathing safety for lifetime professional woodworkers was a thing.

Amid all the impressive stuff on this list, I offer up the chopping board. My son phoned on Sunday, and asked if I could make one for a good mate of his, explaining that he was jealous of the one I made for him some years ago. So, although my preferred wood for a chopping board is beech, I could only get oak, Picked up a raw plank on Monday, and made this:

There is also Cleo

This is not CGI. Called AMECA, and currently not mobile, it is a state of the art in everything else. British company called Engineered Arts. You can hire one. Or buy one; best not ask the price.

And you are 'merican. Imagine arriving in the dark after a 7 hour flight, picking up a hire car, and driving on the wrong side of the road. And immediately thinking WTF is this road system? I just want to go to Lexington FFS. Mind you in the opposite direction, visitors arriving at Heathrow are also in for a road system treat. Our daughter's husband Oscar (he's from NZ) compares driving in the UK to driving on goat tracks.

Hope you had a superb spaced out day!

Joni Michell was awarded a Kennedy Centre Honor yesterday. This is a seriously prestigious award (which bizarrely I had never heard of before) https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kennedy-center-honors-lorne-michaels-joni-mitchell-1.6274668

My hated Garmin was so screwed up that it thought that a new road we were driving was still a field. "Turn around when possible". Then after an update it started announcing E road numbers (At the next junction join the M4, E9). When it finally died I really enjoyed tossing it in the recycling. Now use google maps on the phone.

I used to go to Boston fairly regularly on business, and I well remember trying to navigate the road system. The thing that really screwed me up was coming to an intersection and all it said was a route number and North or South. So give me a hint by at least mentioning a place name. Or in the pitch dark, stair rod rain, zero visibility, unable to see the white lines, on a deserted road. Such fun 😉

14 Peaks on Netflix. About Nimsdai Purja climbing all 14 mountains over 8000 metres. All in the Himalayas of course. In 7 months. Previous record: 7 years. In the process he broke 6 mountaineering world records. Stunning. One of these massive mountains he did with a stinking hangover! https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81464765 By the same production team that did Free Solo https://films.nationalgeographic.com/free-solo about Alex Honnold free climbing El Cap in 3 hours. Full thing on Amazon Prime. I defy you not to grab the arms of the chair and curl your toes for that one.