Upholsterer's Spring Compressor Lionel made this adjustable chair spring compressor so that he could re-upholster some old chairs as a courteous gesture for a friend. It consists of a wooden base (to protect the chair seat), a hinged metal frame, a threaded rod with a handle on one end and a swivelling wooden disk on the other.      One side of the frame hinges out of the way to put the chair underneath the disk.   The under-side photo shows that there is a wide groove under the disk to allow the webbing to be stretched while the springs are compressed. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

  Hand-cut Painting Stencils   Over the years Lionel has made hundreds of these hand-cut stencils for signage and decorating items that he has made.  In 1987 he had a lie-flat book published for beginner stencillers (The Novice Stencil Handbook, Volume 1).  It contains of some 370 of his individually hand-drawn stencils including alphabet characters and numbers, animals, objects, places-of-interest and signs.  His book is available for FREE download from his website at www.lrhartley.com (or direct download from [ HERE ]. Permission is granted to use the illustrations in the book for personal use. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley . 

Webbing Stretchers (Upholstery Tools) Lionel made these wooden webbing stretchers (two different designs) so that he could re-upholster some old chairs as a courteous gesture for a friend. They proved invaluable for the task, as it involved stretching webbing over springs, and the time taken to make these tools was not wasted. The webbing stretcher in the middle of the graphic has padding at one end and a row of brass spikes at the other. Photo and descriptions courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

12-volt Jewellery Sander Lionel was asked by a friend to make him a miniature electric sander for shaping and smoothing small items of homemade jewellery. The jewellery sander in these photos was made from a recycled fan from a computer, mounted on a block of pine with a plastic box housing a socket to receive 12 volts from a conventional plug-pack.  A plastic disk cemented to the fan blades has been covered with a disk of fine sandpaper.  (Lionel said that this idea was not original with him.) The fan blade underneath was left intact as the fan helps to suck away from the surface the fine particles of waste material that sanding inevitably produces. Photo and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

Self contained workshop hobby workspace . Comprising sawbench, bench grinder and hobby bench. Tabletop circular saw with extra blades sotred in a holder on the front. Bench grinder with conventional and wire-brush wheels. Small bench vice. Adjustable/removable sawblade guard. Various guides: straight and mitre. Various push-sticks. Extra long mitre and feed guide with metal storage tube. Tabletop wings with groove for mitre/feeder guide. Bolt-on extension arm extends the wings bhy a further two-feet. Two free-standing adjustable roller guides: one for long timber, one for wide timber. Double extension powerpoint. Anti-rattle clamp for blade guard. Rear wheels with barrow-type handles. Holder for overhead worklight. Aluminium cover for all-weather storage or covering during an unexpected rain event. Collection tube for sawdust. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .  

  Sawing Clamp for Small Items This versatile Sawing Clamp is designed to hold small items for sawing, filing or shaping.  It consists of a flat base with the front edge protruding below the base so that it locks on the edge of a bench. On this base are three equidistant metal brackets (re-purposed curtain-rail fittings) allowing a custom-made bracket holding two self-locking clamps to be adjusted for height. The idea of the third bracket is to allow the clamping assembly to be moved to a forward position, depending on the item to be held. Photo and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

Project-a-sign As a fundraiser in the 1970s, Lionel invented Project-a-sign .  This was a resource for enabling sign-writing, making stage scenery, cycloramas, murals, plywood Christmas displays, posters and banners etc. without the actual user having the need for any artistic skill.  The hand-drawn illustrations, mounted in projection-slides were simply projected onto the posterboard, plywood sheet, canvas flat etc., the user then traced around the outline and painted the article as appropriate. The Project-a-sign project consisted of 2,650 hand drawn original pen-and-ink illustrations that were photo-reduced to the size of a 35mm film slide, printed on transparency film, cut and mounted onto plastic slide mounts. These were then sold in sets of 20 (Sign lettering, traffic signs and subjects such as hobbies, transport, cartoons, music, religious graphics, people, occupations, seasonal illustrations, etc.) The sign lettering slides had the full alphabet on each slide in a dif...

 Pipe Bending Forms These forms are combined with a tube-bending spring to create decorative shapes out of half-inch copper or poly pipe or to shape pipe for plumbing purposes. Each wooden form has a metal bracket fastened underneath for mounting it on the edge of a bench to keep it stationary while the pipe is being shaped. Photo and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

Extra large paper or cardboard trimmer. Was made for picture framing, poster or photo trimming, bookbinding, giant cardmaking, fabric, linoleum, upholstery, craftwork and hobbies. Self-healing silicone recessed cutting surface the full length of the trimmer. Cuts material up to one metre wide. Has a modified Stanley Knife with a blade storage attachment. Heavy-weight hinged metal guide rail with a spring band for holding the workpiece. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .  

Leatherwork Anvil This leatherwork anvil has an end-grain woodblock (with carry handle) and a removable anvil made from a short length of railway iron. The woodblock is two halves of a four-foot length of hardwood glued and bolted together with the grain of each in opposite directions. It has been designed for leatherwork as leather hole-punches ideally require a wooden end-grain block, and rivets and embossing tools typically require a metal anvil. It is free-standing, has a carry handle on the side and is two-feet tall which is the ideal height for working while seated. Four short lengths of angle iron are bolted on to form a base to keep it steady while it is in use. Lionel intended to mount a leatherwork tool rack on the side, but this never eventuated. Designed and built by Lionel. Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Posted with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

  Colouring Books with Original Artwork These colouring books each contain original artwork by Lionel and are freely available for download from his website in .pdf format. Creative Colouring 152pp. American Edition: Creative Coloring 148p Spanish Edition: Coloración creativa Africaans Edition: Kreatiewe inkleur The Drawing Pin and Other Wordpi x (A book for children and their parents. Pictures to colour, pictures to make you smile & pictures to talk about together.) Scanned photos of book covers taken from Lionel Hartley's website ( www.lrhartley.com ). Published with Lionel's permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

 Artists' Painting Table This sloping-front painting table was made by Lionel for his wife Rosemary. It has a hinged lid with two shelves for storage underneath and an aluminium beading along the front edge to keep the artwork in place. The frame is welded steel and the shelves and top of varnished laminated plywood. It also has a removable over-head electric light. Photos and descriptions courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Published with permission by The Friends of Lionel Hartley .

  Walking through the Bible Bookends Lionel developed a seminar studying the biblical Book of Revelation.  The series was entitled "In the Footeteps of John" (John being the writer of the Book of Revelation). As a feature display, he used large Bible displayed between a set of real bookends that he had made out of wood. The seminar has been uploaded to his website ( www.lrhartley.com ) and, following many favourable comments, he also uploaded a free template so others could make their own bookends if they chose. The complete seminar and a .pdf version of the template is downloadable free from www.lrhartley.com . Photos and description courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Published with Lionel's permission by the Friends of Lionel Hartley .

 Cross-Stitch Templates These Cross Stitch Templates (in four volumes) each have a selection of hand-drawn printable counted cross-stitch charts illustrated by Lionel. These are freely downloadable from his website (See links below) Volume 1 (Chart numbers 1-20) Fruits & vegetables, Birds & animals, A Cottage, Toys, People (including children), Objects, etc. Volume 2 (Chart numbers 21-40) People (including a clown), Objects, Animals, Religious, Flowers,  etc. Volume 3 (Chart numbers 41-60) Alphabets and Numbers Volume 4 - Since the series was first published in 1989 Lionel was inundated with requests to have images reversed so that, for example, the picture of the horse is facing the other way. Volume 4 consists of reverse images of the ten most requested illustrations. Scanned photos of book covers courtesy of Lionel Hartley. Published with Lionel's permission by the Friends of Lionel Hartley .