New Kit - Festool Plunge Saw TS55REQ

As stated many time on this blog, I'm somewhat of a tool snob.

I spend everyday working with my tools and I like to use the best.

I've been looking at buying a new circular saw for sometime now and I wanted one that would follow a guide rail for straight cuts when I'm building built-in units out of MDF or ply.

 I kept looking at all the different ones on the market and although I'm normally a Makita man I decided it was time to move up to the next level and buy a brand I've wanted to try for ages - Festool.
Anyone I've ever spoke to about these tools raves about them so I thought I'd suffer the cost and try it.


New saw - not for normal site work

I decide to go all out and bought the saw complete with two guide rails and the auto start midi extractor, which will be great on things like my mitre saw and sander as well as the circular saw.

 

Hopefully these tools will be a bit of an investment. The extractor should mean I breath in less dust during the day and make it easier to clean up when I'm working in someones house. The circular saw should make building things like fitted cupboards and wardrobes easier, faster and more accurate.

I'm looking forward to putting these through their paces! Anyone else have any experience using Festool kit?

Build Your Own Chicken Coop

This is a post I put on my other blog - An English Homestead - but as it's to do with woodwork I thought I'd post it here as well!

Over the years I've made lots of chicken coops (never bought one) and gradually refined the design on every new build, but each time there's always something else I'd change on the next one!

Here's my latest design for laying hens

Large coop for 8-10 birds

Front pop hole (still need to build he ramp to get to it)

I clad the coop in feather edge boarding as it was so much cheaper than shiplap. Also I think this will be easier to clean as with shiplap red mites and other nasties can hide in the tongue and groove where you can't get to them. With the roof I use bitumen sheeting as I've had problems with bugs getting between ply and felt when I've used that (I think this stuff works out cheaper anyway).

House raised off the floor

I now always like to make the coops 18" off the ground. This means rats and mice can't hide under it and also being that high it gives the chickens somewhere to shelter out of the rain.

Large door for easy cleaning

To make cleaning easy I made the whole front open so there's no excuse for a dirty coop!

Good ventilation is important (it's not a pill box)

Large nest box with a good slope to discourage chickens jumping on it

How do you build your chicken houses? And what would you change on yours/mine? Normally I always think I should have built it bigger!

We should be getting the chickens this week so I'll soon see what they think to it.