Timbecon News

Cast your mind back to when you first started woodworking...

Traditionally cyclone dust collectors were the domain of big manufacturers. We have all seen them driving through industrial estates, huge cones of steel hanging off the side of even huger factories – these extractors were strictly for the big boys.

If you want to chisel all the fluff around hand tools down to the raw basics, there are two types of hand tools in this world: practical and creative.

What kind of company releases a wax called ‘Shithot’ and markets their goods as ”Products with a gimmick…THEY WORK.”?

An “All Australian and proud of it” brand of course. A brand called U Beaut. U Beaut is the extraordinary brainchild of a proudly ordinary Aussie bloke called Neil, who we’ll introduce later.

But first, in an industry increasingly dominated by the soulless big corporates, we thought we’d introduce you to a couple of back-shed family businesses bucking the trend…

One of the questions we encounter nearly everyday is ‘What's the difference between the spiral cutterhead on this $900 thicknesser and this $1,600 thicknesser?' Well, the truth is, not all spiral cutterheads are born equal...

I was working for Gregory Machinery at the time, when in walks this skinny looking hipster wanting to buy a drum sanding machine. I pointed him towards the Jet 18/36 sitting on the showroom floor and cracked up a bit of a conversation. Now if you know Luke Kallquist, then you know he is a softly spoken, cool kind of dude, so at first it was a bit difficult to get a word out of him.

A featherboard can add pressure in a position closer to the action than human finger should ever dare venture. We all know that point, right there near the sharp bit where a little pressure would be most effective and reduce the chance of vibration greatly. However, if you use your hands and the stock kicks back, well that’s an hour or two in the emergency waiting room or worse.