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The American Craftsman Podcast Ep. 10 | Staying Positive
43 Plays5 years ago
On Episode 10 of The American Craftsman Podcast, hosted by Greene Street Joinery, Rich and Rob sit down and discuss how to stay positive in the shop.
Beer of the Week (Smithwick's Red Ale): https://www.smithwicksexperience.com/our-ales
Tool of the Week (Microjig GRR-RIP Block): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DNX3N7S/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=greenestreetj-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00DNX3N7S&linkId=79a365ff4aa325d6a9911e14b6e7f9ec
Greene Street Joinery is a custom design & build shop located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. We build multigenerational furniture with an eco-friendly and sustainable mindset.
Inspired and guided by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, we believe in the use of traditional craftsmanship and simple, well-proportioned forms; sustainability and ethical practices; and importantly, taking pleasure in our work as craftsmen to create quality pieces of enduring value.
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Transcript
00:00:20
Speaker
All right. Can you see me? Yeah, you're good. All right. Well, listen.
Jeff's Absence and Episode Milestone
00:00:32
Speaker
This is our 10th podcast. It's a little sad though. We're missing our buddy Jeff. He's on, I guess, Roni. He's in a bit of a quarantine. Yeah, he's in a quarantine because one of his
00:00:49
Speaker
his wife's sister's husband tested positive and then his sister tested positive. Not his sister, but his wife's sister. So he's got to stay away from 14 days or seven days till he gets tested next. Yeah. And because I'm going out for surgery on Monday, I have to really stay away from anybody who's been in contact with the covid.
00:01:14
Speaker
Yeah, Jeff tested negative. Yeah, exactly. But we didn't want to take any chances. He's got to stay in like a self quarantine for a week. Every I'm sure everybody out there knows at least one person this has happened to. So it's bittersweet. We're celebrating our 10th episode, but without one third of Green Street. Exactly. Exactly.
00:01:34
Speaker
And as far as this stuff goes, Jeff, he had to come in and set most of it up because we don't really know how to. So thank you, Jeff. We'll be back next week full strength. So it's it's Movember.
Movember and Community Support
00:01:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:50
Speaker
You know what? It's starting to grow back. You can't really see because it's great. Yeah, both Rich and I are kings of the white beard. But it's actually growing back. Even my granddaughter said, well, oh, Poppy, you look a little better now. Sister, yes, Mommy. So it's getting there. And we're still looking for donations. Anything going to help? Yeah. I know people are a little leery about donating to places, but hopefully it's going to a good cause. Yes, yes.
00:02:19
Speaker
What else I wanted to thank again two-bit Keith from two-bit woodworks for Dropping off sending us this gift basket from delicious orchards packed full of nice fatty stuff cookies cakes and
00:02:38
Speaker
That's right. Keith is also a veteran and he was a guest here and we discussed this but it's Veterans Day so we want to thank Keith especially and all the veterans out there for your service. Exactly. Happy Veterans Day.
00:02:56
Speaker
Gentlemen move. We were very surprised when this showed up today. Yes. So thank you. And we were hungry. Yeah. We did some damage already. Yes, yes. And if you're not from the area, Delicious Orchards, they have a lot of really, really fine pastries and produce and things like that. They're pretty well known around here for especially good stuff.
00:03:22
Speaker
We're going to get rolling with that.
Podcast Format Change and Beer of the Weekend
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, we have a lot of questions. We're not going to do a tip. Well, we're staying with our typical podcast, but we're going to change it around a little bit because we have no guests today. So there's no 20 questions to throw at them. Yeah. So we're going to start with the beer of the weekend.
00:03:38
Speaker
Unfortunately, I went to, uh, the food town next door and their selection is pretty, is pretty slim. So I went with something that, uh, it's a little foreign, uh, and we'll see how it is. Yeah. Foodtown's a grocery store for those that don't know.
00:03:57
Speaker
What do we got? Smithwick. Oh, as we call it, Smittix. Smittix. Irish made red ale. This sounds like it's right up my alley. Yeah. So, uh, I don't know if it's a twist off. Nope. It's, we need to use the bottle cap opener that we got from, uh, Keith at two bit. Oh yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker
For those of you who are watching, Keith made us this really, really sweet bottle opener. Yes. As a gift. So thanks again. That's why I had to buy bottles this week. Cheers. Cheers and cheers to you, Jeffrey. Yep.
00:04:58
Speaker
like yep so kind of touched on where where's Jeff exactly yet as I said it's it's unfortunate but shit happens and we're gonna go straight to the topic of the week which was inspired by a question from Jasper and Lone Pine Tennessee
00:05:19
Speaker
because it really dovetails nicely into it.
Positivity Strategies During COVID-19
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I like that word. Yeah. Yeah. What's the question, Rich? You want to read it? How do you stay positive during these times of COVID and quarantines? You know what? That's a really good question because it's, I guess it's getting to the point right now where it's starting to get really frustrating for everybody. How long has it been since March? We've been, we've been stuck with all this.
00:05:48
Speaker
So it's we're going on eight months now, right? Eight months, really not any. Luckily, we had work before the pandemic hit that carried us through the pandemic, basically. But now we're at a standpoint where.
00:06:03
Speaker
We have a lot of work bids out there, but nothing's coming in. Yeah, we got a few small jobs that were just, you know, just to keep us moving, but nothing substantial. Everything big has been kind of put on hold till the spring, I bet.
00:06:20
Speaker
But you know what? Staying positive is the key. If you're working with a bunch of people that you enjoy working with, you can stay positive that way. Talk to somebody, talk to your wife, your spouse, your other half.
00:06:38
Speaker
Share your feelings, you know, tell her what you're feeling. And don't keep it to yourself. Reach out to other people that other woodworkers out there. You can reach out to us if you want to get some positive information or some positive feelings. I know it's tough, but you got to hang in there. And actually we'll be touching on this whole
00:07:00
Speaker
concept of of this whole covid quarantine during the rest of the podcast and with a couple of various questions. So it's not easy. It's it's definitely not. But, you know, it sounds
00:07:17
Speaker
Simple, but it is a bit of a choice. I mean, we have to make a choice to be positive. And it's it's easier when we all work by ourself at one point in time. And it's it's much more difficult. But with the three of us here and today, the two of us.
00:07:33
Speaker
It's easier because if somebody's having a bad day, the others will kind of chime in, you know, kind of egg them on to be a little bit more positive. And then you kind of got to allow it to be what it is. You know, somebody's got to get through that that irritability on their own. So we let that happen too. But
00:07:55
Speaker
Exactly. You learned how to stay away and you learned how to intercede. Intercede, is that the word? Yeah, that's a pretty good word, difference. Yeah, you know what? I'm getting smart in my old age. So Jasper, that's a great question. How do you stay positive? We don't have, you know, the pat answer, but it's a choice for us. And, you know, we're constantly working at it. Exactly. All right. Exactly. Things are going to get better. We got a new president.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah. Hey, the virus, the virus will be gone. All right. Well, we're going on. We're already at the tool of the week. Exactly. We did you left it all. You know, because I use them. Yeah, I had them all set up, but I use them. Keep everybody occupied.
00:08:44
Speaker
Well, as I said, it's a pretty dreary day out here today. I guess the dead hurricane that was out in Florida is affecting us now. It's just a miserable, rainy day. But it actually makes it even tougher to keep your spirits up, but you do the best you can.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, I'm back with the tool of the week.
Tool of the Week: Micro Jig's GRR-RIP Block
00:09:06
Speaker
Exactly. And I've been talking about these ever since actually Jeff picked them up. They're they're made by Micro Jig and they're called the GRIP block. GRIP? Yeah. GRR hyphen RIP block. I like that. And they're basically.
00:09:24
Speaker
push blocks with a little bit of fancy detail. Some of that is this great grip rubber pad on the bottom. And kind of the way the handle is angled, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see that the angle of the handle is sort of in and back at the operator.
00:09:51
Speaker
I was kind of skeptical when I saw these and I'd been using like a piece of wood like everybody else as a push block. And where these things really shine for me and what makes them worthy of tool of the week is when you're jointing. We joint a lot of material. We get all our stuff in rough as we've said a hundred times. Pass in material over the joiner with these.
00:10:19
Speaker
is it probably takes 50 percent less effort. And it actually is a little bit cushioning because of the rubber. I mean, I don't know what we paid for these, but whatever it is, they're worth it. Yeah, they were nice. You guys should check it out by micro grip, micro jig. How many beers did we have already? Micro jig was the grip. Apple sided donuts.
00:10:50
Speaker
All right, that's right. Well, we're rolling through this podcast now. Come on, help us, Jeffrey. All right. What what do we got? Oh, Rich. It's all you. Oh, yeah. This is my back to the gripe of the week. Yeah. This is us again. This has something to do. I don't know if it has something to do with the times, but it's just the way you have to deal with people. Why?
00:11:16
Speaker
What is the drive for the week? Yeah, why don't folks return messages anymore? No one is that busy.
00:11:24
Speaker
We send out so many messages to clients about what's going on. And you expect to hear from them in a timely manner. And vendors. And you don't hear from anybody until maybe a week, two weeks, three weeks. And what do they always say, Rich? Oh, I was busy. Or I forgot. Or I was thinking about getting back to you. But something came up. The babysitter didn't make it to the house. And so many excuses.
00:11:54
Speaker
And all you do, you know what, trying to keep this business going.
00:11:59
Speaker
You try to keep in good contact with your customers, with your vendors, because I think at this time, with this whole pandemic going on, it's important. It's important to keep good contact with people, and we want to know what's going on. If you don't like the job or if you're going to hold the job off until five weeks from today, let us know. And then I won't bother you again until five weeks, then I'll bother you.
00:12:25
Speaker
But even before the quarantines, I mean, we kind of noticed that people were not really timing with their responses. And everybody's got a phone on their hip nowadays. It doesn't take much to just say, got your message. I'll get right back to you because that's basically how we do things. You know, it's very, very good.
00:12:46
Speaker
with our communication to everybody, clients, vendors, inquiries of all sorts. So it's just a matter of we feel courtesy, politeness and exactly professionalism to some degree. Oh, wait a second. I watched the text. OK, I will bring home the bacon. See, sorry. See what we mean?
00:13:13
Speaker
All right. So that's a
Communication Challenges in Business
00:13:16
Speaker
gripe. I think it's a good gripe. People need to be more aware of other people's, I don't know, feelings or situation or all human beings. Just courtesy. Exactly, courtesy. And so we're just going to keep rolling through this. There's only two of us here. So it's just going back and forth. You know, we've had guests.
00:13:41
Speaker
for about the last month. So there's been four people here to let the ideas simmer and volley back and forth.
00:13:51
Speaker
We're probably just going to roll through these things, uh, more quickly today than usual. Maybe. I might, uh, get into a diatribe of, uh, depends, right? So we got a lot of questions here and we'll go through them. So first up, I guess this is, uh, this is good for me to handle. What is your favorite music to work to? That's from a trim trim.
00:14:20
Speaker
That's from Tim at True Trade Carpentry on Instagram. Which I believe he's going to be a guest. Is he? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. Jeff's not here, so I don't know what the hell is going on. So, oh, you know, we forgot to shut it off. I better go do that. The air conditioner? No, the air conditioner and the music. That's true. All that while we had this music playing in the background. Tell everybody what your favorite music is.
00:14:47
Speaker
uh it's definitely not afro kelp beat i like to listen to a variety of music i need my station to go my go-to station now is a college station here in in jersey brookdale community college has a station that's been on uh for 45 years and they're a not a commercial radio station so they play a lot of music and they play a lot of the music that you hear now
00:15:18
Speaker
with the groups that are out there now. And they also play back some of the older music too, but they don't play the songs you would normally hear with the older music. Yeah. They're 90.5 FM here. They call themselves 90.5 the night. Do they have a streaming service? Yeah, they do. So anybody out there could probably find them. Same place you found us.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's and you know, if it depends on when I'm working, if I want to get pumped up, I'll listen to some AC DC. I listen to meatloaf. That's good driving music for me. But, you know, I listen to basically what's on the radio here. It's there's nothing after a while.
00:16:00
Speaker
I don't want to hear about the guy's mother getting shot by the Nigerian government. Yeah. Well, that's that's me. That's my favorite music is Afro beat. I like a lot of soul and funk. So we listen to that. We have a Pandora station that's on all day and we'll hear a lot of Fela Kuti and things like that and all the the groups and people he's inspired through the decades.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah, so I have my music list on it, too. So it's it varies in the shop. Sometimes you'll hear a lot of my music. Sometimes you hear you won't hear my music for a day or two. But it is what it is. I mean, I kind of tune it out. I hear the music, but I'm not really paying attention to it. Yeah. A little rage against the machine. Oh, yeah. This morning.
00:16:53
Speaker
That's my new song. I definitely will stop what I'm doing to turn it up. A little killing in the name. Yeah. If you all won't do what you told me. I had that blast this morning. So Tim, we hope that answers your question. Yeah, I mean, it would ever float your boat. Yeah. Everybody listens to certain things. People aren't listening to classical music.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, but we do like to have music going. Exactly. Just keeps the day flying by. What's next, Rich? Who's on there next? Our friend and colleague, Keith, at Two Bid Woodworks asks us, what is your favorite style of furniture?
Favorite Furniture Styles Discussion
00:17:38
Speaker
I guess I'm still in that whole green and green
00:17:43
Speaker
genre and I'll stay with craftsmen and shaker furniture. I would say those two are my favorite styles. Craftsmen being the number one and shaker being number two. I just love the white oak. I love the corded white oak. I love the way it looks. I love the lines, the clean lines, the joinery that they do. That's my favorite.
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah, exposed joinery. Yeah. I mean, anybody that does what we do at this level, at this size, typically that's the type of furniture that inspired them to start woodworking. It's definitely 50 50 with me. I would say that, like,
00:18:32
Speaker
that 50s modern, you know, the clean lines that's probably inspired by the shaker arts and crafts and a little bit of the Asian aesthetic. I'm influenced by that as well. There's, you know, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Design. And I love that stuff.
00:18:52
Speaker
It's like, yeah, it's it's the whole craftsman. That's it. Yeah. Anything that's inspiring that shows the individual and and that sort of thing. Yeah. I. Keith, why don't you send us some more photos of the work you've done. Show us show us what it was. What inspires you? I don't know.
00:19:16
Speaker
It'd be interesting to know what spies all you guys out there. Yeah. Yeah. Keith, he's he's also got another question here. It's kind of related. He wants to know what's our preferred finish for indoor, which is typically what we do and maybe outdoor pieces.
00:19:31
Speaker
Well, we don't do a lot of outdoor pieces per se. Well, the Adirondack chairs will be outdoor once we get in fact, I've got to mention that we're selling plans to the Adirondack chairs on our website. Yeah. And there'll be a video how to video coming out as soon as this whole crazy
00:19:51
Speaker
What's going on in the world? This crazy world right now. We'll get to that. We've made quite a few of those chairs. They're pretty popular so we decided to put out some plans.
00:20:02
Speaker
Well, as far as indoor stuff, we'll use tung oil and then a wax on top, a couple of coats of tung oil and then buff it out with a wax. We like to say sustainability. I guess that's the key word. We don't like to use toxic stuff.
00:20:24
Speaker
Because you got us what's going to happen to you know yeah, I've gone through my whole career spraying lacquer and working with the stains and all that and It was time to say no. I don't want to do this anymore because
00:20:39
Speaker
I don't want my life to be shortened by breeding and all that stuff that I brought. Well, I had a mask on, but still. Yeah, it's toxic. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You have to have a special license to have a booth like that to dispose of everything. And let let's face it.
00:20:55
Speaker
Shops didn't have a lot of that stuff. No, they would. I know guys that were probably dumping it in the ground, in the backyard somewhere. That's exactly it. But, you know, that's. Yeah. So we use basically a straight tongue oil cut with a citrus solvent. Yes. So there's really no like chemical driers in it. And just Jack Thornton, 98 on Instagram, he also asks, how many coats of tongue oil do you use?
00:21:25
Speaker
when you're finishing your work. How much time do you let pass between the coats? And that's pretty simple. Two coats is pretty much going to do it for a regular piece of indoor furniture, if it's going to see any kind of hard use as much as four coats. And that's kind of where you start with the outdoor stuff, four or five or six coats.
00:21:49
Speaker
And you're good to go. It's a pretty durable finish. I think it gets a bad rap as far as not being durable around moisture and things like that, but it's all about waiting the one to two days, depending on the conditions. Here in the shop, it's heated and air conditioned, so we really only have to wait a day in between coats. And as long as you're applying it,
00:22:17
Speaker
You know, properly it penetrates into the wood. We've had a lot of success using just tongue oil and a little light, light rubber wax. And we use the Rubio monocoat product. Yeah, we use that. I'd be interested to use the stuff for outdoor furniture. You see how it works. So I'm curious if we could do get an outdoor job. I probably will pick up some of the Rubio Monaco outdoor stuff and give it a shot.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be interesting. Yeah, they're exterior grade stuff. See how it stacks up. So that covers Jack and Keith's questions. This is a good one. Oh, yeah.
Impact of DIY TV on Trades
00:22:57
Speaker
What are your thoughts on DIY television? And do you think it's had a positive or negative effect negative effect on the trades? That's from Bob L. Hibbity Bibbity on Instagram. Hibbity Bibbity.
00:23:15
Speaker
Well, hippity-bippity, that's a really, really good question. Personally, I think the DY, I have two thoughts on this. One is positive, one is negative. I kind of know the rogue guy. But I think it hurts. How? Not the tray, but I think it hurts the perception of how it is, how long it takes to build something.
00:23:42
Speaker
and how much it costs. Exactly. I think the DUI stuff is really not letting you know exactly what goes in to a building a house, renovating a house, making a piece of furniture to TV. It's, it's all done in, in a half hour to an hour show. Yeah. In reality that that's not what it takes. So when people,
00:24:09
Speaker
question our pricing and all that, you'll get that question. Well, I see that made on TV and it only took them an hour and it shouldn't cost that much. How come it costs, you guys cost so much more money. So I think it hurts the trade in those areas. Well, how does it help? I think it also helps the trade because people get to see
00:24:38
Speaker
It introduces other people to the trades. I guess what got me into woodworking, we wouldn't have a lot of do-it-yourself television shows when I was woodworking. My guy that I follow was Norm Abrams back in the day.
00:24:55
Speaker
That was that was all there was. And it wasn't called reality TV, but it was on public television. Let's face it. Reality TV now is some good looking guy, some good looking girl doing something around somebody's house. Let's face it. You're not going to have some ugly guy, some ugly girl doing work in somebody's house. It's all about ratings.
00:25:17
Speaker
That's a good question. Like, would Norm be a TV star today? I don't know. That's a good question. Could this old house start today with Norm Abram and Tom Silva? Who knows? And Rich Trithue, all the old guys that look like regular guys. The guys that hang out at the bar. Right. So it's like it's like.
00:25:43
Speaker
And that's my other bugaboo about these reality shows, these DUI shows. My head somewhere else. Is that they're not they're not giving you a realistic look because I don't think these people are real. You know, I hear stories about some of these shows that the way they do them that these guys that are doing them really don't have a clue what they're doing. But because they're the good looking guy or the good looking girl,
00:26:13
Speaker
It makes ratings. It sells the show.
00:26:17
Speaker
That's it. I've had a small amount of exposure to it. Yeah. I was there when Norm came out to film when we were out in Wyoming. So I got to see and meet Norm and the producers and see how they structured the show. And that's about as real as it could get, because Norm is that guy. He's and more so he's everything you see on TV and more so. Yeah. The only thing that was staged was the shot.
00:26:48
Speaker
The director would just say, Norm, go over there and do XYZ. And Norm would go, OK. And he'd go over and do it as if he'd been doing it his whole life. And the other
00:27:03
Speaker
Part of it is that they want this stuff done in such a condensed time. Yeah one time a show called me and Wanted a full kitchen a full custom kitchen start to finish in six days Okay, I said that probably isn't gonna happen and so
00:27:24
Speaker
What do you think, Rich? If you had to choose on the positive or negative side, would you say it's had a beneficial effect or a negative effect? I think in the beginning it had a beneficial effect. I think now it has a negative effect. I think there's just too much crap out there on TV. And I think in the old days, there were woodworking shows. Not only Norm, there was another show on
00:27:52
Speaker
Oh, what that guy with that hat and the glasses, what was his name of that woodshop show he had? Is that the old guy? No, it was kind of a younger guy, but he had a show that was on every once in a while.
00:28:05
Speaker
They they showed you things about woodworking these shows today. They're unrealistic. Yeah, they're unrealistic. It is a lot of stuff that looks good from far, but it's far from good. Exactly. Exactly. All right. That's a good question. I mean, I started as a.
00:28:23
Speaker
do yourself it myself. You know, when I first I first did the molding in my house, I was there and you put it on upside down with my hands in my belt saying, yep, that looks pretty good. Meanwhile, all I had was a eight foot table section to work off of. So I had to butt all the pieces together and I had a hand one of those hand miter saws to cut everything. I wish we could see a picture. I'm telling you. Put that in the catalog.
00:28:52
Speaker
Here I am looking up at it and nothing matched and the different profiles in the match and I was here. Yeah, I did that. What's the next question? Let me see. Monty in Sarasota Springs, New York asks, being your own bosses, how do you stay on schedule?
Maintaining Schedules as Self-Employed
00:29:17
Speaker
That's a good question, right? Yeah, it can get tough. Being your own boss could mean that you're a little bit more lax with your time. I think if the schedule demanded us to be working eight hours a day, we would do it.
00:29:38
Speaker
But because of what's going on again, I hate it. I hate to refer to this whole pandemic thing There's just not enough volume in the shop to keep three guys busy Yeah, so what we did and we probably shouldn't go back to this is that we were taking There's only gonna be two guys in the shop every single day the other two guys the other guy would be off that day and
00:30:03
Speaker
Excuse me, or do some good doing computer work or doing some accounting work and all that. So there's a lot of that that has to get done. Exactly. So this way you're not not everybody sitting in the shop just twiddling their thumbs, you know, and it's nothing more boring than you're sitting in the shop and not doing anything. It it it drives me to drink.
00:30:23
Speaker
Yeah, well, but answer the question. How do we stay on schedule? We do. We just find it when we have a job. We have a job just like that big church job. We stayed on schedule. How? We just we made a list of things we had to get done a week. In fact, if you look at the board over there, you'll see the last schedule there. But don't read the dates because it's a long time ago. But we sit down on we have a Monday morning meeting.
00:30:51
Speaker
And it's kind of a joke, the Monday morning meeting. But we sit down and we go over what the goals are for the day and what the goals are for the week. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes they could be unrealistic because you never know what's going to happen. You could mill something the wrong way. You can cut something the wrong way. Excuse me.
00:31:14
Speaker
Well, the material, the sand, the sand that could break or something like that. So we're realistic at the end of each day. We'll just we we figure we look at everything and say, well, OK, we have to make some changes here. We'll get this done now tomorrow. We won't get it done like we were supposed to get it done today. But.
00:31:32
Speaker
We make it work. Yeah, we have goals. Yeah, specific goals. We have accountability to each other. Exactly. And then we try and balance our, you know, personal lives and, you know, the quality of our life with getting the work done. All right. So it's it's it's hard, but we do it and we enjoy what we do. So I think that makes it a lot better. So Jasper, you know, Monty, Monty, that was a good, good question, Monty. I like to know how you stay on schedule.
00:32:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You want to take the next question on me? I could read that next one. Next question comes in from Lou in Union Beach, New Jersey. How do you know when you've collected enough evidence?
00:32:18
Speaker
Is this I think I think you got the wrong podcast. I think. Yeah, I don't know. What do you what evidence are you talking about? No, no. Here's here's a question. This one's definitely appropriate. Milly from San Francisco, California.
Choosing the Beer of the Week Casually
00:32:32
Speaker
She wants to know how do you go about choosing the beer of the week? I tested out in the store when I. Are you one of those tasters? No, I tell you what.
00:32:45
Speaker
In my younger days, the beard a week would have been limited to not too many beers because they weren't too many beers out there this day and age. There is so much to choose from. So you could just we don't.
00:33:00
Speaker
We don't look at it from a standpoint, is this person going to like it? That person going to like it. We buy it just to see what it's all about. I don't like a lot of these IPA beers, these heavy bitter beers, but I'll drink it because it's what we're trying to show people about this particular beer, this particular one that we bought, the brewery and all that. So we're trying to help the local breweries around.
00:33:27
Speaker
Sponsors. Yeah. They're saying. Where's Smitticks made? I just, I don't, don't tell me it's made in China. Oh wow. It's brewed by the Guinness and company, St. James gate Dublin and Ireland's imported by the Agio beer company, USA, Norwalk, Connecticut, product of Ireland.
00:33:47
Speaker
I had this in Scotland. No wonder I like it. Yeah, it's good. But yeah, there's no there's no science to it. It's just go to. I went into the store today and I couldn't find anything really. So I picked up the Semitic's. If I went to another liquor store, I know that would have a bigger option. But. It's just what the time is. I don't know what you guys I don't know what Jeff does. I don't know what you particularly do, Rob, as far as I look at the colors on the labels.
00:34:19
Speaker
I like the bottle. That's it. Listen, this we're going to go over here. It looks like this guy sounds familiar to Miles, known as the eat, drink wine guy in Instagram. He wants to know how do you keep your ideas and designs fresh? Hello. We were right there. We're just circling around a little bit. OK, you're not following the script. Yeah.
00:34:47
Speaker
What was that he asked for? He wants to know how we keep our designs and ideas fresh.
00:35:01
Speaker
I don't really have an answer for that in the sense that how do you keep things fresh? You're like when when somebody asks us to design them a built in. Yeah. But basically we're getting a feel for what the customer wants. What do they want? Traditional old fashioned country and things like that here as an example. Yeah. Well, yeah, there's a customer that contacted us. He wanted a very modern type of look.
00:35:26
Speaker
Well, we didn't know that at first. Exactly. So what we do is we throw something at him in his design and try to get his feedback. In fact, we do. That's what a lot of customers will design something and say, OK, this is what we think you tell us is are we going in the right direction? And they'll come back when they get back to us. And
00:35:50
Speaker
They'll start to say, no, no, I want something more modern looking. I don't want these raised panels or anything. I want flat panels. I want that floating shelves or floating cabinets and things like that. So there's no... Let me read this question again. How do you keep your ideas fresh? Really keeping them fresh. All your ideas come from past projects or past things that you read.
00:36:20
Speaker
Not necessarily. I don't know. Well, you do most of the design work. I don't do that. I don't. So I mean, that's a good question for you. How do you keep yourself fresh beside taking a shower and using the deal? Well, there's there's so many little things that are tucked away in the in the recesses of my mind. This could be a long one now.
00:36:44
Speaker
Like, you know, if I have books on people I admire their work, like Frank Lloyd Wright, I'll mention again a lot of architects I like. And so I'll sort of take inspiration from those things or maybe it's a building I see or a piece of machinery. It's not necessarily the
00:37:07
Speaker
inspiration from a piece of furniture but it's a detail from something else that i like the way it looks and i'll i'll say how can i reinterpret that into a piece of furniture how can i create that sense of floating or that that sense of muscularity or see you good at that me i i'd stop my it's not my forte
00:37:30
Speaker
It's yeah, that's just something that's always been with me. It can be, you know, that's why he designs. Yeah, that's so. All right. Well, I hope that I hope that helps. Yeah. Look everywhere for inspiration. Exactly. I guess people. Yeah. And not just within, you know, the traditional. Yeah, it could be anything. It could be the way a tree is leaning in a certain direction. And it's I don't know. It could be. Yeah, it could be anything.
00:37:59
Speaker
That's it. So let's see the next question. My wife wears the pants in the family that. Oh, no, no, this is from Lou and Union Beach again. Well, you know what? I'm not answering this question. In fact, you're banned. These are joke joke questions. Yeah, I hope so, because.
00:38:20
Speaker
No, no, he's we make sure he hasn't come up on any honest go and go to the next question Jesse Jesse Gar 55 on Instagram asks us Should lows or Home Depot? Why why would be avoided?
00:38:39
Speaker
Well, that's a good question. We've had to use it on a couple of occasions where we're doing like we did this prop wall or something like that. And it had to be fireproof. Yeah. Why would somebody want to avoid it? Why is this question even relevant?
00:38:59
Speaker
Well, I think because they think that it's a cheap product that is being made overseas and you're not going to have the quality right of. But then again.
00:39:11
Speaker
I've dealt with a lot of Cabinet Cabinet companies that they'd sell plywood in. We've gotten some crap from them, too. Well, I'll go a little technical for the answer. And the reason you should avoid it.
00:39:30
Speaker
is because there are just too many voids in the plywood. Yeah. The skin of it may look nice and may be comparable to a more expensive cabinet grade wood, but it's the void. So like when you cut into a piece, it'll sort of curl up and potato chip maybe or, you know, the
00:39:52
Speaker
In the worst case, there's like a soft spot where you can actually press your finger into it. So it's mostly the inner structure of that wood. That's what makes it cheap. It's yeah. I don't want to look at the ply yield. Sometimes you'll see how thin the ply is on a piece of birch plywood. And then when you go to sand it, you'll say, oh, my God, why is the birch disappearing? And now I've seen the second ply. Yeah. So that's gone. That's gotten a lot.
00:40:21
Speaker
That's happened a lot now. The plywood that's coming out now, the ply is so thin that you can't sand it without. You've got to be really careful. Not only is the actual exterior dimension shrinking, but the interior is where they're really cutting the corners.
00:40:41
Speaker
Because some plywood, you get three quarter plywood, it's not three quarters, it's 11 and 16s. Sometimes you get plywood, it's three quarter, it's three quarter. So. So the answer, the short answer is, should you? Yes. Yeah. When I do exterior work or I need some flooring.
00:40:59
Speaker
Sub flooring. Yeah, I'll go to Home Depot of those CDX exactly I get I get my supplies from there two by fours and all that I'm not cabinet grades No, I don't that I don't then I go to professionals. I have the right to when it comes in I could I have a right to defuse it and
00:41:17
Speaker
If I don't like it, if it has marks on it, we check every piece that comes in when we unload it. So and we look for those voids and all that. And if we have a problem, there's a void. They'll usually come and take care of it. They'll send it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, not that you can't bring it back to Home Depot, but who wants to? Exactly.
00:41:39
Speaker
All right, Jesse. So should it be avoided? Yes. Yeah, the good plywood. Yeah, the bad plywood. No. If you're doing outside projects and all that.
00:41:50
Speaker
No, get it from from Lowe's. It's a lot easier. Home Depot. Yeah. OK. Next question is from Randall. He's RM Crafts and Customs on Instagram. And he asks, we've already answered this question, but this is what Randall says. Has work slowed down during the pandemic?
Pandemic's Impact on Work and Client Relations
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what you think about when this first started, we were actually in in Vegas.
00:42:23
Speaker
at a trade show, KBIS trade show in January. Yeah. When we first heard about the virus breaking out. We didn't think we didn't think of it as something that would affect America at all. Exactly. And then March rolled around and all of a sudden it was all these restrictions. You can't go out. You can't drive. You can't go to the shop and all that. We were close knit group. So we were able to still work together, but there was no work. We had.
00:42:52
Speaker
a job, but it just got us through the worst part of the pandemic. Yeah. Thankfully, it was a large job. Yeah. So we were able to work on it and still keep the shop lights on. But yeah, it's tough. I'm hoping that this is going to resolve itself.
00:43:13
Speaker
soon. Well, there's certainly an air of unease and uncertainty just in the general public. People are not, you know, really looking to jump with both feet into a project. Yeah. I mean, I feel it myself on a personal level. We were talking about getting a car, right? It went out. Yeah. Test drove a couple of cars, picked one out. But then, you know, I sat back and said, let's just see how this whole thing pans out.
00:43:43
Speaker
And you know, so the car dealers, they email it every day. I got like three emails. I'm like, I'm waiting. I'm waiting just like everybody else. So it's just a natural reaction when you're not sure of the future. It's one of the worst things for the economy. The stock market always reflects that uncertainty as well. So you don't you don't.
00:44:07
Speaker
This is my problem. You never get the truth anymore about what's going on. I refuse to listen to the media anymore because they have their own agenda these days.
00:44:22
Speaker
Who do you follow? Who do you listen to? Who says that there's no such thing as a coronavirus? We know there is. But the severity of it, it differentiates between people. I know doctors that tell me that it's not that bad. It's just basically like the flu now that that's going on. But the severity of it now is not like it was back in March.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah. But who do you believe? You don't you don't know. And that's, again, the uncertainty. You have people that are dying and you have people that are on respirators and you have people who have no symptoms at all. So it's a tough situation out there. And we're doing our best to cope with it emotionally, psychologically, as a business. And if you guys have any suggestions, you want to share your thoughts on it. We're here. Thank God for my wife's passion.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yeah, I know. It's it's in my social security. It's fat. All right. I'll be leaning some weight off this body because I'm going to start cutting down. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go on that survivor. Exactly. Exactly. This is Randall has a follow up. He wants to know if you could change one thing about being a woodworker, what would it be?
00:45:42
Speaker
Huh. Oh. I got to think about that one. I got to think about that one. I thought you'd go first. Who me? Yeah. No, Jeff. Jeff, you got to answer this question.
00:45:59
Speaker
Well, there's I mean, there's a couple of things being a woodworker. You know, there's there's so much work that is not the glorious work, you know, like the tedious, repetitive stuff, sanding, milling, all the stuff that really adds up to a fine finished product.
00:46:23
Speaker
So there's that end of it. And there's also the business of woodworking. I mean, would you change something there? Yeah, I know. I have an answer for you now. All right. What do you got? If I could change one thing about being a woodworker, I would want to be the type of woodworker that didn't have to worry about
00:46:46
Speaker
your expenses, your money, I just want to build something or build product or specialize in a specific type of product, whether it's craftsman, whether it's shaker, things that I like to do and not having to worry about having those fears about, oh, my God, when am I going to sell this next job? Am I going to eat next week and all that? So.
00:47:08
Speaker
If I could change things and I would like to be that type of person. But in reality, that's not going to happen. Yeah, it's not going to happen. So I would I would wish I could be something like that. Not like a hobbyist, but.
00:47:25
Speaker
Well, that's why hobbyists are capable of putting out such fine work. Yeah. Yeah. They could spend as much time and money on something and it doesn't really have a detrimental effect on the job where we're constantly having to create that balance. Exactly. Because we do it for a living and it pays the bills. Right. So that's another.
00:47:52
Speaker
So I would probably like to just be one. Be a more. Not a hands on woodworker, but more with your hands, using hand tools, less power. Yeah, less power tools, the old fashioned way of using planes and all that that comes into chisels and all that production time and everything.
00:48:15
Speaker
Now you've got to get things done real, done real fast. And it's not unless maybe you have a story I'm looking for when somebody hires you to build something, it's like a commission, a commission piece where you can take the time because they realize it takes that long to do a particular project. Then, yeah, that would like to do things like that, like commission work and just have the ability just to spend time on that project and just work on it.
00:48:45
Speaker
You know, those are like gallery pieces. Yeah. Instead of being having to wear 15 hats, uh, the finisher, the accountant, the, uh, the saw guy, the estimator and all that, which we all do. When we had our own businesses, uh, we all wore different hats and it could be tiring. Yeah. Um, I don't know if I, if I could change one thing, um,
00:49:12
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's that I'm I'm with you, Rich. The the idea of being a woodworker is a very, you know, it's a it's a personal one. We all invest so much of ourselves in it and to constantly have to sell that little bit of yourself. Yeah, yeah.
00:49:32
Speaker
and to get that sort of justification for who you are as a craftsman from outside sources that may or may not understand what it is that we do. It can be sometimes a struggle to put that in its proper place, separate it from how we feel about ourselves.
00:49:57
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's a great question. And it it kind of segues into our last question. This is we put this last because it's it's a really good question. It's from the Lonesome Dove in Waco, Texas. I spent some time in Waco. Yeah. Yeah. I think I seen a movie called Lonesome Dove. Yeah. If you had to do it all over again, would you become a woodworker?
Would They Choose Woodworking Again?
00:50:24
Speaker
No, I'd be a porn star. No, I don't think I could. Would you find yourself in the same difficult straights? If I had to do it all over again, yes, I would have done this, started this a lot younger than when I started it.
00:50:45
Speaker
So you're doubling down is what you're saying. Not only would you be a woodworker, but you wouldn't have. I would have started it younger. Chosen that first career. Yes. Counting. Yes. I was white collar worker for many years. And I back in the 80s, 90, early 90s, I got laid off and I couldn't find a job as an accountant. So I started doing woodworking projects
00:51:11
Speaker
by myself with my little Sears Craftsman tools. And it blossomed from there. It was something that I'd love to do. So yeah, I wish I would have gotten into it a lot sooner and had a chance to go and go to those schools that they had. Maybe not the Bennett School, but, and really fine. Yeah, really fine tune my trade. Yeah, I would, I would, I would go, I would do it.
00:51:40
Speaker
I would stay away from business. I mean, the white collar field. I think there is a need for people doing this type of work, whether he is an electrician, a plumber and, you know, what do they call that? The not the blue collar, but the trades. Yeah, that's people that are involved in the trades because people need to get things done.
00:52:06
Speaker
You know, looking on Facebook isn't going to help you solve that plumbing leak. You might think you know how to solve it, but in reality.
00:52:15
Speaker
You're not going to solve it. So I think staying in the trades is a good spot for kids. Unfortunately, I don't too many kids that want to get into the trades. Yeah, we haven't had too many. No, everybody wants to be on their computer and play with this and play with that. And it's just.
00:52:37
Speaker
I think it's going to be it's going to be a sad state of affairs in another 10 years as far as the trades are concerned. Well, we got to have buildings. We got to have electricians, HVAC mechanics, plumbers, framers, masons. I think the quality of what you're getting there is going to be less and less. Yeah. You know, I'm not sure about that because
00:53:02
Speaker
I mean, look at the way it's always gone. It's the it's the wave of immigrants. The current wave of immigrants have been manning those jobs, whether it's been your Polish immigrants, my Italian immigrants. I mean, they brought whole towns from Italy to do the stonework in Manhattan. I mean, to put up all that that marble, I mean, Carrera marble
00:53:30
Speaker
That comes from Carrera, Italy. That's why. And they would bring whole towns of men over and to work on those things. And that's how Little Italy started. Yeah. So you mean tell me Chinatown started because they really wanted Chinese food. No, they were over here as laborers flack on the railroads and things like that. But still involved in. Well, that's true. Now, now I'm not
00:53:59
Speaker
I don't know if I could say it that way, but look at the trades now. A lot of it's all our immigrants now. You got the Spanish, the Mexicans and all that. And even the Polish and the Russians. I've known a couple of guys that just from Connie area that just
00:54:16
Speaker
do construction and they're just like they call the Polish Mafia. Yeah. But yeah, it's around here in the Northeast. Most Italians are still tradesmen, whether you're tile or, you know, construction demolition. It's it's it's still a very common thing.
00:54:35
Speaker
uh, garbage collectors. It's true. It's not really a joke. All, all of like the dumpsters all have an attack. I wonder why I'm not getting in trouble in anybody.
00:54:54
Speaker
So if I had to do it all over again, let me get out of that. Get out of that gracefully somehow. If I had to do it all over again, would I become a woodworker? Well, you know, I was a musician. That was the first thing that I ever did for a living. And I did it for quite a while up until my through my 30s.
00:55:19
Speaker
And if I would have been able to make enough money at that, I probably would have stayed at it. I mean, I would have been quite happy to play music for the rest of my life. I only fell into woodworking as sort of like a second choice. I mean, it was a way to sort of exhibit some of my artistic skills and things like that.
00:55:45
Speaker
And I never really thought I could be a woodworker professionally, you know, to have a business. It just just happens. And I think not exactly like you, Rich, but in a similar way, if I would have had a plan and music wasn't in the in the picture.
00:56:08
Speaker
I would definitely have started earlier and I wish I would have had some some guidance because I would have liked to have specialized in something. Yeah, that's what exactly what I was thinking. I might even like gone into timber framing. I'm really, really attracted to that aspect of things.
00:56:26
Speaker
Um, the, you know, the large joints and, um, yeah, I just don't want to be known as a, I, we, I've used this terminal. We've had this conversation before about the terminology cabinet shop. Oh, people here cabinet shop. They think you do, uh, for Micah and laminate and things like that. We're not cabinets. It's not the term cabinet shop.
00:56:48
Speaker
Is is pretty there's a big variety there I like to be specialized and I think I think we are specialized in the way are sure because what we do is we do special projects I if we were to do
00:57:04
Speaker
five Adirondack chairs, I'm sure that within those five chairs, there will be something different. Four and five would be improved. Yeah, we would change it. We would say, well, maybe we don't like the way this is relieved here. Let's make this design, cut this into it and all that. So that's what's great about being a custom shop. Nothing is ever the same. Nothing's ever the same. Even if you're doing a kitchen, I mean, yeah, the boxes are the same, but
00:57:33
Speaker
the style of the cabinet, the style of the doors, it keeps changing. And then that's important for anybody who wants to stay in this business. It's to really just concentrate on doing, on staying
00:57:56
Speaker
on being able to do different things. I'm changing my question because I kind of want to specialize. You want to be diverse. Yeah, I don't want to be diverse. This is empty, but it's only been one. I know. I'm flumbling now, so I'm going to have to break open another bottle. Hold on for a second.
00:58:17
Speaker
Rich doesn't want to know if he wants to be a specialist. Right now, I'd rather be a specialist in the sense of doing one one of a kind projects. Yeah. Well, but I would like to stay within.
00:58:33
Speaker
A genre? That genre. I say craftsman, shaker style. Right. So you're not saying I want to be a specialist in doing. No, I don't want to be. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to. Yeah. I played around with marketry. I know I like that. A lot of in your work. Yeah. A lot of in your work. I don't mention his name. And and I like I really enjoyed that work. In fact, it was really, really enjoyable.
00:59:03
Speaker
But I don't know. I just I just like to be doing something like we do now. I guess that's why I'm still here and not playing golf somewhere on a fishing boat somewhere. Yeah, we're still we're definitely on the back nine. You're on the back three, probably. Yeah. So any of you looking for a job, you know what? Send me those resumes and you know, a little cash.
00:59:32
Speaker
They'll pop it up to the top of the list. Yeah, yeah good help persuade Put you up there on my a list All right, so we'd both do it again. Yeah, we would I like the fact that you would have stayed in music I know what if I was young I I would have been a good musician yeah, cuz I really enjoy it's still my first I mean I I
00:59:55
Speaker
I wish I would have done something with it. And I thank God my sons have dabbled in it. My one son had a band. He's a drummer. And my other son was a bass player. I played bass for a long time too. And they had the taste. They went on tour. They traveled around in a beat up van.
01:00:18
Speaker
I remember those days, you know, it's like it sounds so glorious. But if you've ever been with like four or five people in a 15 passenger van and all of your gear and sleeping like on top of, you know, music cases and everything's really dirty all the time. Yeah, it's not. I mean, they're great stories now. And it's a young man's game. But that's what happens. You start
01:00:45
Speaker
For me, especially, I was getting into my 30s and, you know, you start looking around at all your contemporaries and like you only have one pair of pants and a coat. And then you have to get ready for a show and you got to you got to perform in front of somebody and you might not be in your afresh state. You got to worry about where you can take a shower, clean up and all that when you're traveling.
01:01:10
Speaker
But I wish I would have done that when I was younger. Say, I may have visited you because you actually backpacked through Europe. That's right. I never had that. So I grew up as a goody two-shoes. Yeah, I did a lot in my younger years. I should have been a little bit more.
01:01:26
Speaker
Not rugged, but rough and yeah. Yeah Going into accounting kind of that's kind of the opposite of that. Yeah, I'm gonna backpack with my my bookkeeping book through Europe Well, no, the funny thing is if you know rich now There's no way you could see him as an accountant none whatsoever. I
01:01:51
Speaker
I didn't see myself as that either. I don't know why I went into it. How could you have been an accountant? Yeah. Sometimes it takes a while to find yourself in life. And I did find myself later on in life. And that's why I'm here now. Yeah, we're lucky. We're actually lucky we have this little shop and this business and we're still chugging along. So speaking of chugging. Yeah, that's that's medics.
01:02:16
Speaker
We want to thank everybody for, you know, hanging with us. And again, our final thoughts. We're sorry, Jeff. Jeff was when are we going to be at a week? Yeah. Well, again, best, best recovery to Jeff. And hopefully that there's nothing serious going on with him and with the coronavirus.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Future Plans
01:02:34
Speaker
I don't think so. Yeah, he's going to get a negative test on Friday. So then he'll be back and I'll be gone. So I probably won't be here for the next couple of.
01:02:42
Speaker
Podcast good. I'll have a my surgery on my ankle. So Unless they they fly me in for special opinion. I try not to happen now. I think so I'd have to get myself here So our final thoughts on the beer of the week after you
01:03:00
Speaker
Well, that's right. You brought it. So it's up to me. I like this a lot. I liked it even before I knew it was a product of Guinness, which is my favorite drink. In fact, Richard and I went to lunch yesterday and I had a Guinness. We did.
01:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was just yesterday. So this is this is right up my alley. I don't even see Jeff when Jeff's away. We like to play. Yeah. In fact, a funny story is that to break away from the beer debate, a lot of these what we were doing today was basically what
01:03:44
Speaker
We wanted to do not follow the format that we normally follow. So, Jeff, you see, you can't leave two old guys alone by themselves because you never know what's what's going to happen. But the beer, I like it. It's it's a good beer. Again, I like it on tap.
01:04:02
Speaker
Beer loses its flavor when it's shipped in a bottle or it's shipped in a can. When it's on tap, when I had beer in Scotland, I had Smittix, I had a couple of different other beers. Guinness and, Guinness and Dunn? What the hell is that called? Something and Dunn. Yeah. Guinness and Gunn. Guinness and Gunn. That was good. I had a call in there. It was really good. It was on tap. And one thing I loved about the beer in Scotland,
01:04:30
Speaker
When you got a beer that would say a Smittix, you got it in a glass that said Smittix. Like, well, and now Guinness is probably the only one we see here. Stella Artois probably still does that. Yeah, I had my Guinness in a Guinness glass yesterday. Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:46
Speaker
I get a metal of light and it comes in anything. Paper cup. Exactly. One of those red plastic glasses. Oh, you laugh. I've been in situations where we ran out of glasses, so we got to give you in cups. And I do not like drinking beer out of a cup. Two thumbs way up. Yes, this is a good one. Yeah. In fact, you've got three left, so Jeff can have one when he gets back.
01:05:13
Speaker
Well, the closing thoughts we got here, Movember, just want to remind everybody, even if it's not for us, if you see it somewhere else and you can donate, it's a great cause, men's health issues. Yeah, we were talking about, in fact, the conversation, we were going to start talking about sustainability, but then we were talking about, well, here's what spurred it on. Oh, they're giving back.
01:05:40
Speaker
Yeah, give it back. And this is the gentleman Keith we met from Two-Bit Woodworks. It was nice of him to send this gift box to us.
01:05:52
Speaker
There's no competition between the people that we know and what they do and what we do. There would work us too, but there's no competition there. All our guests are in the same boat we are. Yeah. And I'd love to see what these guys, there's some so talented people out there. Some of these young kids, they're really talented and we have a talented young guy here, but he's not here right now. Yeah.
01:06:20
Speaker
We don't have a competition with these people and I like the fact that we can talk to one another and we could banter with one another and send things to one another and have that friendship, that bond. Well it's community building instead of you know sort of trying to edge one another out. Yeah exactly. We're trying to lift one another up. Exactly.
01:06:43
Speaker
So if some guy's having a hard time, they need to use Barry back here to Barry Sander. Yeah. Come down. We'll let you use it. So, you know, it's a little fickle at times. Yeah. Yeah. Barry Barry is, uh, oh boy. Yeah. Barry has, we have spent a lot of money and time on Barry and heartache. And, but you know what?
01:07:09
Speaker
Couple of good things came out of it. We've become a very adept group of people are dealing with this type of machinery. So if anybody has one of these machines, we probably know more than the manufacturer does right now. Yeah, that's the wood master. We've taken it down to nothing and built it back up. The support from that place, unfortunately, isn't that great? In fact, one of the questions when we told them we had a problem with this machine goes, well, what'd you buy used machine for?
01:07:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So that was the, that was the beginning and the end of our relationship. Well, that's what I'm saying. We, we like to talk with other people. We like to meet the other woodworkers out there. Yeah. No, because a lot of these are young guys now that are looking to get into the business and, and looking to start stuff and listen to themselves. Wet Willy, uh, Keith. Wow. Willy. I call him wet Willy.
01:08:01
Speaker
Uh, and so forth. So in future guests that we're going to have, uh, Jeff knows all those. I don't have a clue who's next. So yeah. Yeah. Jeff sets it all up. Exactly. Yeah. So thanks again to Keith. Um, real Stella move here sending us this, this gift box. And it's a, it's just a prime example of community building and goodwill and Keith's welcome here at our shop anytime.
01:08:29
Speaker
and check out his work. Yeah. Two bit would work. Yeah. Two bit would works. He's a veteran. I know he's going in for surgery soon. The shoulder. Yeah. I wish him a lot of luck and recovery. Yeah. And he's a veteran. So thanks again for that too.
01:08:47
Speaker
Exactly. We got just a little bit of reminder. Check out our plans online on the website for our craftsmen style Adirondack chair. There's a table and a footstool type ottoman that goes along with it. And it's something that it's a good looking piece. Yeah. And if you do purchase the plans, give us some feedback.
01:09:09
Speaker
Yeah. How you found it to build it. Yeah. Because we could we could certainly make adjustments. Exactly. That's what we'd be looking for. And it doesn't take a whole heck of a lot of expert skill to build it. Just some patience. Exactly. Basic machinery. But yeah, we went over it with a fine tooth comb. Rough tooth comb.
01:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to know because, you know, we've built so many of them. So it's hard to know what we're taking for granted. Yeah, exactly. You look at a person says they're not going to understand what this means. And I had to look at it from that perspective when I reviewed it to say, well, I'm not if I didn't know anything about Woodworking, I would know what you were talking about here. So we've made changes to it. And I'm sure there's other changes that have to be made. But again, it's up to you guys to let us know.
01:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, we can certainly edit it because everything's, you know, electronic now. So it's easy. Um, so we're going to say Riva Dachi. Yeah. I can't say that. I mean, I'll be the same. We'll see you guys. See you guys when I returned from my foot surgery. All right. Take care of yourself. Take care of that. Speedy recovery. Jeff, we miss you. Yep. All right.