How do I store a bike over winter without it seizing up?
What actually deteriorates in storage — tyres, cables, chain and battery — and the short session that prevents a spring full of problems.
beginner45 min4 min read
Practical Skills
The things everyone is assumed to know already.
355 guides in Lifestyle
How do I take close-up macro photos?
Close up, depth of field collapses to millimetres and every tiny movement is magnified. Macro is mostly a problem of holding things still and getting light into a very small space.
intermediate20 min4 min readHow do I true a slightly buckled bike wheel?
Correcting a small side-to-side wobble by quarter turns of the nipples, why you always tighten one side and loosen the other, and the point at which this stops being a home job.
advanced1 hr5 min readShould I buy or rent a first instrument?
Rent where the instrument is expensive, needs servicing or has to change size. Buy where it is cheap and stable. Plus what to check on a second-hand instrument before handing over money.
beginner25 min5 min readWhat order should I assemble a woodworking project in?
Sub-assemblies before the whole, glue-ups you can still reach into, sanding before you box yourself in, and the dry run that tells you whether the plan works.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy does my home recording sound echoey and muddy?
Room reflections rather than equipment, the mic distance that fixes most of it, and cheap treatment that genuinely works.
intermediate45 min4 min readWhy does my thread keep twisting and knotting when I hand sew?
Thread twists because you are adding twist to it with every stitch. Four habits that stop it, and the one that fixes a thread that has already gone.
beginner10 min5 min readWhy does my video look juddery or stuttery?
Judder has four separate causes — a shutter speed too fast for the frame rate, panning too quickly, a frame rate that does not match the playback, and mains flicker. Each looks slightly different.
intermediate16 min4 min readWhy is my polymer clay too hard and crumbly to work?
Conditioning is not optional warming-up — it is what makes polymer clay strong enough not to snap after curing. Why it goes hard in the packet, and how to rescue a block that crumbles.
beginner20 min5 min readHow do I do a big jigsaw puzzle efficiently?
Sorting is the whole game. The sorting scheme that turns a thousand pieces into a series of small problems, plus how to store a part-finished puzzle and how to glue and frame a finished one.
beginner1 hr5 min readHow do I get a sharp photo of the moon?
The moon is a sunlit object photographed at night, which is why automatic exposure turns it into a white disc. Fast shutter, low ISO, long lens and manual focus.
intermediate15 min4 min readHow do I restore a faded or damaged old photograph?
Copy it well first — a good scan of a damaged original is the whole job. Repair the copy, never the print, and keep the flaws that carry the photograph's age.
intermediate30 min5 min readHow do I start origami, and why do my folds come out wonky?
Origami accumulates error — a fold two millimetres out at step three is a centimetre out by step twenty. The bases worth learning, the paper that helps, and the precision habits that fix everything.
beginner30 min5 min readWhich camera filters are actually worth buying?
Two filters do something software cannot — a polariser and a neutral density. Everything else is either a protective sacrifice or an effect you can apply better afterwards.
intermediate16 min4 min readWhy does my recording hum, hiss or buzz?
Four distinct noises with four causes — mains hum, preamp hiss, digital interference and room noise. Each has a different signature and a different fix.
intermediate16 min5 min readWhy is my lino print patchy, blurred or ragged?
Four print faults that look similar and come from completely different places — the ink film, the burnishing, the cutting angle and the paper. How to read a bad print backwards to its cause.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I bind a notebook by hand?
The pamphlet stitch and the multi-section sewn book, which between them cover almost everything a hand binder needs. Grain direction, folding, hole spacing and the tension that decides whether a book opens flat.
intermediate1 hr 30 min5 min readHow do I edit a whole set of photos without doing each one?
Sort first, then edit one representative frame properly, then copy those settings across everything shot in the same light. The work is in the sorting, not the editing.
intermediate18 min3 min readHow do I make a card that does not look homemade?
Card weight, a scored fold rather than a folded one, the right glue for paper, and the layout rules that make a handmade card look designed rather than assembled.
beginner30 min5 min readHow do I photograph moving water so it looks silky?
The effect is entirely a matter of exposure length, and the shutter speed you want depends on how fast the water is actually moving.
intermediate18 min4 min readHow do I sharpen a carving gouge?
A curved edge cannot be sharpened like a flat one. Rolling the bevel on a stone, cleaning the inside with a slipstone, and the shaped strop that does most of the work.
advanced40 min4 min readHow do I stop popping Ps and harsh S sounds in a recording?
Two different faults that get confused. Plosives are a blast of air overloading the microphone; sibilance is an excess of high frequency in the voice or the microphone. Different causes, different fixes.
intermediate14 min4 min readHow do I take a panorama without the join going wrong?
Panoramas fail for three reasons — pivoting about the wrong point, moving at the wrong speed, and letting the exposure change mid-sweep. All three are avoidable.
beginner12 min3 min readHow does glazing pottery actually work?
Glaze is a thin layer of glass melted onto the pot, not a paint. Why it changes colour completely in the kiln, what the temperature rating means, and the food-safety question people should be asking.
intermediate30 min5 min read