Working weekend......

I've made a virtue of necessity this weekend, as I'm off up to that there London for two days this week to help my lovely, newly qualified teacher daughter pack up her possessions and prepare for her 10th house move in 10 years. 

 

So, due to being 'hors de combat' during the working week I've been working like a good 'un all weekend.

For me, one of the delights of moving from being a miniature dollmaker, to a miniature toymaker, means that I now get to work with a huge variety of different materials, which gives me the opportunity to use POWER TOOLS.

YAAAAYYY!

Miniature power tools I grant you, but power tools nonetheless.  So over the course of the weekend I've been drilling, cutting and jigsawing with my three favourite tools.

For fellow power tool enthusiasts, here are my top 3.

For drilling, I use a Minicraft Drill, clamped vertically in a drill stand.  I mostly use extremely fine drill bits, marginally thicker than a human hair.  I also have a variable speed transformer which makes light work of drilling through any thickness of wood I use.

For cutting quantities of wood (straight cuts) I have a Proxxon table saw, with a scary circular saw blade, thankfully sheathed under a guard.  It makes short work of cutting through jelutong or mahogany stripwood, and I can be sure that all the lengths are exactly the same.

For some arcane reason, there is an exhortation on the front of the machine which indicates that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should I allow a bull to push the wood through the machine.

This puts me in something of a quandary, as I'm a Taurean.  I'm marginally mollified that thus far nothing bad has happened to me.  Nevertheless, I remain on my guard.

For free-hand cutting, I have a lovely little Minitool Jigsaw, which is just perfect for cutting very small, intricate shapes.

I'm a bit of a mini power tool geek, so I do have several other miniature marvels, all designed to take the hard work out of cutting/sawing/sanding/shaping, but these are my top 3.

As to exactly WHAT I've been cutting/sawing/shaping etc you will have to wait till 1 July for the release of our next Kit of the Month, which, I have to say, is my favourite to date and is designed to evoke the epitome of the quintessential British summer.

No.

It's NOT an umbrella.

Can you guess what it is yet?