Happy New Year!

Boy was last year a big one – so much going on, think I only took about 3 breaths all year!

So onto the new: I haven’t gotten my head around just what I want to achieve this year, but it will certainly involve in keeping things moving forward.

This site is now just over 6 months old, and has had over 30,000 visits in that time.  That has completely exceeded my expectations (didn’t really have any to start with, so guess that wasn’t too hard!), but 30k is great!  A lot are return visits which is something I really do like to see – it means that there is actually enough here that people are wanting to come back to see what is new.  It does mean I need to keep on top of it, keeping producing new content, so that is definitely a good thing!

So what do I see coming up this year?

As I have said, I haven’t gotten my head around it all, but it will include an upgrade to how the videos are being done – it will be a gradual transition, but I want to keep improving their look and feel, and the amount of depth of information as well.

The shed itself is obviously becoming quite a critical choke-point, so there are some tentative plans on how I can increase its size, and get it more organised (and perhaps upgrading my ‘blue-box’ collection that you see on one wall – there have been some comments about it on one of the woodworking bulletin boards.  Not quite sure why the comments, but they were always a temporary/stop-gap solution, and I’d like to produce something a little more stylish, and in wood (funnily enough!))

With the shed upgrade, it will be an ideal time to finally implement a decent, fixed dust collection system.  I did have one working at one stage, but it has fallen into serious disrepair.  It isn’t very likely, but with more space, there is an opportunity to fit in a proper cabinet saw…..now that’d be a real coup!

I really want to improve my woodturning skills this year, and of course [some of] that will come through in the posts and videos.  I’ve been turning pens for a while, but want to really try my hand at some larger items, such as bowls.

I also want to really improve my skills with the Incra, master some of the amazing joinery that is possible, and try my hand at some of the projects in the Incra Project Book.

Some videos planned for this site include the above (obviously), and also a look at some of the different sharpening techniques, including the Scary-Sharp using an Alisam Engineering Jig that Professional Woodworker Supplies has generously offered, along with one of their coarse diamond stones, and possibly a Hock blade.  Also, using diamond stones, Japanese waterstones (using a Veritas Mk2 and some blades supplied by HNT Gordon), and water-cooled grinding wheels (we have the Triton slow-speed wet grinder, and the Australian supplier of Tormek have very generously offered a T7, so I am really looking forward to getting to review that in late January).

I still have a review of the Triton 15″ thicknesser, and 12″ bandsaw on the way as well, so it already is looking like a busy start to the year (yay!!)

I’ve also been asked if I can make another of my toy sink/stove sets, and there are a whole heap of other projects I need to do this year.

So hopefully there are things of interest to you in there, and if you have any other areas you really want to see covered, do drop me a line!

To everyone, hope you have a great New Year, and that you get plenty of time to make as much sawdust as possible (and safely!!)

Thanks for all the emails and encouragement over the past 6 months, it really is appreciated.  I’ve had emails from all sorts of places – it’s amazing to see the range of locations of visitors – quite mind-blowing!

Hope to have you visit again real soon!

Stuart.