Invent Design Make

In this one, we’re making an automatic door for the chicken coop using an old wiper motor some scrap metal, and an Arduino. Before we started keeping chickens we knew we didn’t really want to be tied to getting up at the crack of dawn, or always being at home by dark to put them […]

A two-part CNC video hit the tubes recently. It documents some of our adventures learning to use this beast we have created. The truth is that when we were scavenging parts and building it (see the CNC machine design & make), we didn’t really know exactly how we would use it. It makes pro-CNC builders […]

Making the CNC machine has been an ongoing side project for a long time. It’s a machine that is able to flatten slabs too wide for the thicknesser, cut out intricate shapes in sheet materials, like plywood, engrave letters and pictures, shape 3D objects, mill flat accurate surfaces into aluminum and steel, use a drag-knife […]

Nice slabs with a chainsaw – sounds easy! But for us, it has been a long journey, with triumphs yes, but also plenty of mistakes too. We have learned so much about milling up fallen trees we needed to write a book to share it! The aim is to let the reader leapfrog some of […]

In this one we show how we made an unusual but very simple design for a slug-proof raised bed vegetable patch. These raised beds are very cheap, as we made them from chainsaw milling off cuts (slabwood) and branches that would have been firewood. The construction is very straightforward. and primarily done with a chainsaw! […]

We made this oaken beauty as a gift to say thank you to our neighbours, who were kind enough to let us chainsaw mill wood from a massive poplar tree that fell on their house in a storm (see here for that story). As usual the start to finish build video has more details, but […]

I have been threatening to make this quick clamp for the mitre saw for about as long as I have owned the mitre saw! Not having to have your hands anywhere near the blade when you cut things is a huge safety bonus, and now I have it done I am super befuddled as to […]

The latest video is a bite sized chainsaw milling tutorial. Did I mention there are 17 tips?! Lets get straight into it. Click here for the full milling tips video, or click here for the article… 1 The quality of your finished boards can be improved greatly by easing the saw into

As a kid I played in its branches. As a woodworker I wondered at its immensity. Then one day it blew down… This weeks video is about using the home made chainsaw mill on this absolutely epic Oak tree. Considering its age (400 years maybe!), it’s a bit surprising that it was blown