BoleynWorkshop

Inside the Boleyn 2025

Jan 9th

Another new year has started in the Boleyn Workshop or would have done if I could actually get in to it. I've lost the keys and don't have spares. Two years ago I fitted a mortise lock to the solid oak door liberated by my mate from his local pub where it had been sat in storage gathering dust and longing to be fitted to a classic machinery workshop bedecked in the design of the 1970s away shirt worn by the likes of Bobby Moore and Clyde Best. And I never got around to getting a spare key cut for which I am now kicking myself, hard and in the backside. Fortunately though I had anticipated this in the heady days of the 2010s when I added the extension to the workshop and left the security trims off one of the new windows. This meant that in theory I could just pull out the shims holding the glazing panel in and just pop it out. When I put this plan into action it worked like a dream though I sprained my thumb in the process so I would just recommend get spare keys cut before you are reduced to entering your workshop as Russian politicians exit hotels. Fortunately though in a burst of most unBoleyn-like activity I had finished all the grandchildrens presents by the week before Christmas. I had made two flower presses, a wooden jet plane and a model herringbone style dairy parlour all using the Coronet Major and what an absolute pleasure it was as always. See the gallery below.

The plane was made out of oak and hardwood offcuts and finished with three coats of yacht varnish. The plane body was turned out of a piece of 10" x 2" x 2" and the wing section shaped from a piece of 12" x 2" x 1/4". As it was being made for a young child I felt that strength should override aesthetics so the wing section was made in one piece and fitted through a slot in the centre of the body and secured with a wood screw hidden under the cockpit. The tail fins were cut and glued to the tailpiece after shaping a flat section on the top for it to sit on securely. The missiles were turned singly out of 6" x 1/2" x 1/2" hardwood blanks and glued in position. The cockpit was turned as a cone shape and then run through the saw at an angle so it sloped towards the rear and the windscreen was shaped on the sanding wheel.

For each of the flower presses I used two pieces of 5 ply with an 1/8" hardwood laminate top to give a smarter finish. I used 4 x M6 coach bolts with a penny washer on each press but drilled out the top section to 8mm so as to make it easier for the children to put it on as it was obviously a tight fit at 6mm. The presses also had three coats of yacht varnish sanded down in between. With hindsight I should have sealed the ply before varnishing as it dried unevenly but three coats sorted that out. All the ply came from a job load of varied and quality ply offcuts offered for free from a vw van conversion workshop that was closing down near me.

Projects for 2025:

folding wooden shutters for a bedroom window (ongoing since 1996)

Approx 10 yards of picket fencing

a frame for some Basque ceramic tiles

Let's revisit this list in December and see what if anything has happened.

Priorities for 2025:

regaining proper access to the workshop

getting spare keys cut

Heimag A5 refurbishment

sale of surplus Coronet parts

restoration of at least one Coronet Minorette for workshop use

Let's revisit this list in December and I'm guessing at least 4 out of 5 will have been done.

Jan 19th

Workshop keys have turned up while I was away for a few days thanks to an excellent search and rescue mission carried out by my now favourite child. They were discovered under the sofa where I sit every day. Of course they were. I suspect sabotage and am currently reassessing my relationships with all family members.

Jan 31st.

Overall it's been a quiet month up at the Boleyn. Weekly crib games have been held in the house since Crimbo due to a lack of firewood for the stove and obviously the missing keys. One useful job I did yesterday was to board off the back of the Major cabinet to improve storage and fix the problem of stuff falling out the back and getting under the wheels. Don't know why it's taken four years oh yes I do, it's because we don't rush things in the Boleyn right?

Earlier in the month I had a visit from RC who was temporarily back home from studying earth domination plans or something like that at university. Although we couldn't access the workshop for a game of air pistol darts we drank tea and reminisced about the good old days and I was updated on the progress of AC who now works as a a chef. I knew that the tea making training and biscuit acquisition skills he learnt at the Boleyn would come in handy one day. Not to mention all those burgers he sampled in the name of research at local football grounds.

Feb 1st

I did have a quick look at the Heimag the other day and decided to remove the entire head off the column so I can clean up that and also access the on/off switch in the base. I'm going to remove the capacitor altogether and do away with all the extra wires. I want the cable to go down the inside of the column as it would have done originally and won't miss the instant stop/start that the capacitor gives. Nearly got a key cut the other day too but was out off by the size of the queue.

Feb 6th

This week has been taken up by a non Coronet machine, my Scheppach 260 planer/thicknesser. I have a lot of timber to rip down and prepare before making the bedroom shutters so for ease I will be traitorously using my Tyzack 10" cabinet saw and the Scheppach (Charles Parker please forgive me). But I will be using the Major for final cutting and trimming. When I removed the Scheppach from its 12+ month storage it became apparent that the roof had leaked directly above it and water had run through the machine causing surface rust on the thicknesser table and completely seizing its raising mechanism. Once off its trundle base and on the workbench I could remove the front planer table and blade guard and lay it on its side to look underneath. The table is raised by a mechanical cog and chain assembly and rust had built up mostly on the two cogs nearest the coupling attached to the winding handle. It's awkward to access the assembly as the motor and support sit directly below it but all five cogs are visible. I removed as much rust and gunk as I could before giving it a severe soaking in WD 40 (I will be buying a 5 litre can of DW-40 next time as it is much cheaper and apparently just as good). Removing the chain from the tensioning cog gave a bit more play on the chain overall when winding the handle to and fro to create movement. Next I took a hammer and long, thin cold chisel and gently tapped the chain away from where it sat on each individual cog tooth to ensure that nothing was rusted together. I then retreated for 24 hours before returning and washing off the remaining rust juice with more jets of WD40. After wiping it down I then coated the chain with with some standard 3 in 1 oil and let that work in. An hour later I began winding the handle to and fro and gradually gained movement either way before being able to raise and lower it freely. I then thoroughly cleaned and oiled the threaded bars the table travels on. On my first attempt to thickness a piece of 4x2 the drive roller belt broke. A Scheppach replacement belt was quoted as being over £35 + delivery but an internet search revealed that www.wychbearings.co.uk supply a fascimile at less than £2 plus p+p which was duly ordered and arrived on time. I would thoroughly recommend having a look at them for bearings and belts. As penance for working on a non Coronet machine in the Boleyn Workshop I said the Coronet prayer and muttered three Hail Charles's before I left. And that's a reference to Charles Parker not Charlie Sausage-Fingers of Windsor.

May 5th

Although there's been a two month gap since the last post it can't be assumed that nothing has been going on up the Boleyn and in fact it's quite the opposite. I just forget to post it these days. Firstly an update on the Coronet Classic 10 bandsaw which has been waiting for the casing to be welded, it's still waiting but I'm told the repair is imminent and I hope to have it back for rebuilding very soon.

I fitted the new belt to the Scheppach machine and it has been hard at work ever since. It will be interesting to see how long this cheaper option belt will last for but for now it is performing well.

Now regarding the Projects and Priorities lists above I can report that the picket fence can be removed from the Projects list and as for the Priorities list, proper access has been achieved but no spare keys cut yet. As for the mountain of Coronet spares this was duly collected by Edmund aka Ed the Wood from Blackpool. The scene is now set for fabrication of bedroom shutters now that my daughters excellent boyfriend sorted through my Would Store (named the Would Store as I would use the wood if only I could bloody find it) for me and located the hardwood planks needed for the job. I haven't personally seen them for around ten years so I expect they were probably pleased to see the light of day again after all that time. Even if they are going to be cut to pieces on some classic Coronet machinery but I think that's a good way to go if you're a bit of wood.

The exterior of the Boleyn is looking pretty sad in one place due to a leaking gutter and needs repainting. To be honest the appearance of the paint job probably matches the performance of the West Ham team this season. Very poor. But at least I can fix my workshop which unlike WHUFC doesn't need a new owner.

Two weeks ago I spent some time sharpening table saw blades some of which were bought new with the Coronet Major. As these are made from quality steel they take a well overdue sharpening very well and have been brought back to life and I have duly noted the importance of regular maintenance. Quotes for outsourcing the sharpening were understandably high enough to make me to decide to do it myself saving over £200 in the process. Next in line are the Minor saw blades. Doing my own sharpening was very fulfilling and I enjoyed the process with a pot of workshop tea and the tunes of Prince Buster for company.

On the toymaking front I have made a toy car on the Major with a young grandson and refurbished a 1995 Brushwood toy barn for a returning satisfied customer a very Young Farmer from North Dorset. I say satisfied but he did point out that I had forgotten to fit a gate on it as promised and I couldn't argue with him.

General enquiries re Coronet have been few and far between but when I spoke to Derek Pyatt last he said he was still sending out manuals and a few small spares. His manuals are top quality reprints and he has them for all Coronet machines, you can contact him at derekpyatt23@gmail.com. He is a great source of advice and always happy to help with enquiries.

I hope to report some progress with the shutters project soon so in the meantime keep it Coronet!

May 27th

My plans to start on the 30 year shutter project were thwarted by the need to make a birthday present for a friend. I made a garden table from some oak, teak and mahogany offcuts all cut and prepped on the Major. I used mortise and tenon joints for the frame utilising the saw table to cut the tenons as demonstrated in the Coronet bible sorry, brochure. As I didn't fancy setting up the mortise attachment on the Major due to time constraints I drilled them out on the Walker Turner DP900 drill press and finished them by hand. See below for finished job

June 1st

Another small job for the old Major and this time it's for my daughter. It's a frame for some ceramic alphabetical tiles she brought back from the Basque region of Spain that spell out the family name on her mother's side. There is a strong family connection to this area as my wife's father was a refugee from Franco's dictatorship and came to England on the SS Habana in 1937. He spent the last years of his life in Dorset amongst his large family so I chose some yew wood that had come from a local tree to make the frame. I rebated the edging strips with the wobble saw fitted to the Major and am waiting to mitre cut the strips to just above size before truing them on the sanding plate. Below you can see the rebated strips and the wobble saw attached to the Major. Note the wobble saw table insert in place. I cut the mitres on the Major and trued them up on the sanding plate before gluing and clamping together with the 5mm back board set in the rebated frame. To bring the frame up nice I used 400, 600 and 1000 (I'm showing off now) grade sandpaper before treating it with three or four coats of Osmo oil rubbed in with a lint free cloth. I used a two part resin glue to attach the tiles to the back board not trusting something so precious to some run of the mill tile adhesive.

Classic 10 news..

I had an email on the weekend from someone who turned out to have bought a Classic 10 bandsaw that I had seen on ebay some time previously. I recognised it from the likely washing machine motor that was powering it at the time. Gareth gave it a much needed refurb which included a paint job, replacement motor and new tyres on the wheels, pics have been added to the Classic 10 page. Pics of his Major are hopefully on the way soon.

July 10th

A Coronet Minorette and a good range of attachments has been posted on the FOR SALE page so click on the link and have a look. You can contact the owner directly through the email address posted on the page.

August 29th

Re Derek Pyatt and www.coronetwoodworking.co.uk

I've had a couple of messages through from people who had tried to contact Derek through his website and found out that the website was no longer available. I checked it out myself and found it indeed to be offline and immediately rang Derek to find out what was going on. It turned out that Derek had had the same problem as me regarding renewing his domain name late and finding out it been hoovered up by a bot trawling the internet for non-renewed domains. The outcome was as per my experience that the domain name was now owned by some micro-penised individual who was now demanding a large sum from the original owner for it's return. This individual deserves to be tied down on a Coronet Major cabinet and then have a Majorette dropped on him from a great height. No respect for classic woodworking machinery some people and clearly none for the Coronet enthusiasts who take the time to set up and maintain a website dedicated to helping out, supplying parts for and manuals for machines and generally educating people about the Coronet brand which is in itself a noble task.

Derek will no longer be selling manuals for machines but has transferred me his remaining stock to supply to people requiring one. For your manual or information sheet requirements please email me (Pete) on dorsethammer@hotmail.co.uk However Derek will still be available by telephone or email for advice. His phone number is 07711608583 and email is derekpyatt23@gmail.com so do contact him no matter how obscure the query, there's a good chance Derek will know the answer.

Derek will also be transferring his extensive collection of Coronet literature to me in the near future to join up with mine. The plan will then be to set up an online tribute to Derek hopefully hosted on the Boleyn Workshop website.

RC (remember him?) is back in town and threatening to attend the Boleyn one evening for old times sake. I feel a pot of tea, a box of broken biscuits and a game of air pistol darts coming on.. Must locate those ear defenders as a matter of urgency.

November 18th

Derek's impressive collection of Coronet literature has duly arrived at the Boleyn Workshop and what a collection it is. Workshop manuals from the Coronet range of machines, advertising posters, catalogues collected from events from where the company had displays, spare part order forms, price lists etc. It's a fascinating dive into the paper side of the Coronet Tool Company that was behind the machines promoting their designs out into the world. I have an A4 box file of my own literature but Derek's arrived in a medium sized cardboard box to give some idea of the size. The first job has been combining it all with my own vastly inferior collection and to divide it into several sections such as manuals, posters, price lists and correspondence. I am sure some items will have more than one copy so I will choose the best of them for scanning and posting. Hopefully this site will have enough space for the bulk of it if not all of it. Fortunately a family member has access to a large enough scanner for the posters and there rest of it will be done on my printer if I can get the blooming thing to work and save it. And then post it here obviously. If only Coronet had made printers..they might have been maroon in colour and weighed in at 3/4s of a ton but at least I could have made it work. Probably.

Overall correspondence through the site this year has been rare as the mythical compound cross slide attachment. A few enquiries for spare parts have been forwarded to Ed the Wood in Blackpool as he has a large stock of spares for all Coronet machines. But in September I was contacted by Rob who had the sad task of sorting out his Dads workshop as he was unable to continue working in there. He needed to find a good home for his Dads Coronet Minorette and kindly offered to donate it to the Boleyn Workshop. It is now set up and running in the workshop and photos have been added to Yet More Readers Machines including the ubiquitous box of bits. I do love a good box of bits me. This one was no exception as it contained a selection of saw blades including a wobble saw and some expertly constructed home made jigs such as a hold down spring and a possible comb/finger/box jointer. I can't decide which.

December 5th

Just as I was saying that no one writes in anymore I received an email from Owen who is not the just the proud owner of a Majorette and a Capitol 7" planer (pics up in Yet More Readers Machines )but a hopeful future Classic 10 owner. If you have one for sale, could be persuaded, might just think about it or know a bloke from the pub whose mate's cousin has got one then please email me at dorsethammer@hotmail.co.uk and I will pass your details on. Which reminds me I'm still waiting for the return of my Classic 10 casing that has been out for repair. I need it back in action.

So how have I got on with my projects and priorities this year? I can report that 2 out of 3 projects were completed and 2 out of 5 priorities were attended to. I am consistent if nothing else. This week my mother managed to have her 90th birthday party and major heart surgery within four days of each other. After visiting her in Southampton I was cruelly dragged around that major Swedish prefab furniture and other household crap emporium down on West Quay by my long suffering wife. I can now confirm that IKEA stands for I Kan't Escape Aaaagghhh.

For more maroon dribble please visit the site again soon and in the meantime Keep it Coronet.

December 17th

I had a long chat with the legend Derek Pyatt last night. Amongst other things we were both bemoaning the fact that there doesn't seem to be another generation interested in classic woodworking machinery following on. Since the boom days of the early internet when suddenly spare parts, entire machines and previously unpublished paperwork became available at the click of a keyboard, things have slowed right down. The covid lockdowns provided a brief resurgence of interest as people desperately sought refuge from their families in their workshops or garages and suddenly found the need for a nice bit of kit to work on. The internet has been bittersweet thing in the sense that so much information was suddenly available but so was a hell of a lot else that didn't mean spending time in draughty workshops or dimly lit unheated garages. But every action has a reaction so it's possible that there will be a Luddite style rebellion against technology in the future and people will return to working with their hands in their spare time and rediscover the simple pleasure of making some rusty metal shiny again. There is of course a plethora of this to be found online but watching it being done great as it is, simply isn't the same as getting your hands dirty and making parts that were designed to do a job move again as they were intended.

As a result of a hard to shift covid like virus I probably caught from that Worx table saw there has been no workshop time lately. So the only thing left to do is wish my loyal reader(s) a very Maroon Christmas and a Peaceful New Year. See you in the Boleyn 2026!