WT85

Great show again guys!

I’ve always thought that woodworking would score me chicks, however, after trying to impress the ladies with my new table saw I’ve just been called a “dork”. Therefore, a woodworking podcast on the frogpants network is only fitting.

Matt, I got all excited when you mentioned Grain Surfboards. I’ve been making a wooden surfboard for awhile now, I’ll post the pictures on my woodtalkonline blog.

Can’t wait to see the board! Surfs Up.

Great show guys!

A power/hand hybrid here.
The balance shifts depending upon the project, the mood, atmospheric pressure and neighbor complaints about noise. Seems the plan to go all hand tools is quite incompatible with the hand tool skool student’s objective to fill his house with furniture. Especially since he is just beginning. Power tool skills can be develop pretty far with a few books/mags, complemented with some online videos. However, hand tools really benefit from some in-person feedback. The much-mentioned practice is important, but it can be a problem if you are practicing flawed technique. Big props to Shannon for going the extra mile (through Skype travel) to help.

re: Hand-held power planer. That seems like the last tool one should get. It is either for rough work, or the extreme artists like Mr. Marx and those with a sculptural bent and lots of experience. That topic made for a restless night. Instead of dreams of elegant shavings, last night’s dreams were full of angle grinders, hand-held power planers, air hammers. Today I shall attempt to cleanse those images from my system. ; )

re: Seasons
I have an open garage/driveway workshop, so as long as it is not raining, it is always woodworking season. For me, one attraction to this craft is that I get to play outside. I like actively playing outside, not sitting in an Adirondack chair. If I had a basement workshop, summer would definitely be a down season for me, unless i made a nice little hand tool bench under the spreading chestnut tree. Hmmm, that sounds pretty good. Sort of the same/opposite of my little hand tool bench in my home office for rainy day (and night) entertainment.

re: the pendulum
I don’t see power tools going away (assuming the grid stays up). Such a huge market as evidenced by DIY sources, honey-do lists, big box stores, and ease of entry. Interest in hand tools shall continue to grow as well, at least through the tsunami-sized baby boomer wave of retirees just beginning to enter the “more time on their hands with some disposable income” phase of life. Most of our projects are not on deadline and it is strongly about the process and satisfying hungers that may have been neglected by 40 hours plus at a desk/work station. We mostly don’t need more furniture, so working slow is a feature.

I went to engineering school because I liked making things…and even more, taking things apart. Before even finishing my degree (took a long time), I saw that engineers who tried to stay working with tools and things got pushed off to the basement labs and were mostly ignored (unless a suit needed a valve repaired on a personal project). Engineers with ambition (and ego) soon spent more time in meetings, budgets and supervision.

The whole new media environment gives people a much broader vision of possibilities than one would get if new input came just from mass media and personal environment. For a manufacturer/creator of hand tools, this same environment allows them to make a business serving a scattered market without the cost of marketing in the big publications. Good times in this regard.

Thanks Marc, Matt and Shannon for creating this community.
Some excellent topics this episode.

Thank you for the great show! Don’t mind the sourpuss who can?t pay attention to the podcast.

My thoughts about the causes of the hand tool “craze” are two fold:
1. The end of the NYW TV series (where power tools were the craze) may have taken power tools out of the limelight. Other woodworking shows tend to blend more hand tool use into their episodes, like Rough Cut.
2. The economy may be driving woodworkers away from larger and more expensive power tools toward hand tools. Although some hand tools are just as expensive, most do not come close to the larger power tool price tags.

I know both of these factors have affected my thinking on woodworking.

I used an electric hand plane to make the main beam and the pilot beam for the attached project. I also used the same one to rough out the staves before running over them with a belt sander.

So…I think there are definitely uses, albeit limited, in the shop besides door edges and trim work.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.162557777183580.28549.131378053634886&type=3