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The American Craftsman Podcast Ep. 7 | Jon Peters
48 Plays4 years ago
On Episode 7 of The American Craftsman Podcast hosted by Greene Street Joinery we sit down with our friend Jon Peters. Jon is a YouTuber, woodworker, artist, and outdoorsman. (https://www.youtube.com/user/jonpeters1000)
Beer of the Week (Lagunitas IPA): https://lagunitas.com/beer/IPA
Tool of the Week (Diagonal Cutters): https://www.knipex.com/en/pliers-abc/the-world-of-diagonal-cutters/
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
00:00:17
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain. OK, we ready to get going? You keeping these up here full time? No, no, we got there. I wasn't sure if you were if you remembered if you're going to pop them up or something.
Introduction of John Peters and His Background
00:00:32
Speaker
OK, welcome, everybody. We're here on our seventh podcast of the American Craftsman podcast. Good memory.
00:00:41
Speaker
And we have a guest today and I'll introduce him in a second. But just to remind everybody, the sponsors out there, these are the sizes. Don't forget, I'm still waiting. I haven't gotten anything yet, but I'm counting on you.
00:00:56
Speaker
So now we have we have one of our first guest here. And how do you go? Do you go by Sir John or Sir John? I like Sir or Lord. Professor, Mr. Peters here. John Peters is a contact content creator. That's what they call you. So you're going to say contact Tracer. I always said that he's an outdoorsman. Story has it that he once killed a wild mountain lion with his bare hands. It's true.
00:01:26
Speaker
He's also a cyclist, an artist, a landscaper. I love landscaping. I like and a woodworker. So let's hear it for our first guest of the podcast, John Peters. Yeah. Welcome, John. I had to figure out how to put like a applause sound effect in. There we go. Yeah. It's great to be here, guys. All right. I was just here a couple of days ago doing the shop tour. It was a lot of fun and it's great to be part of the podcast.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, we're happy to have you. We'll see back time you get done with all these questions. All right. So you got to introduce the beer of the week. Okay, so I've got the beer of the week here. And it's gonna take me a minute to get it out of the bag. That's all right. It's a surprise. Yeah, we asked john what he'd like to take part in and he jumped at the beer of the week. Sure. I picked this because it's just a mainstay. I can eat us IPA.
00:02:24
Speaker
I usually will pick anywhere between a half a dozen IPAs. Sometimes I'll go with the local breweries around here. But this is just it's just a mainstay. I think everybody would like it. Maybe even rich. Yeah. So he is a tough nut to crack.
00:02:43
Speaker
I was going to go with Bud Light. Then you have the other three. That's right. That's right. So I figured this was an even, an easy beer. I enjoy it. Yeah. And so, so there you go. Keeping it simple. All right. Cool.
00:03:01
Speaker
Nice bottle. Yeah, I like the short bottles. Doesn't that have a nice logo on it for a t-shirt? Yeah, they have that dog on there. I actually really like this logo. It's simple. Yeah. You know, it's an IPA. It says it right there in big letters. Has that kind of parchment look on the label. Yeah, I like that. Petaluma. Where is that in California? Yeah, that's Northern California. It's north of San Francisco. It's Marin County. You want to help us out there? Open up your own beer.
00:03:34
Speaker
He just left that right in front of you. He sent you to charm school. No, I'm good. Mine's open. Did you guys bring a bottle opener? Oops, sorry. Cheers. What are you doing? Cheers, boy. He got away for trying to open up his beer. Oh, you can't take me anyway. Well, that's good. No manners. That's a good beer, isn't it? Yeah. Looking forward to it. Yeah. Even has the phonetic pronunciation down there.
00:04:01
Speaker
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Great to be here. Yeah, welcome. You know, Petaluma is also the home of Mesa Boogie amplifiers. That is good. Oh, yeah, it's not bad. Yeah, not that better for an IPA.
00:04:19
Speaker
No, no, I I like that. And a local brewery that I like here is card. I like beer. And they have one, I think called the hook, which is a little hazy. And that's nice. But it comes in a can. You kind of want a glass when you when you're drinking beer, especially a good beer in my view. I haven't had that one yet.
00:04:41
Speaker
It's pricey. I think so. Yeah, that's the thing right this this six pack is right around $11 So you're gonna get a six pack of 12 12 ounce beers for $11. Are you going to get? for 16 ounce beers for close to 15 or 16 dollars
00:05:01
Speaker
So for me, it's often just a simple man. Yeah, it's an economical. Yeah, when they got a dog on the cover. We had that one from Jughandle. They're pretty good, too. They're intent and false. Oh, I have to check it out. Yeah. Have they been there long? I think it's been maybe five years. Really? Yeah, maybe not quite. But they have. We were just talking about them the other day. They have like maybe 20 beers.
00:05:29
Speaker
Tin falls I've never been there and so they're they're bottling it now or putting yeah, they can't yeah Like four pack cans like most of most of the guys and you have to go there or can you find it in any of this? Yeah, no, they have it in the liquor store. I'm gonna have to check that out. Yeah
00:05:44
Speaker
There's so many good local breweries now. And that makes drinking beer a little bit more fun, a little bit more of an adventure. It's funny, I was talking to a friend the other day, came out to cook some things on the grill and he was telling me how he's gotten into wine. And I said, I just, I don't have any desire to
00:06:05
Speaker
get into wine at this moment. Then he went on about certain wines, remind him of places that he's gone on vacations or for work. And then I said, well, that makes sense to me now because that's kind of like going back to where you went by having a glass of wine. So it's like a little celebration and it's similar to like going for a walk in the woods.
00:06:27
Speaker
if you know what trees you're looking at. Yeah, it's like knowing a little bit of something. Yeah, brings you back to that time and place. Yeah, 100%. I like wine, but I just prefer the the flavor of beer. Like I like I like the way wine tastes. I've I've had a lot of different wines. I've learned a lot about wine working in restaurants.
00:06:46
Speaker
But I just I always go back to beer. I just I don't know. I'm more of a beer guy. The delivery system, too, is, you know, the the big thick bottle or the frosty glass. Yeah. And you can drink. You can get one bottle. Yeah. One bottle of beer. I'm not going to drink a whole bottle of wine. And you're kind of committed when you open that bottle of wine. Yes. That's it. Yeah. Yeah.
Transition from Retail to Woodworking Passion
00:07:10
Speaker
I know. So, John, why don't you tell us a little bit how you got into woodworking, since, you know, that's kind of what we do here.
00:07:16
Speaker
Sure. I've been woodworking since I was 17. I was a horrible high school student and I went into something called distributive education and there were two forms of distributive education. The class that I was in was supposed to study retail. The class that my friend was in was supposed to study things like mechanics, woodworking, things like that.
00:07:44
Speaker
So I got a job in a ski shop. My friend Sean got a job at a place called the woodworker. We were talking. He hated his job. I hated my job. And we convinced our teachers to let us split or switch. I mean,
00:08:00
Speaker
And so I went and met my boss, Bob, at the woodworker, or my soon-to-be boss. First thing he did was look at my hands, and then he said, okay, see how you do. And I had a natural aptitude for it, and I worked with him for years, and I kind of would leave working with him for a few months and maybe do construction.
00:08:22
Speaker
And I've been doing work with my hands like that ever since. I mean, you know, that's a long time ago. So there's a lot of different things that happen in between. But everything I do is based off the vocabulary of being able to build something. So whether that's art, whether that's furniture,
00:08:40
Speaker
whether that's opening a business and having to remodel the storefront, all comes down to that first decision to work for somebody and learn a trade.
00:08:55
Speaker
It's amazing how one small detail can shape the course of somebody's life. This is going back to high school. And it's a twisty crooked road to get to where you are now, but it really is foundational to where you are.
00:09:15
Speaker
I think there's a black and white thing about learning a trade, whether that's cabinet building or electrical work or plumbing. It's something that's sort of concrete that you can always count on and you can always pull from it. I also worked as an ice cream scooper in an ice cream shop and I don't really depend on those skills that much these days. It doesn't come up. Sometimes.
00:09:41
Speaker
Sometimes. So if you have that inclination, I think that you have to be prepared to work and be uncomfortable and bring a good mood to work and contribute. Because if you're not contributing at a business that needs to make money, then they don't need you. And so I learned that very early. My boss was not easy. And I think that was a great thing. And I'm friends with him to this day.
00:10:10
Speaker
Well, that says a lot. Yeah, good guy. But you're also an artist too. I mean, we've seen some of your your sculptures that are out in the yard and things like that. So you bring that to the woodworking table as well. You know that I for art and aesthetics. I I love art and I view furniture as art too. I just
00:10:33
Speaker
I think they just complement each other. You could almost say that I stopped woodworking right around 1997, 98 because I was trying to make a lot of custom furniture. And at the same time, I was making artwork for clients who were buying my custom furniture. And at the same time, I had my first child
00:11:00
Speaker
and then my wife and I decided to open up a brick and mortar business named the Laurel Tracy Gallery and I put artwork in there and furniture and I sold all my artwork and I didn't sell my furniture and I sold my artwork for more money but I always wanted to make uh furniture and so you'll see there's about a 15-year gap
00:11:24
Speaker
where mostly what I made was picture frames. And picture frames can be pretty lucrative. And I'll just tell you the dollar, I charged $7.50 a linear inch for a frame. Frames aren't easy to make. And you know what? Part of it, too, is I was framing paintings for clients in New York City. Some of these paintings might have been a quarter of a million dollars. So they were comfortable with me handling
00:11:51
Speaker
the artwork, the one upstairs. Yeah. No, it was it's pretty wild. And that was a fast forward crash course in art history. Our business went from basically trying to sell my artwork and my furniture and some people that I knew to focusing on two schools of art, one being Hans Hoffman, students of Hans Hoffman and the other one, students of Edwin Dickinson.
00:12:21
Speaker
And we found that if we focused on half a dozen artists combining those two schools, we were able to find a niche. And because Hans Hoffman, to buy a Hans Hoffman painting, you'd have to spend a million dollars.
00:12:39
Speaker
So he was very famous in the in the art world, especially in the in the 50s and 60s. And so if you are a serious collector and you have the means, then you might want a student of Hans Hoffman. And so that's where. And we still we still work with these artists and we still work with these clients, but we don't do it from a brick and mortar space because we found we didn't need it.
Challenges of Brick-and-Mortar Galleries
00:13:03
Speaker
And business just got more any brick and mortar space.
00:13:08
Speaker
can get more and more expensive in the town of Red Bank. I wasn't that easy of a town to work in. Yeah, I just saw some listings like four thousand a month for some very small on broad, I think.
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah, rents have gone through the roof. And I don't know if it's warranted in Red Bank. I mean, maybe not in Manhattan now, but Manhattan before COVID. What you were getting in Manhattan was new blood on a regular basis. When you have a brick and mortar
00:13:42
Speaker
business in a town like Red Bank, you're relying on those same people. And it's not it's not just a traffic of people coming in from different states and different countries. It's the same people from Rumsoon and Fairhaven. And so yeah, you might get the odd person coming in from an outlying town in Jersey. But but it's you said it's the odd person. It's the odd thing.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's not like groceries that you go and buy every week. You're not buying art and furniture every week. Exactly. So you you really shrink. When you make a sale, you're essentially shrinking down your customer every time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was an interesting business and we did it for about, I guess, 19 or 20 years.
00:14:26
Speaker
And like I said, we still do it, but we do it without the overhead. And my business works by having a lot of different revenue streams. So you're never counting on that one thing. So when that art sale happens, it's sort of like, oh, that's a good one this time. Yeah. And like us, you're working out there behind your house in the red barn. We've got the pine barn. Yeah, it's great. And you know, it's peaceful.
00:14:52
Speaker
It is. This is a commercial property here, commercially zoned. It's a great shop. People love your shop. You saw that from the video. Yeah, how's the response been? Seems pretty good from what I've seen. I was really happy with the view counts at 34,000 views, I believe.
00:15:13
Speaker
I think if you look at the back end of my YouTube analytics, it's up. I forget what the number is, but it's way up compared to some of my other videos. So people really like it because I think most people who are watching my channel are woodworkers and to get the opportunity to come into a professional shop and see your workflow and see how you tackle projects just to see how you bring your lumber
00:15:40
Speaker
You know, the first step, OK, it comes from here and it goes to the chop song. And if somebody's already doing that, then it's an affirmation that, oh, I'm doing it right. And if they're not, they're like, oh, maybe I should reset this or.
00:15:55
Speaker
So I know I enjoy shop tours and I like to get to kind of see behind the scenes. So for me, Ed, it was a fun video for me to make because there's a constant pressure being a YouTuber or content creator to create content.
00:16:12
Speaker
And so I'm sort of in a slow space right now because I'm doing all this work to the barn. And it just seems like one project turns into another project that really isn't great for video until it's all completely done. So by coming over here and spending a few hours with you guys and having Jeff show me around, that was a way for me to create content and not spend an entire week trying to build something.
00:16:40
Speaker
It was a lot of fun for us, too. And really, you know, we were all impressed with how it turned out. So you did an excellent job. We want to thank you for that.
Insights into YouTube Shop Tour Videos
00:16:49
Speaker
Absolutely. It was my pleasure. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Like I told John, I said, I'm glad I didn't look as nervous as I felt. You're natural. Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Doesn't feel that way. But I think you're a natural and you're really.
00:17:02
Speaker
You're a technical guy. So I met Jeff via Instagram and it was an immediate respect because I saw the way he was installing hardware. And that's a mechanical skill that really takes discipline because it doesn't happen fast.
00:17:22
Speaker
You don't show up at the job site at 730 and you're done at 8 o'clock. You might finish setting up by 930 and now you're ready to start actually working. And I respect that because it's not my favorite type of work. Actually, I like it when it's happening and when it's done, but I'm a little intimidated before.
00:17:45
Speaker
Beforehand and it occupies my mind Right up until the point of doing it because that's an a no-return Yes, you drill that hole through a finished door. Oh, yeah. I mean I've done it on like $10,000 front doors that
00:18:00
Speaker
We did a job in Red Bank and they had the door built in California and they had it shipped to Mexico to be finished because it had some extreme high VOC finish, which, you know, that's the opposite of what we do. But they had it shipped out of the country, shipped back to California and then shipped to New Jersey. So doing the hardware on something like that. I mean, there really is. There's no going back from it's perfection only. And that's like the only possible outcome.
00:18:28
Speaker
I'll add this. So we got a copy of the video. This is funny. And Rich and I are coming. We're in the car in the richest truck driving back from his son's house. We'd gone up there to put a desk in. And so I'm watching it because I'm in the passenger seat, but I am holding it up and playing it loud enough for him to hear. And we're laughing the whole way down because Jeff knows the names of everything that we're learning.
00:18:55
Speaker
We're like, oh, is that what that's called? We were cracking up. I mean, tools that I owned for 15 years. Jeff is like, yeah, we got this over here and this does that. Like, you don't say. I felt the exact same way when he was naming the Sanders. I know. Yeah, I was like.
00:19:13
Speaker
I feel like an idiot because I don't know what Eddie is like. This is a palm sander. This is a model number. Is it a fact? I mean, that's a skill. That's it. And it's definitely just something that you have and you must enjoy it because it just comes right to you. Yeah, he's a real tall nerd. I've had. Yeah. Yeah. You're nuts about something today about my chalk box. Yeah.
00:19:38
Speaker
I think it's a good thing if you have it. It's an honest thing like for me to try to do that I'd be completely forcing it like I don't even I know I have the festival Capex Yeah, I don't know if there's another name to it Yeah, it's like the KS 1500 You know, it's it all is an honest part of who he is it's
00:20:01
Speaker
There's no pretension or anything like that. I told these guys, you know, I was a waiter for a long time. I would do like a table of like I could do like up to eight people without writing anything down. That's impressive. I'm hoping I hold on to it because, you know, I'm thirty one thirty one. Yeah. He sees the other side of the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't hit the peak yet, but you're young. Thirty one. I know.
00:20:29
Speaker
He complains about his knees sometimes. We go, no, no, no. Just wait. Yeah. It doesn't get any, everybody on 52 and a lot of my friends will say, you know, when I hit 50, the wheels just fell off. So I'm, I actually started to really try to focus on maintaining staying in shape about three years ago. It's important.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah. And it just you feel better and mentally mentally and physically. So I'm not a I'm not one of these guys who's in the gym all the time. But I just try to get out and hike. Yeah, try to try to keep active me a little mountain biking and stuff like that. Because when you when you get when you hit that 45 50 my age,
00:21:18
Speaker
You can either get old quick or you can just sort of plateau. And you'll see, like I have friends who are way better shaped than me and some that my daughter will think are 10 or 15 years older than me.
00:21:33
Speaker
It's it's one of those things. So at 31. Yeah, you you got a long way to go. Yeah, I'm feeling old. Yeah, but you're hitting the gym. Yeah. Yes, I do.
Story of the Indispensable Nail Cutters
00:21:46
Speaker
Rich as I see in your memory. Yeah. I got years on YouTube. Yeah, you went to you look like you're in shape. You look like a big guy because you wear sleeveless shirts. This guy's a tough guy. Yeah, I was just saying that today. See, it's true.
00:21:58
Speaker
He had to show my guns. You got permit for those things? I don't know.
00:22:04
Speaker
What do you think we lead? Is this the lead into the tool of the week? This is still with John. It's the tool of the week. I wanted to talk about this tool. This is funny. So you're going to have to tell me what this is called, Jeff, because I don't know what it's called. I just call it my cutters or my nail cutters. Nippers. I call them dykes, but I think the technical term is probably diagonal cutters.
00:22:30
Speaker
All right, getting a dangerous water there. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure where that originated. Just passing the information along. All right, let's call them nippers or cutters. So I bought these because this is a funny story. It's a true story. I've had them for more than 30 years. They are a tool. This is a tool that I make sure I have with me whenever I go on an install.
00:22:57
Speaker
Whenever I'm doing a job anywhere because they can cut it they can cut a 10 penny nail or a common nail They can cut a screw then cut wires easily but the way I got these was I was working this is probably 1990 a 1989 maybe I
00:23:17
Speaker
taking a break from working at the woodworker with my boss, who I learned cabinet making from. And I was working for a company called Sujin Construction, Sujin Brothers, great guys. We built a few houses, did some out of levels, and then all of a sudden the economy just took a nosedive. And so they didn't have any work for a little while. And then I found this other job with this guy named John. And
00:23:42
Speaker
He was a mess. He was just everything the Sujan brothers weren't, you know what I mean? Is this a John? He's like a Tom. No, his name really is John. And he actually died shortly after. That's okay. After working with him for a while. And I know that because my last paycheck or something I had something like that was a long story. But anyway,
00:24:05
Speaker
So I get this job working for John and maybe a month after working for him and really realizing this guy's crazy, he teams up with three guys and they call themselves power framers. That's what they're called themselves. Power framers. That sounds ominous. Yeah. So the first job we do is we go over to, I think it was called the 10 o'clock diner on route 10, maybe in Parsippany.
00:24:33
Speaker
And it was a demolition job to rip every single thing out of a cinder block building. So if you've ever done a demolition, everything goes. The ceiling tiles goes, the floor, everything goes. And so it was probably 95 degrees, ridiculously humid and
00:24:50
Speaker
Right before lunch, I'm on one side of the building, but this other guy is sort of an eye view of me. I see
Risky Demolition Incident and Trusting Instincts
00:25:03
Speaker
him get stuck to a wire because he had choked up on his S-wing hammer and he was probably sweating and he clawed into a live wire. And so he's over there sort of shaking and I see another guy come by and just push him off.
00:25:19
Speaker
So that's like, this is what's going on, right? And you're how old? I'm like maybe 19 or something, right? Power framers. This is crazy. So the point of the story here is the building was heated with electric heat.
00:25:37
Speaker
And so my boss says, hey, you got to cut those wires and pull all that heating out there. I said, well, let's find out where this electric is coming from, because this guy almost just got electrocuted. And and he says, no, you don't have to do that. You don't have to whatever. Just no sense could be talked into this guy. So he walked over there with a pair of cutters similar to these and cut it. He's like, this is how you do it. And he cut into them. And it was like a small explosion.
00:26:06
Speaker
cut a, you know, burned a hole in the air cutters. And then he looks, he doesn't even flinch. He just looks, he goes, see, that's how you do it.
00:26:16
Speaker
So then he gives me these wire cutters to go do the other ones. And I said, well, I'm going to get my gloves first. So I walk out and I still have my tool belt on and I have this, these wire cutters now in my tool belt. And I walk out in my truck to get the gloves and got in my truck and never saw them again.
00:26:36
Speaker
But I didn't know if you were going to go back into there and I was going to add, now did you think about just going home? That was it. And so the lesson there is if your gut is telling you that these people are not the right people to be around, especially when you're young, you know, just trust your gut and just be like, okay, just get out of here because that could go bad quick and
00:27:00
Speaker
There were so many signs there, but it just took that one thing. That's how you do it. But I love these tools. I love these these wire cutters. I do think of him occasionally just like I was off his rocker and and just just I mentioned that he died. He ended up having an aneurysm. So it's totally non-related with anything. Yeah, just happened to
00:27:22
Speaker
Now, those happen to have a slight arch to them. Is that from Duggan or is that I don't think so. But that might be what I like about them, because you can grab it now and then use it as a prize. Mac and Knuckles is yours is like that. Yeah, it's very similar to that. Well, we use that a lot. Rob's got a pair of front cutters. That's what I call them. That's what I keep on an install. So they have the two in the front like this. OK. And they're like they might as well be serrated now because jailbreak.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah. So tell the bridge version of the story. Well, I had this Volkswagen bus when I was going to college at ASU in Arizona and I had parked inadvertently in a condominium parking space that belonged to somebody. And my bus got towed away when I came out. And back then I was
00:28:11
Speaker
Sort of indignant that that would happen to me. I found I found the yard that it was in and I took my pliers now known as jailbreak. I got my extra keys and I cut down the chain link fence and with my extra keys I drove my bus away. Wow. That's why they're called jailbreak. We still use them.
00:28:32
Speaker
that's great though that you got away with it couldn't do that today no that's pretty much you could you could put that tagline on on most of my adventure he's giving up all his nine lives that's funny that's a good one it might be like a grand kid out there let's see
00:28:49
Speaker
That's the story that grandpa told me. That's a good one. So if you get a knock on the door. Exactly. I know. I know. That's a great tool. We use it. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of these things when I don't know where it is, it bothers me. Yeah. And there's only a few tools that I have like that. Just something about it. If I can't find it, you know, and I don't lose many tools. Yeah. Because it's just 30 years. That's.
00:29:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's how long I've had it. I can't believe it. I'll give you another 10 years. You'll be losing tools. Yeah, they don't they don't last now, you know, because I've had I buy the NYPEX ones, which are they're made in Germany there and they're really not cheap. And even those like they'll get chipped up.
00:29:31
Speaker
That's the thing with this. I mean, you can see the little light coming through there. Not much at all. And so these have really gotten hard work. One thing I really like using these for is I was just taking the Romex off the inside of the walls and you just kind of can.
00:29:47
Speaker
just kind of grab it, grab the the you now and squeeze down a little bit and use it as a claw bar almost. Yeah, it works good. So it's just one of those things. And I thought, OK, that's a good one. Tool of the week. Yeah. You know, what I like about it is it's such a small, simple tool. And a lot of times, you know, people might think, well, what's the tool of the week? It's got to be this grand reveal. But even when we've been bringing them out, Rich did the pencil one day. These are all the things that
00:30:16
Speaker
are closest to us. Yeah, there's a there's more of an intimate relationship with those tools. Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, a big table saw was a great tool. But you're actually not touching it like where it's it depends the feel the feel of it in your hand has a lot to do with it. It's like you with that block plane.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And like, you have like a $400 plane over there, but it's not the same as you use it all day. I use a pencil and a tape measure all day every day. Yeah. So you get really attached to these things. You find ones that you like and.
00:30:53
Speaker
What tape measure do you use? I use a Starrett. So I'm blocking this drawer, but it's a Starrett exact. They're they're not made in Massachusetts like with all the other stairs stuff. They're made in China. But we have an 18 inch Starrett combo square and they line up dead on.
00:31:14
Speaker
I mean, I'd say that we probably use the tape within the first 18 more than we use it. You know, otherwise we're always marking out one inch, three quarters of an inch, stuff like that. So having something that's accurate and I'm sure it's accurate past that, but having something that's accurate in the 18 inches is very important. We like that. Yeah. What's that?
00:31:36
Speaker
Tajima to Japanese. Oh, I'm just using the 16 16 foot stand. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm thinking of getting something a little bit nicer. Just it's just always what I use. So just. Well, yes, Rob, he spent two days looking for a tape measure. Two days. Way more than that. Must have been two weeks. You mean you misplaced. Yeah. Grab one of your fancy tape measures. No, no, no. On the Internet. Oh, really? Oh, I have a tape right here.
00:32:05
Speaker
We were trying to find something not made in China. Yeah, it's it's very hard to find a U.S. made tape measure. The Stanley's and the DeWaltz will say made in the U.S. with global components. But that's kind of a I'll keep that my apron. OK. Yeah, see, that's a combo tape measure. I can't do that. You do anything in metric? No. No, I'll do some 3D printing stuff in metric, but not woodworking. So I use a 16. That's a 12. It's a lot smaller.
00:32:35
Speaker
So you your your 16 will have a three quarter inch wide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's two. I don't like a flimsy tape like this one right away. Just the rigidity of that tape is nice. Yeah. It's a nice same one. The stare. It makes one like about that size, too. Yeah. We actually we were doing some framing this week over my wife or sister and another woman. They're open a yoga studio. So we frame like a little wall. Did the sheetrock. And we were both using that that larger stare.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah, the 16. We got some 30 footers. I have the 31. I have the 31 with me. That the the stair guys gave us in Vegas, but they're like, if you use a 30 foot tape in a wood shop. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. That's why I use this one a lot. I like it because it's super lightweight. And I mean, really, it's half of a joke because it's made in Germany and trying to find a tape that's not made in China is almost impossible. And all of the other tapes that were larger
00:33:34
Speaker
They all they're all fully metric. And this one's split metric and an imperial. I noticed that all three of you wear aprons. I don't wear an apron. Maybe I'll have to try that one day. But you swear that swear by them. Yeah. Calavera tool works. And you you just like it because you have all your tools there. You like the safety aspect of it or. Yeah.
00:33:57
Speaker
Well, yeah, it might need to be a little bit. You know, when they bought it for me for my birthday, so I didn't really get a chance to customize it. But there were some changes that would make to it to make it a little bit more user friendly for me. But I love it. It's nice and heavy, too. When you say heavy, does it feel like weight on you or? No, it feels when it's heavy when I pick it up, but when I put it on, it doesn't. Yeah, this is the system is really well thought out. See that piece of walnut there that says think twice. Yeah. I took that in the stomach.
00:34:27
Speaker
With the apron? Yeah. No problem. No. I mean, I had a big bruise, but it sounded like a major league pitch, like hitting the catcher's mitt. Wow. Yeah. It fell off of the fence on top of the blade and came back at me. You made me laugh because I don't know if you ever watch 1806 Stonehouse. Mm hmm.
00:34:50
Speaker
He's a great guy. But anyway, he put up a short compilation of some of the projects because he's been renovating this house with his wife now and his two kids for maybe four years. So it was maybe like a 30 second video that came up on Instagram. And one of them is a piece of plywood and it just shoots out and hits him in the stomach.
00:35:11
Speaker
And and I messaged messaged him right away. I you know, I'm glad you're okay. But I had a laugh at that because it just just was you got to see it. That's dark purple for two. Yeah, reaction to it was his reaction to it was priceless. And the music that he used in the video just his name is Lucas, I believe he's got a good sense of humor. But a funny one. I've been hit once or twice and it's no fun.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, it hurts. I have that little Veritas square in there and I had like, you know, it was hanging down and that's where it hit. And I had a rectangle that was like unbrewed within the proof. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It just shows you the force. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
Once you get used to wearing those aprons, you don't really want to go back. I mean, even when we do jobs that are outside the shop, I like it because I just get used to having my things where they are. You know, you know, your little tape or your your knife or your cutter, whatever you're holding with you, they're all there for you. And there is this nice protective feel and you have your marking gauges and your pens and you're such a top.
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I went from a finished carpenter to a cabinet maker. So I went and carried my belt through like I wore an Occidental belt. And it's just so much more comfortable to wear an apron. Like you feel more in tune.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, by the halfway through the day, if you're wearing a belt, you start to get hot spots on your hips and it's just it's, you know, pulling down on your pants and and you feel all the weight with the apron. It's much more comfortable and sort of you forget that it's there.
00:36:55
Speaker
And it's not just any apron. It's, it's these in particular, the way they're built. Well, I mean, these Calavera aprons, they're all hand built one at a time. So it's, you know, it's a work of art in and of itself as well as a tool, but you just right. You don't feel it on your hips or on your shoulders, even at all. You don't. Um, it's, it's a well-designed tool.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah. Plus if you're wearing shorts, you can't tell if you're wearing any pants or not. We've had that question. That's how you guys blow up on Instagram. The pants was woodworkers. Yeah. He has different lengths and stuff. So I think mine is maybe the shortest one and Rich has like maybe the medium sort of length.
00:37:43
Speaker
Yeah, I got a short one, even though I am taller and and Mike, he was saying, you're sure, you know, I said, no, I'm sure. And it's exactly the way I like it, you know, because it's sort of almost tool belt height for me. You know, that's sort of how I wanted it. Did you meet Mike before? Did did you know Mike before WorkbenchCon? Yeah. Yeah. So I bought my apron maybe three years ago now. So how did you find Mike?
00:38:12
Speaker
Instagram. OK. Yeah. I don't know if it might have been through like a giveaway that he was doing with somebody else. And I think that's maybe how I found him. And I, you know, I followed for a while and I always wanted one. Then it was like tax season, got a tax return. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to buy an apron. It's an investment, but it's a lifetime tool. It's a lifetime thing. Sure.
00:38:40
Speaker
you know, for rivet gives way or something like that, which might happen in, you know, 10 years or something on a leather garment, you just replace it.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yeah, I've put a chisel through my pocket and I just, I stitched it back up myself with, I had some leatherworking stuff before that. Um, cause I messed around with my belt. I made like little spots for certain tools and made like a holder for my construction master calculator, stuff like that. So I actually have a patch. You can see that white thread there. So that's where I stuck a chisel right through the threads in the pocket. You can see that that would happen. Yeah.
00:39:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'd be lost without that thing. Yeah, you get used to it. Making fun of me because yesterday we were out at the we went to the yoga studio. So instead of carrying it, I decided, well, I'm just going to put it on. So then once it's on, you know, when you work in the shop every day, you don't really think about how you look or you're dressed or anything. So I'm out in public out on the street, walking around my
The Practicality of Shop Aprons
00:39:40
Speaker
apron on going to get coffee.
00:39:42
Speaker
Anybody in Elena Kyle's a sort of character walking around with an apron on at the eight o'clock in the morning. That was right. It was Rob. I'm a woodworker. You don't think twice about it. You know, you've got the nice white bison. Yeah, I mean, it's really what he doesn't carry in it as any money. That's another store identification. I'm not geared for the outside world. What are you doing to the yoga studio?
00:40:10
Speaker
So we built a couple benches with cubbies and then we're actually we built a wall so they have a separate room you'll be hanging a door in there we did the we got the material about three o'clock yesterday from builders general so we put up the wall we finished that up today and then we sheetrock the inside so we're gonna insulate sheetrock the outside I mean it's a wall but it's
00:40:32
Speaker
Got four sides, four faces. The one wall has to go this way and that way. Yeah, because there's a bathroom door that has to swing. So it's got like a corner cut out of it. You're insulating it for sound. Yeah. So we use the nice therapy room, the nice rock wall. Good itchy stuff. Yeah, that stuff is itchy.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah. So that's it. You know, it's family. You get called in. We were over doing the desk, but Danny did some nice work for us. Yeah. You saw that video that I just put up today. Yeah. So that was Rich's son is the photographer and videographer for the Jets. Oh, wow. Yeah. He came in and shot some some pictures and video. Very impressive. Yeah. Yeah, he's good. I mean, he must be. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:41:19
Speaker
There's only what? How many teams in the NFL? 32. 32. Yeah, so there's 32 guys like him out there. But you're a Cowboys fan? Yes. Saw that on the truck, too. He's not a... I can't say what he is. He's a Jets fan. I can't bring that out. He's the Jets fan. He loves the Jets. It's his favorite team. Yes. Well, how are you feeling about... We're not going to get into football. ...about the petty gripe of the week. Okay, listen, this is my turn for the petty gripe of the week.
00:41:49
Speaker
Well, you got to tell them, Rich, you know, this is this was usually Rob's thing, but you know what? Rob had a gripe, too. I came up with a better gripe. And when I heard Rich's gripe, I had to, you know, just exit stage left. OK, here we are scenario. Saturday afternoon, four o'clock, you're sitting in your backyard, you're relaxing, having a beer. And all of a sudden, across the way, you hear somebody start their lawnmower up.
00:42:20
Speaker
And if it's not the lawnmower, it's the weed whacker or the trimmer. Four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon or six o'clock on a Saturday afternoon that late, he starts up his lawnmower. The man doesn't even have a job. Why does he wait till Saturday to cut his grass? Now, how far away is this guy's house? Right across the street.
00:42:43
Speaker
So this is a suburban neighborhood. If I had a gun, I could have shot him. He's that close. But you wouldn't have. No, I would not have. And you're not a very good shot. And this is not this is not just this past Saturday. This has been going on all summer. The guy just doesn't have any clue that he's annoying people that are sitting trying to relax.
00:43:06
Speaker
Maybe it's me. Maybe you shouldn't cut your grass at Saturday at night at the afternoon. So what are your parameters? You have you have parameters. Yes. You want to cut your grass 10 to two on a Saturday or cut on a weekend. I don't care. You cut you on the grass all weekend. You want week. You mean weekday, weekday. Exactly.
00:43:24
Speaker
But Sunday, Saturday, do not be cutting your grass in the afternoon. Are you talking about legislation here?
Annoyance with Weekend Lawn Mowing
00:43:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I'm going to push push for it. You got to go to council meetings. Oh, yeah. I think, you know, the viewers may not know our viewers, but your viewers certainly know that you're interested in landscaping. And so I agree. I agree with Rich because my my biggest frustration about making videos is my neighbor with a leaf blower.
00:43:52
Speaker
And so I have a neighbor across the street and they he he's not blowing his leaves. This guy is like I think he invented like cell towers or something.
00:44:07
Speaker
They have 17 acres and they're horses. They have all these horses and all this stuff. Anyway, they have one or two maintenance guys who work there. And they literally would start up at 6 30 in the morning sometimes where I'd walk over. So one time we had a snowstorm.
00:44:26
Speaker
And I get up very early. I love the morning. Nobody's awake. The house is quiet. I can get something done. And it's maybe 10 after six. And I'm like, Oh, this is nice. There's an inch of snow on the ground. And it's snowing right now. And all of a sudden I hear the leaf blower. What the hell is going on here?
00:44:45
Speaker
And so I walk over there and I told them, I said, you can't do this. I mean, you got to at least wait until nine o'clock. And yeah, it's a frustration for me. But I am guilty of using a leaf blower. They're really, really loud and really obnoxious. And when you have neighbors,
00:45:07
Speaker
I I think I use my leaf blower once a week. Literally this my neighbor because it's such a big piece of property and it's the maintenance guy. Yeah. Every day this time of year. Oh, yeah. This time of year every day. I mean, he could theoretically wait. He could be like, OK, well, Thursdays and Mondays are a good day. Let the leaves accumulate exactly. But he doesn't. It's every day. And this guy has no right. He's got no sense.
00:45:37
Speaker
You won't talk to him. I you know what if I talked to him going over there with a bat, but can you do that without? I don't know because I'm about a note So, you know you're really great neighbor or whatever yeah, but if you could cut your lawn between these times that way you always look good
00:45:58
Speaker
Trust me, I'm the same person. I talk myself down because I'm like, there's been times where I'm walking across the street and then I'm like, wait a minute, mellow out. This doesn't have to go there. I think it's self-defense. I had a bad year at a lawnmower.
00:46:13
Speaker
I know your I know your frustration, but I would go. I would. I would definitely. You'll feel better. Oh, yeah. You know, that's a good idea. Yeah, it's a good idea. Because then at least you've expressed your distaste in his timing. Yeah. So if you do get in an argument about it or something, it's at least I know it's somebody in that area. Oh, you sign it. You sign it. You say, hey, I'm right across the street. Go to the dollar store and get yourself a nice card like this. Yeah. There you go.
00:46:41
Speaker
Yeah, I want to know what you got on those other three. Yeah, you'll know. Yeah, that was a good idea. I'm sure you're touching a nerve out. Yeah, exactly. See, I have the electric mower, but I still wait until like at least nine. Yeah, that's just, yeah, late in the morning, but just stop after two o'clock. Jesus Christ, stop already. See, I get your frustration, but there's some other guy that doesn't want to hear between 10 and two.
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah, I come from the city. I've been out here for a long time, almost 20 years. So we never experienced these things. We didn't have lawnmowers and such.
00:47:16
Speaker
And I call it the song of the suburbs, those gas-powered tools, because there's always somebody using one. If you live in a neighborhood where there's like four yards that sort of meet in a corner somewhere, it's that close, you're gonna hear something almost every day.
00:47:37
Speaker
Absolutely. And like I said, I'm guilty because I cut my lawn and I use the leaf blower and I do all that stuff, but I don't do it. The only difference. And so I have a neighbor directly across from me and they'll cut their lawn. But again, it's the homeowner doing it. So I'm the homeowner doing my work. He's the homeowner doing his work. And the the other piece of property is just a mammoth piece of property. I think there's four home. I think there's, there's two stables,
00:48:07
Speaker
three houses on 17 acres and it's just nonstop. So Sunday, the blower will come out and, uh,
00:48:18
Speaker
It's it's it actually has affected my quality of life because it gets me gets me aggravated. Oh, yeah. And I we're talking after work and riches showing us pictures. He's sitting out with his chimney go and he's got a cold frosty one. This on here 15 minutes later, going on going out. It's it's
00:48:44
Speaker
I told you, buy him an electric car more. No, I ain't buying him more to buy him a bat. No, not really. I'm not going to do that just in case something happens. Yeah. Yeah. We have a suspect. They're coming straight for you. OK, listen, so that hope that you guys chime in. Who's what time you should be cutting your grass? Yeah. What day? What time? Especially on the weekend.
00:49:11
Speaker
I want to know. Am I nuts? No, I mean, even in John's case with the neighbor, I don't cut my own grass, but I tell the lawn guys when it's OK to come. They'll text me. Can we come here on this day? At this time, I would say, no, that's not appropriate.
00:49:32
Speaker
I'm sorry it doesn't work out for you, but you have to come after such and such a time. I've had the power washer washing the deck. My neighbor was outside, the next door neighbor, and I stopped and said, do you mind if I'm going to run the power wash for a while? If it's annoying you, I won't do it now.
00:49:50
Speaker
She said, no, don't worry about it. So I was aware of what I was going to do might infuriate somebody else on a Saturday afternoon. It wasn't that late. It was about 11 o'clock. But you know, I just was aware of my surroundings. I said, I don't want to make a big deal. If they have a barbecue and they're in the pool, I'm out there cutting the grass and cutting the weeds and all that and everything's shooting up out of the air. It's not just not the right thing to do.
00:50:16
Speaker
Very neighborly. I am, I am. Rich is a neighborly guy. You're damn right I am. That's the feel I get. Just don't catch him with a bat. Now John, I hope you're ready for this. Oh yeah. We came up with something that we want. We want to do
Quickfire Questions with John Peters
00:50:35
Speaker
it all our guests and this is it's
00:50:37
Speaker
20 quickfire questions now, we don't go for it well on it You just want an answer and maybe if we want to go to the next level, okay We'll ask you about it. So so we're gonna keep going on around the table here. So without question. So Rob's first It's like it's like an either or kind of thing. Okay, great. So coffee or tea coffee
00:50:59
Speaker
Biscuit Joiner or Domino. I just got the Domino. I have to learn how to use it. Boxers or briefs? Boxers. Painted or stained? Both. Spring or Fall? Spring. 16 inch tape measure or 25 inch tape measure?
00:51:20
Speaker
Foot. You mean foot. Yeah foot. Sorry. 16 foot. That's a small tape. Hamburger or hot dog? Hamburger. Regular or mechanical pencil? Regular. Seinfeld or the office? The office but both. Square driver Phillips? That's a no brainer Phillips. I like Phillips. Windows or Mac?
00:51:46
Speaker
Oh, wait. Square drive. Screws. I thought we were talking about slit drop. What do you call it? When I slotted. I'm going to say square. I'm saying square then. Yeah. Actually star. I like star. Yeah. A lot of people like the star. So we got windows or Mac. Mac. Push saw or pull saw? Pull saw. Chicken wings. Bone in or boneless? Bone in. And sub question. Blue cheese or ranch?
00:52:15
Speaker
Blue cheese. Those are correct answers. Dovetail or box joint? Dovetail. You already answered this question. Morning person or night owl? Morning person. Yeah. Inset or overlay? Inset or overlay? Doors. Doors. Inset. All right. Except for shop furniture. Yeah. Beach or mountains?
00:52:46
Speaker
I'm more mountains. I used to be more beach type on one, two or three. Two is easier to clean up. I think pizza or Chinese. I'm going to say both, but I'm, I would lean towards Chinese. All right. Last but not least bar clamp pipe clamp.
00:53:09
Speaker
But a bar clamp, a bar clamp. All right. OK, you can stay. That was fun. That's a good one, guys. We had a hard time. Those are good ones. I like that. That was like the entire lunch yesterday. I mean, it's very telling. You know.
00:53:26
Speaker
You know, I heard something good on Joe Rogan the other day. He goes, I can tell a lot about a person if they think that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman. Exactly. It was like, wow, that's a good one. Supernatural skill.
00:53:45
Speaker
So we've got to get moving. We've got a lot of stuff on the map. We've got two pages. We've got two pages. So Jeff, you want to go with the first question of the week? Yeah. So this is from Alec. That's Al. Sorry. Al Head Woodco on Instagram. Repeat offender here. He said, I try to get in the habit of creating a jig or template anytime I have repetitive work on a project. What are some of your go to jigs that you couldn't live without that save time and improve accuracy?
00:54:13
Speaker
My go to jig has been a crosscut sled. I just love a big a big crosscut sled. Yeah, that's a good one. We we've messed around with a couple. Now we have the saw stuff so we don't really use one a lot, but they're good for doing dados in the middle of stuff, stuff like that. I think I just took apart that one that we had. Yeah, the old one. We built the confession or the altar rail for St. Anthony's every
00:54:42
Speaker
Ballister had a dado in the center. It fit over top of the bottom rail and the top rail. So we made 42 feet of four inch on center. Wow. Ballister. So we made a full jig to do that. We talked a lot about this. We don't have a lot of.
00:55:03
Speaker
Jigs that we use all the time. We're more purpose-built sort of jigs. You know, we'll find a task and say, man, we need to figure out how to do this quick. I think the only one we have around the shop and we don't even use it that much.
00:55:19
Speaker
We have a little, it's like a cross cut sled, but it cuts a 45. So it's essentially a square frames. Yeah. Yeah. You know, turn 45 and it's great for cutting like very small pieces, you know, five sixteenths of an inch square or something like that that you'd use to just accent a panel or something.
00:55:39
Speaker
I like Jeff's term purpose build or purpose jig because I'm sort of the same way. I don't use a ton of jigs and often when I'll build something, I'll think, okay, I'll build this, but then I end up never building the same thing again. They hang on the wall for a couple of years until we finally, you know, when we're having a cleansing. Yeah, that's right. You got to get rid of it. Yeah. I just thought of this. So this is,
00:56:08
Speaker
Bench dog angle jig set fence to five and five eighths of an inch. That's the cut. To cut this angle. Yeah, to cut this small angle on these bench dogs. Well, you might use that one a lot because those will break and you'll replace them. Right. So I'll hang on to it. Yeah. But it's not something that gets pulled out. It hasn't gotten pulled out since I made it. Yeah.
00:56:32
Speaker
But I can see you put a lot of care into that, the joinery and everything in that jig, I like that. Yeah, we have a certain, yeah. Nice. That's how my jigs look. Eighteen inch nails. Everything's just popped together with an 18 inch inch and a quarter nail. It is walnut pie with them. Yeah, there you go. Put some state on that. You gotta write the instructions because you will forget by the next time you use it. That's what I love about these two guys. They can see
00:56:59
Speaker
You guys can build jigs for anything. Me, I'm kind of still kind of like trying to figure out. Mine would look worse than that. But these two guys, they have a good eye for coming up with a real good jig for a lot of the work that we do. It's amazing what a jig will do. I mean, from a safety point of view sometimes and.
00:57:19
Speaker
Just be like I've become a big Big user in flush cut bits and so I'm always make for shaping something I'll just make a quick thing at an MDF and The ball bearing seems to roll nicely against the MDF. There you go
00:57:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think we might be more template oriented. Yeah. You know, it's hard. It's hard because everything we do is is like a one off. So it's hard to make something that's going to be.
00:57:53
Speaker
I think if you're, yeah, I think if you're making tables, you know, over and over again, then it makes sense. That's where that jig is. You just kind of bang it out. The only thing we have a jig for now is the Adirondack chair. Yeah. Basically, we have all the patterns cut. Yeah. So that's basically, we count that as a jig. It's about 10 pieces with the instructions written on them.
00:58:14
Speaker
Uh how to create the we have like a sort of a craftsman style adirondack chair. Oh nice Yeah, we're looking to do a whole You should make a video about it at least document it so you can If you don't want to if you if you don't want to do the voiceover, although I think you've got a great voice for voiceover And i'm not just picking him out of youtube. Yeah, i'm just saying
00:58:36
Speaker
Yeah, like you met him in the land and all that. He's got a good voice. He can actually, I mean, some people can do voiceover. Yeah, Jeff's literate. He does a really good job. He knows the name of the literate. You haven't seen me read.
00:58:55
Speaker
He knows the names of things. But anyway, my point being there is it takes so much more time to build something and it takes some of the fun out of it sometimes to film it. But when the job is done, you'll have all that footage that you can
00:59:12
Speaker
edit, then re-edit for so many different platforms and platforms that aren't even out there yet, because we were talking about TikTok earlier, which I just thinking about starting. And I think, well, geez, I've got almost 10 years of content that I've archived and I can re-edit it for TikTok. And the same thing. So building an Instagram, so we've talked that you've gotten a lot of your business and your connections through Instagram.
00:59:41
Speaker
Sometimes I'll put up a post of like a flashback Friday fast forward build that happens in 30 seconds. And literally, I only thought about posting that, you know, 6 30 in the morning. I'll put that up at 8 30. And by the end of the week, it might have 50,000 views and get 400 new followers.
01:00:03
Speaker
So you don't really like often I don't know what's going to hit and what's not going to hit. But what it is, I think what it's doing is it's always telling the story of in my case, and it will be in your case of who I am and who you are, because the content is formed about around anything you're doing or making. So something like an Adirondack chair, especially something with an arts and crafts feel to it, I think could really blow up.
01:00:30
Speaker
Yeah. So Rob actually just finished the, um, I wouldn't say finished, but basically completed the plans, um, with the instructions. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the instructions on how to build the sketchup drawings, all that. So we're hoping to shoot a video and then, yeah. And then put out the plans for purchase with the video.
01:00:49
Speaker
That's become a nice revenue stream for me is selling plans lately. I had always given my plans away because they were just hand-drawn plans. I haven't taken the time to learn SketchUp or any of the other things. There's a full part by part dimension with instructions.
01:01:07
Speaker
that's a beautiful thing. So, so if you make the video on the how to, and then you have the plans, that way, somebody like me or anybody can go and watch it on YouTube by the plans. And I get in on sometimes my comments that when someone's building a piece of furniture that I've built and put on YouTube, and they bought the plans, they have a TV in their shop with a
01:01:34
Speaker
You know fast forward and rewind and they'll it's almost like a private instruction Yeah, so I think I think you should do that. I think that you're you guys will I mean look at the technology leap Literally in the last two months. There's been a huge technology leap. I think yeah, so He'll laugh about it. It'll be a pain, but then when you have it, it'll be done. I
01:01:59
Speaker
Yeah. And we're hoping Daniel help us out. Yeah, he says because he wants some more work in his house. So there you go. Oh, you're doing the trade. We live in the border economy. We just finished his desk. So now my other children out there don't get any ideas.
01:02:16
Speaker
Danny's a real contributor. Oh, not that my other son has. He's he. Oh, yeah. He ran the electricity for us. So we're in debt to Ricky. We are. We actually ran up a tab with Ricky because he ran all the two twenty fours every time. Oh, he's an electrician. Yeah. Well, we got new equipment. He came out and he didn't just do this slam bag job.
01:02:37
Speaker
He came out, he spent hours running lines, bending the conduit. Yeah, I mean, he took the time to do really, really nice work. Hey, we got an air conditioner. Yeah. We need somewhere to plug it in. So, Ricky, it's coming. Believe me, it's coming. Yeah. We don't know what, but. Yes, I know. He saw Danny's desk and I got a note that said nice desk. Yeah. I know it was a little bit of
01:03:03
Speaker
We can build him a desk. It's going to be much more. I hate to tell you guys, he wants two. Two desks? No. It's only fair. That could be the kick in her ass that we need. Well, he'll watch the video, give him the plans. That's what I said. Take that opportunity, take that project opportunity to make a video, then you got your electrical work and then it pays on the YouTube content. Exactly.
01:03:33
Speaker
Question number two. Yeah. Who wants to read it? Go ahead, Ritz. After rough cutting parts, how long do you let them accumulate acclimate before moving on? And this is from Keith from Two Bit Woodworks. Oh, yeah. I don't. I just keep working. I mean, if I get to it that day, generally things are in my shop and I don't. I don't. I don't get too crazy about that.
01:04:00
Speaker
I mean, I'm using work with Jeff. I'm using kiln drying wood, you know, and I don't know. Yeah. I mean, after rough cutting, I wouldn't say that we let it acclimate. I like to after it's face jointed and plain. That's the other difference. We're working with rough, rough lumber. Mostly using S4S. Yeah. So that's already moved a lot.
01:04:24
Speaker
So we face joint plane and then I like to let it sit overnight. OK, yeah. Just because you're exposing, you know, the outside of the wood has the lowest humidity or the lowest moisture content. So once you take those off, you've exposed an area with more moisture. So you really should let it sit, you know, at least for a little while. We might be taken off a quarter of an inch. So yeah, we're exposing a lot of new wood. Yeah.
01:04:49
Speaker
And and I might just be letting it sit because a furniture build and most of them are recorded now takes me three times as long to build if I'm filming. That's right. Definitely because at least. Yeah. It takes so much longer to build. But the thing I love about love about that though is it is a timeless thing. And I you know that I there's sort of a nice thing a nice feeling of thinking like maybe one day one of my kids will build one of these things.
01:05:19
Speaker
And I'll be able to explain it to them. You know, who knows? You never know. Yeah. So, Keith, I hope that answers your question. I guess if you know working with S4S, just rough cutting it to length, probably you don't have to wait at all if you're servicing wood like we are. Yeah.
01:05:34
Speaker
It's good to wait a day or so in between. And stick out of wood. Yeah. Yeah, we put little half inch by half inch stickers between everything. Keith is actually, he's going to come on the podcast in about three weeks, I think. Sneezed to me. He's a great guy. I'll be recording a video with him tonight at six o'clock.
01:05:56
Speaker
Thursday. We were talking a little while ago. He said, yeah, I'm trying to pick out beer for tonight. One big happy family. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think we hit this next question a little bit on the 20 questions. Yeah. Bridger 1 1 0 1 on Instagram. He wants to know what's your preferred type of door inset overlay half overlay. I like inset inset is the nicest. Yeah. I like inset inset doors and inset drawers.
01:06:26
Speaker
Yes. Agreed. I think, I think we all like that. I mean, we appreciate the craft of doing it possibly in like an ultra modern piece and overlay, a full overlay might work design wise, you know, to get a big flat slab kind of look. But in general, if you're talking to woodworkers, we're going to want to, you know, flex a little bit and do the nicest, hardest.
01:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, John made a good point that for shop wise, overlay doors. Oh, yeah, it'll be whatever's on hand. Well, exactly. Depends on who's built it. Yeah. We don't want to look over there. What's funny, though, and I think that see one of the comments that kept coming up in the video I did of the shop tour here is how nice the shop is.
01:07:14
Speaker
And I think that even with over what do you call them overlay overlay doors still looks good. Yeah, but the idea of
01:07:26
Speaker
Excuse me. The idea of having a shop that looks nice and looks organized, especially in this time of Instagram and YouTube and everything else, helps because you're almost creating a space that the viewer would want to be in. So I try to think of that. And if you go back to like the very first videos I did, I mean, they're just the shop is horrible.
01:07:55
Speaker
So the cabinets are cabinets that were once in the house of their birch. Pretty much, pretty much like that. And I used to, I used to clean my brushes, my, my paint brushes to get some of the paint out. I would just rub them on the doors to get, you know, the excess paint out. So I look at those videos, those old videos in the shop. It's just a disaster because I didn't care. Now it's nicer to, I, I like being in the nicer shop. It's more
01:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we spend a lot of time here. Sure, we do. So, you know, you like to be around nice things. So, yeah, for me, I mean, it took me, I don't know, two days to build that sanding court. And it's nice. Yeah, I mean, the the wood, it's nice wood. And but it's not really about that. We have the wood laying around. It's everywhere. We burn more wood than some people buy in a year.
01:08:48
Speaker
The cutoffs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's the best way to get rid of scrap. What you don't feel is bad. Yeah. Throwing it in a can is just like a sin. We give away. I mean, we give away. We'll have a guy come and pick up six 55 gallon barrels for cutoffs. I can see it because what are you going to do? And there's a like you said, you have to purge occasionally and you really do. Otherwise the walls just close. You can't save everything. And once you get rid of it, you don't even remember you had it.
01:09:16
Speaker
And it's more work to try and figure out how to use a piece that you have than it is to just pull in another board, mark it up and cut it. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times because we don't use opaque finishes 99% of the time, it doesn't match. You know, we want to take it from the same batch of of wood where it's coming from a few trees and and the tone and the grain and everything is going to be a better match for the entire project for the suite of pieces that will go with it.
01:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It makes total sense. Yeah, so I'd rather take a little extra time and, you know, make it nice. I was going to say one other thing. So like the shop, a good shop that's well maintained in my view, because I'm thinking about my shop. I was thinking about myself. I'm starting to consider my shop like a productive
01:10:12
Speaker
man cave. Yeah. So it's a place I want to be, but it's a place where things actually get done. So I'm going to you. Everybody knows I'm sort of renovating it a little bit and pushing walls out here and there. And the goal is to really make it a place that I really want to be in. And when somebody comes in there, they're like, wow, this is really a good place to be. Well, it's like being at the Norm Abram Shop. We all started by watching that show. Absolutely. 100 percent. Yeah.
01:10:41
Speaker
Well, I mean, not to spend too much time, but if you look around, you see, we have a witty dartboard over there. We all bought and made wooden darts.
Workshop Ambiance and Happiness at Work
01:10:51
Speaker
Yeah, we didn't know that. There was what, twenty four or twelve? Yeah, twelve and a half. You know, we have music playing in here, you know, all day long. We all see our Scully board. We have Scully on the pavement here.
01:11:06
Speaker
So we, as Jess said, we spent a lot of time here and we can relax here. We have the extension outside, which is the deck on the back that the guys generously, you know, came and helped me build because it's actually stuck to the back of my house. But we spend a lot of time there. Sure. And so it's really this is a home away from home for everybody.
01:11:29
Speaker
That's nice. Yeah, it is. It's like that commercial. I don't know. I may have said this before. What is it, like happy cows make good cheese? I don't remember saying that, but it makes sense. Yeah, it's the same thing. You know, if you're miserable at work, the work is going to be affected by it. It'll be reflective of that. You know, guys, we sound like politicians now because we way beyond what the question was. All right, let's let's move on. Don't forget to add the Southern accent.
Overrated Woodworking Tools Discussion
01:11:59
Speaker
Oh, who's reading it? Me? You did. Okay. This is from Vance Edwards on YouTube. What do y'all think is the most overrated woodworking tool? Overrated. I'll let John answer the first question. That's hard. That's a hard question. We actually discussed this before this and we came up with one. Now I remember, yeah.
01:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard. It's kind of a personal... Wow. Overrated. Yeah, usually if you've had a bad experience with something, it'll probably... I would have dropped these pieces on the table and seen me just sort of spark something.
01:12:37
Speaker
Oh, cap glue caps? The shop bot. Glue bot. The glue bot. The fast cap glue bot. I don't use a glue bot. Us either. No, we don't need more. We've all used it in times of war. I have my own glue bottle. Woodworking professional.
01:12:52
Speaker
like a generic sort of bottle. It's like a, yeah, it's just like a generic bottle. It's a soft plastic and it squeezes nicely. No, this was the one that had the, yeah, I've seen people using that for years. It's like a gravy bowl. I was about to say, it's the same principle of the fat separator before. I got the gravy. Yeah.
01:13:14
Speaker
I've had an issue, the cap always leaks air and then you squeeze it and the glue doesn't want to come out. I threw them all away, I had a couple of them, they're gone. I think I've pared my shop down to everything that I don't think is good or usable.
01:13:39
Speaker
Yeah, we had a hard time. We don't even have one of these. I want to look for one. I mean, there's a lot of silly. There's a lot of silly things in the some of these woodworking catalogs. I will. I will. Some of this woodpecker stuff.
01:14:00
Speaker
I don't need a $200 speed square. It's not a woodworking tool, in my opinion. That's for framing. These depth gauges for the table saw.
Shop Tools and Maintenance Issues
01:14:11
Speaker
Oh, the blocks and things like that. Well, you know, it has two sides with a little like it's like a combo square that you can sit and measure the height of the blade.
01:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't use that. Yeah. For me, I mark a line and I'll bring the blade up to the line. And then I'll test it. So if I'm making a lab joint, it might look like it's on the line, but I'm like, let me test it real quick. Yeah. And then I might have to lower or raise it or whatever. Yeah. It's it's funny. There's always going to be a difference between somebody who's doing something every single day like
01:14:38
Speaker
on our throat plates before we got the saw stop, they were just homemade, you know, shop made throat plates that were made out of wood that you raise the bleed through. Yeah. And so on the underside, I would have marked the depth of, let's say, a common thing like
01:14:55
Speaker
you know, a dado or something in a style and rail. So that's where it's always there in place of those depth blocks. It's just a pencil on the throat plate. Then I raise up the blade, turn, put the throat plate back in. And, you know, so there's really no need for those.
01:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of the big woodworking catalogs that are full of things that I don't need, that I just don't need. And anything that you don't need is in your way.
01:15:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's what happens. I mean we're in a limited footprint here Every day almost we're thinking about it in one form or another like how do we rearrange this? Where do we stick this? You could see the big Sanders shoved it kind of out of the way there. Yeah out of disrepair again What about a performance We had one. Yeah, you didn't like it or I
01:15:55
Speaker
Too much deflection because of the open end. Okay. Wait, I so I had the 25 to I used to have the The two drum 25. Oh really you need something bigger than 25. Well
01:16:11
Speaker
See, we were thinking about getting rid of this and now we're thinking we're going to repair it. Well, that's why I saw this for sale. Sorry. Yeah. I think on Instagram. So the the bearings are I mean, I guess you call them bearings. They're like these bronze bearings on the drum. They first one went out and now the other one went out because I guess the first one was messed up first. So we're going to replace the drum and see what happens and probably try and keep it. We're going to give Barry another chance. Barry Sander.
01:16:38
Speaker
I mean, in theory, it's a 38 inch dual drum sander. It should be, you know, an asset to the shop. But we got it. We replaced the feed belt motor. I mean, Jeff and I had this thing apart one day.
01:16:55
Speaker
down to thing we didn't even know what we were doing yeah um i think we put more into it than we had than we even paid for it yeah we bought it really inexpensively otherwise we probably would have just set out on the curb by now because it's been frustrating one piece or one element goes after the other it was probably used hard yeah before you got it i think that's it i mean they said they didn't really use it but
01:17:20
Speaker
But I don't think that took care. I think, yeah, having sat for a long time. I don't think Blaisdale used it. I think whoever had it before Blaisdale probably used it. Because I mean, I was good friends with everybody over at Blaisdale. And I would go there. And I never saw. There was. So at Blaisdale you had Bruce. You had Jerry. Jerry passed away about a year ago. Yeah. And then you had Al. Yeah, Jerry was a super nice guy. Yeah. What a sweetheart of a guy.
01:17:48
Speaker
And then you had Al who was a much older gentleman and he would just kind of tinker around and do some things that Bruce Wanted done some things for clients, but they that wasn't that wasn't a wood shop that was humming at all Yeah, no, he said he we like sand some skateboard tops and things like that They had they had the sandpaper like one foot on one side. They didn't even I could see that
01:18:12
Speaker
I think it was like a snowball effect when that bearing went. It set off a chain reaction to all these other areas. And we didn't know enough about the machine. Yeah. And I've heard from a couple of other people that have had similar experiences with the Woodmaster that, you know, the customer service just horrible.
Job Pricing and Handling Construction Issues
01:18:31
Speaker
Is is Performax customer service any good? I used to have one and I gave it to my friend Anthony over at Real Antique Wood for his for his home shop.
01:18:42
Speaker
It was too big for my shop and he did some work and I just got a little jet for what I do. And that works pretty good. But I thought it was a pretty strong machine at the time.
01:18:53
Speaker
We never really needed it. I mean, we pushed that machine past what it was meant to do. And so I don't think we ever faulted it for maybe not doing anything more. Yeah, I mean, we put like 1,000 board feet of white oak through it. That's right. What kind of what the newspaper probably 120 maybe 150 and and yeah, 150 and 220 maybe.
01:19:22
Speaker
Was it double drum? Just the single 1632. I like a drum sander. That's one of the tools that I would probably use more, not because I'm buying most of my wood S4S, that I use more than a planer. I love just being able to bring something down to an exact thickness and
01:19:47
Speaker
take the blade marks off of something. It's just a nice tool. Yeah, that's what we were kind of hoping with this. Yeah, it's it's been real hit and miss, because we're constantly having to learn audio, like sort of idiosyncrasies of this particular machine. It's not a time saver that it needs to not yet. Right. Yeah. Yeah. At times it's been when we did that big kitchen. Yeah. If it was brand new, maybe. But I think there's just
01:20:14
Speaker
We've been chasing it. We've been chasing all the worn out parts. That's a frustrating thing because your day completely changes in a matter of seconds. This is gonna be, this will be done by 11 or whatever. At 11 you're still trying to figure out what's wrong with it. Yes, yes.
01:20:33
Speaker
Yeah, so now we got the, so we ordered the new bronze bushings, we get them in, then we come to find out, well the drum, the hole that the bushing goes in in the drum has been like totally reamed out and it's a loose fit. So not only do we wait for those to show up to find that out, now we have to order a new drum, we have to wait another, whatever it's gonna be, five days or something for the...
01:20:55
Speaker
You've drawn the show up. You might want to just get a small one just to have here when this one just to keep you being able to move. Yeah. Well, we decided that we're going to fix it. Give it its 15th chance. See how it works. And if it doesn't work, we're just going to. Yeah, there's so many ways. Yeah, I'd love to get a wide belt sander, but. Very expensive.
01:21:21
Speaker
All right. So, uh, I don't know if we answered your question there, Vance, but, uh, overrated. Yeah. The wood, the glue bot, glue bot. Yeah. And anything that really doesn't do what it advertises to do. Yeah. Something that's, um, costs more than it's worth. So, um, Barry Conrad on Instagram, he asks us, do you charge by the hour or price jobs complete?
01:21:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean if you've listened to the podcast we've talked about our pricing structure we we break down time and material And give that directly to the client. Yeah, I think He might be inferring do we have this running tab? And then we give it to the client at the end of the job and say well it took us 124 hours
01:22:11
Speaker
That would be glorious. Yeah, you know if we if any woodworker could do that It's we do figure out the job based on the hours and and present it before the job but if we Tell the clients can take us a hundred hours and they agree to pay us for a hundred hours if it takes us 150 hours That's on us. Yes. Is that the same for you job bid a job. So If I'm building a piece of furniture, I'll say this is what it's going to be
01:22:40
Speaker
And then no matter what, I never asked for a penny more. That's it. Yeah, that's that's your word. Yeah, it just doesn't matter. You know, if something took a little bit longer or the lumber was a little bit more expensive or something bad went, you know, something went wrong with the finish and I had to redo it. Yeah, they don't care. I think we agree 100% just on principle. That's, that's our responsibility. Yeah, you figured that out before the job and
01:23:09
Speaker
And I think that applies with woodworking and, and furniture making, I think, in construction, it may not because you don't know what you're getting into until you get into a wall, pre existing, you get into a wall, and you're like, Oh, man, this needs to get done too. And, and then I think that I think that the client understands that. But if you, if you say that it's X for this table, then it's pretty clear that it's X for this table, going into a wall or, you know, you never know what you're gonna hit.
Mental Health and Productivity
01:23:39
Speaker
We've
01:23:39
Speaker
Anytime we're going to build something into a home, we'll note that in our contract that, you know, this is dependent on these conditions existing. And if they don't, we'll have to, you know, that makes sense. That's a little bit of a combination of fine woodworking and construction. Yeah.
01:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, we've had jobs with change orders that were like design based. Mostly they are. Yeah. So if that happens, we'll we'll look at the change, come up with the price, submit it to the homeowner and then we'll, you know, they'll remit a payment to make up the, you know, the new balance. Right. The kitchen we just did, like we added glass in places where there weren't glass. What else do we do in the shelves and stuff like that? Yeah.
01:24:29
Speaker
just changes. If it if it has an effect on like our process of, you know, fabrication or whatever, and we have to spend more time, we'll have to charge. But if it doesn't, we're not going to just make up a price to, you know, suit ourselves. Sure. All right, Conrad, I hope that answers your question. Richard.
01:24:53
Speaker
How do I cut off dowels using a pull saw without damaging the workpiece? Matthew, I can't even see. Ciao Ducati. Ciao Ducati on Instagram. I'll tell you what I've been doing. It works great. Is I use a router with a straight bit and I open up the plate. So I made a custom plate for my cordless router with an open end on it.
01:25:19
Speaker
I used to use a dovetail bit in a router that the dovetail bit was broken and then broken or stuck inside the bit. So I had used that for literally more than a decade. But that router finally died. And now my I think it's my rigid cordless router is set up with just a straight bit and opened and plate on the router. And I basically will cut the dowel or the plug
01:25:51
Speaker
maybe a 64th heavy and then get the rest of it with a sanding block. Because especially if you're in the middle of a piece of furniture. So if you're on the edge, yeah, you can get it with the saw. You still may slip, still might cut the veneer. But if you're in the center of a cabinet, it might be hard to sort of bend that blade to get a nice flush cut. With the router, it's fast. It's never failed me.
01:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, I've done that before. The open-ended bass player. It works so good. Yeah, Matthew, write that down too. I think I have a video on Instagram that's got, I don't know, thousands of views from something like that. And that's just one of those, the trick to Instagram is if you can make like an aha moment video, that's also satisfying.
01:26:37
Speaker
they sometimes like Oh, wow, that's easy. And it's satisfying. And, and they just take off and you can get you know, all those views. So tell Matthew like exactly where I could find it just in case he doesn't know if he goes to my YouTube channel and within the neck within the last year I posted a video. I think it's cutting plugs with a router. All right, probably john peters cutting plugs with a router. All right, what's next?
01:27:02
Speaker
So that takes care of mice. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, also they make they make flush cut saws where this there's no set to the teeth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Put some blue tape around it. Yeah. That works. Absolutely. And I've done that. Yeah. I've done it and made the mistake. Use the wrong saw. Yeah. Yeah.
01:27:20
Speaker
I tell you what, that's a frustrating thing because it only takes a second. Yeah. And now you're like, oh, and now you spend all this time trying to make that go away. Yeah. Kind of filler. Am I going to use maybe a little, you know, epoxy and sawdust will take care of this. Yeah. And usually it's cross grain because, you know, you saw in this direction. Yeah. Yeah. The router thing works really good. Yeah. I like that idea. This is a good question. Do you want to read it? Yeah. Yeah. So this is from Far Out Woodworks on Instagram.
01:27:49
Speaker
What is a sign of a good shop to work in to gain your education?
01:27:54
Speaker
This goes back again to your origin stories. Also neatness and people getting along, you know, people getting along. Uh, if there's like an aggravation, an obvious aggravation in the air, it's not an environment you want to be in. You're not going to last long there. Um, it's not a good thing. So try to find something else. Yeah. Yeah. I say talk to some of the guys and see how long they've been there. So that's a good, uh, that's a good one. If it says turnover, then you notice something.
01:28:23
Speaker
Something going on. And a lot of guys will talk. You go into the lunch room or you go into the break and they'll say, such a dick. Yeah. And then you know that there's there's a problem somewhere. If you go on the guy's name's Tom. Yeah, exactly. No, no. If the boss name is Tom in quotation.
01:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, now in the day of social media, check out any social media pages they have, see the work. If you can go actually see it in person, make sure that it's actually good because a lot of people claim to be doing good work when they're really not. Yeah. Yeah. Photoshop here and there.
01:29:03
Speaker
Things look a lot better on camera than they do in person and not even look, feel. That's the thing with furniture. It has to look good and it has to feel good. I expect anybody when they come up to something that I've made to look at it and then touch it and then touch it and that's the telling moment.
01:29:26
Speaker
You know, I'll I'll add to what you guys have said and it's telling that most of the information you guys have given doesn't have anything to do with woodworking but it has to do with the character of the people and the work environment because you're really not going to learn anything
01:29:44
Speaker
If there's not a teacher there, if there's not the pleasant attitude, the nurturing, the giving, the sharing, you know, of course you want to find a shop that's doing work that you're interested in, but you won't learn anything there if they're not willing to teach you. And if you dread going to work every day, that's an awful thing. You're not going to be in the mood. You won't be receptive.
01:30:09
Speaker
We talked about this before about one of the questions was for Manny was asking about mental health. I think mental health is really I don't think a lot of people talk about it might be like a just a kind of a taboo or whatever. But for me,
01:30:29
Speaker
I need to mentally feel good. And that's not always a natural thing. Sometimes I just don't know which way is up. What the hell is going on kind of thing? What helps me is exercise. I'll go for a walk and I'll see the world a little bit clearer place. One thing that if I don't feel mentally good
Craftsmanship and Work Standards
01:30:51
Speaker
about where I am in a project or where I am for whatever reason that day,
01:30:57
Speaker
The way I get out of it is I do the busy work. So there's always work that needs to get done. And so maybe I don't feel confident in that moment to make that design decision or that hardware decision where you're going to cut into the project you're working on.
01:31:13
Speaker
I'll step back from it and I'll do all those things that have to get done. And then that's the thing. It's amazing the difference a day makes. And you hear these tragic stories about somebody did this or somebody did that. And if they could have just walked away for it the next day, because I mean, I'll do the busy work.
01:31:31
Speaker
I come in the next day and I'm a different person and also don't make any decisions in those moments. So that's great advice. You know, just like if you you've got to identify yourself and then just say I'm not I'm just going to do what needs to get done. I'm not going to do anything else. Like my neighbor with the lawnmower. There you go. Write a nice little note.
01:31:51
Speaker
Yeah, we're not all perfect every day. So some days you step back and say, you know what, clean the shop, sand the piece that you've been putting on, you know, anything like that. Then the next day you come in and you're ready to do.
01:32:05
Speaker
Yeah, you're right, because there's always so much little stuff to do that you can easily not do. You can overlook, you can step over it. That's the best time to do something like that. And it's incredible how you can be 180 degrees a different person the following day.
01:32:22
Speaker
It's, it's just, it blows my mind. And that's like advice I'll give to my kids. You know, don't don't make rasp the shit rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp, rasp
01:32:51
Speaker
We've all done and I I worked by myself for almost 15 years and you do have those days so It's important to have a network like you could always reach out to us. Oh, it's nice to know that yeah and say I need a hand with this or I just need to tell you about this or can somebody come over to my shop and you know Sit me down
01:33:17
Speaker
Right, yeah, you know that's important to know there are people there for you 100% yeah 100% I mean we've all had those days here. It's like listen. I'm going home. Yeah
01:33:29
Speaker
I've screwed up this many times. You get into a funk some days and you just can't work. Go home. And that's the best thing that you can do because anything you get done will probably be wrong. And then that's going to be that much more work. The next day. So it's good for you and it's good for the client too. I'd like to think that most of the decisions we make are for the benefit of the client. Sure, of course.
01:33:56
Speaker
It may seem on the surface like it's about us like oh, you know, you had a bad day you want to go home Well, no, it's because the client deserves our best work. So yeah, you're not at your best you go home Yeah, I think that would workers hold their work to a very high standard. I think they really do and I think you have to but uh, I don't know of everybody
01:34:19
Speaker
If everybody in every field does do that, I mean, I guess you have that in everything, though, because I'll have a I have a friend who's an electrician. And he I see him as an artist, the way he the wires go into the box and everything is done. Yeah, it can be it could be anything. It could be
01:34:40
Speaker
all your work can be done like an artist. You know, you just got to care about what it is. You have to care about what you're doing. Yeah. And we do. I mean, we know you do as well. Thank you. I mean, I think that's why we hit it off.
Impact of Quality Tools and Large Retailers
01:34:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's important to beliefs.
01:34:55
Speaker
That's the thing. It's the core belief in that you're trying to make something beautiful and timeless. So 20 years from now, whatever you're made will still be relevant. So you're not making something
01:35:13
Speaker
for whatever reason, you're making something that will last a time. What's funny is we've all been doing this for so long and I think with every job we almost feel like the client has entrusted us with this job, this piece of furniture, these cabs that are going in their house and we almost feel like we have to validate their trust in us by
01:35:43
Speaker
performing to this certain level. Absolutely. And you're there. You I'm sure that all three of you and myself are judging ourselves harder than Oh yeah, I was gonna say that for our own worst critics. I have learned not to point anything out. Nothing gets passed us that nobody else sees. Yeah, sure. That's the way it goes. So
01:36:05
Speaker
um you want to end with this last one no let me just yes i hope that answered your question uh question far out wood works is that
01:36:15
Speaker
Take your time in the shop and don't be afraid to leave a quit because it's not it's not right for you. Yeah, that's a good, good advice. Yeah. See if you can, you know, go in for a day or a couple of days and feel it out. I've known guys that are really high end cabinet makers that did videos and they're really dicks to work for. Yeah, it's just that's the way they are.
01:36:40
Speaker
and they're not gonna share their secrets willingly. You know, that's the thing. I almost feel like we're in an age of no secrets because there's so much information on the internet. That's a good point. You can't do anything without somebody seeing you. Yeah. So I mean, if you want to know something, it was funny because a friend of mine who's a house painter, when I started making videos eight or 10 years ago,
01:37:08
Speaker
He said, well, there's a lot of secrets you're going to be given out. I said, oh, I don't think there's going to be any secrets in any, you know, going forward, because if you have some knowledge, you can somebody it's not. It's you didn't think of this on your own. You know what I mean? If you've thought of it, somebody else has thought of it. And if you don't put it out there, somebody else will. So you might as well just share it. You almost know the question to ask.
01:37:33
Speaker
If you know the question, the answer is there. But it's good for everyone because the better everyone else gets, then it raises the bar. And then you're not just, oh yeah, these guys are carpenters, they're just going to slap together some... I agree, 100%. People are looking at work with a much more critical eye.
01:37:52
Speaker
which set you apart from, you know, we get lumped in with the guy that's just slapping it together. Yeah. So if everyone gets a little better from the home store, I can build that for you to run to Lowe's first.
01:38:08
Speaker
Rich, why don't you read this list? I shouldn't say that. I feel like that's getting a little snobby. There's nothing wrong. We're very guilty. There's nothing wrong with going to the home store. As long as you're honest about... Right. That's our biggest thing. Your expectations. If you make your drawer boxes out of plywood or you buy your doors, as long as you're honest with your clients, that's fine. But just don't misrepresent what you're doing. Exactly. We've tried to clear that up a couple of times.
01:38:37
Speaker
Think one thing that woodworkers new woodworkers should really focus on is take I don't think that's my phone It's not like my computer. Okay. Good. I just didn't want to be guilty of doing the phone thing YouTube comments So I think that I forget what I was saying Something
01:39:02
Speaker
I think woodworkers should take the time and really search out for a lumber supplier where they live because the choices that you're going to get and the prices that you're going to spend are going to be much better than what's available at the home store. And the quality.
01:39:23
Speaker
Yeah, we're a good example of that because we get our stuff shipped in from Pennsylvania, which just the one state over. But it's not like we can just go into the store and pick up a board. We have to figure out what we need. There's a minimum board footage order. So we can't just say, yeah, give us 25 board feet of four quarter cherry. That won't come on the truck. Yeah. Three hundred board feet.
01:39:47
Speaker
We got to order 300 board feet. We have to have our ducks in a row. Yeah, but it's worth it. Yeah Yeah, cuz you're getting you're getting the ingredients to make something great, right? Yeah, so it's like buying your lumber at a quality lumber yard or lumber place where you buy lumber and
01:40:05
Speaker
is analogous for woodworking as a baker going to a place to buy their ingredients to pick a cake. You know, you're not going to go to the wah-wah to get your ingredients for a good cake. Yeah, you're not making a gourmet meal from Walmart. Yeah. You might. Walmart? No, I don't know. Yeah, kind of. Walmart's not that bad. I'm not a big fan of Walmart. I would never go into it. I want my own apologies.
01:40:30
Speaker
Walmart's one of the worst companies in the world. I would I will agree with that. I don't I don't Is there one around here? It's funny because I I was approached by Walmart to do videos for their tools and I went to it because Heart, right? Yeah. Yeah. I first of all
01:40:51
Speaker
I just don't, I can't imagine it being any good. They put a lot of people out of business. That's my problem, they put a lot of people out of business and it's all about, it's everything opposite of what we four are doing. How do you say like, hey, I'm John Peters, look, I downgraded all my tools. Yeah, yeah. I went from this good stuff to heart. Was it paying a lot of money?
01:41:13
Speaker
Well, because Walmart, if you if you'd want us to send over four Walmart t-shirts. I couldn't use hard tools. No, I agree. It's like going to Harbor Freight. And I don't have a tool company sponsor. I don't think I have anybody who sponsors my tools. Any sponsors out there?
01:41:34
Speaker
There we go. Step up. I'll get free tools though from time to time. Acme tools will send me some tools, but that's not the tools, that's Acme tools.
01:41:49
Speaker
definitely try to stay with the highest quality that you can afford. Obviously, if you can't afford anything else and you want to get some hard tools, they'll probably get the job done. But if you're going to use them every day, it's like the beauty of the tool sometimes helps the work you're doing.
01:42:12
Speaker
Yeah. Can't paint without brushes. So good brushes. That's right. So I hope we don't want to sponsor you. So don't even try. Which brings us to our last question of the day.
01:42:26
Speaker
I'm beginning to think that this pension thing is an inside joke. Any truth to that? This is from Keith again from Two-Bit Woodworkings. Keith, there's no such thing as a pension. I'm just telling that right now.
01:42:43
Speaker
This was all a joke because the person I used to work for, this Tom character, thought that I didn't want to work for him anymore because I had to live on my wife's big fat pension. But it wasn't true. So
01:43:04
Speaker
He couldn't understand that I just didn't like him, that I just didn't want to work for him anymore. So the story about the pension was just like it is an inside joke between all of us because right now I do need to work. I do need this job and I'm hoping that
01:43:29
Speaker
But no, no, no, seriously. Yes, my wife has a pension. No, it's not a big fat pension. And it's it's nice. It helps us out in times. But I love to work. I love to work with these guys. So.
01:43:44
Speaker
It is an inside joke, but with this guy, Tom, it was just a funny thing with him because he couldn't accept that a fact I told him he made my he made me cringe when I was around him. He used it as saying, oh, he got to live on his wife's big fat pension. So it's a joke, but it's not a joke. Yeah, it's a stretch of the truth. Yeah, that was a good answer. Yeah, good answer.
01:44:12
Speaker
And their responses, those are the sizes. Beer sponsors, tool sponsors, not Ryobi, but any other guys out there, I'll wear it. I think you have something important to say. Oh yes, exactly. So we're going to announce the winner of the giveaway. Exactly. Drum roll. The winner is Action Jackson 508.
01:44:41
Speaker
We had, what, 170 some odd entries. Yeah, pretty good. So yeah, Action Jackson, you're the winner. I'll be reaching out to you via Instagram. Congratulations. Yeah, we'll get it in the mail.
Family Stories and Vermont Lifestyle
01:44:57
Speaker
Yeah. You got to let me know your size. We'll send you a t-shirt. Yeah.
01:45:00
Speaker
And we're working on giveaway number two already. Exactly. Yeah. You know the stuff we don't use anymore. Yeah, that's good stuff. Yeah, with that, we haven't used that at all. Glue bots? No. No. I do have one on. The cookies. There will be no glue bots. The Rockler cookies. The Rockler cookies are next.
01:45:21
Speaker
Yeah, answer in the comments. Do you use bench cookies? Yeah, the bench cookie, yes or no. And not as a hockey puck. I had to make a real effort to use those and then... We tried, we tried. Yeah, we wanted to use them. What do you use them for?
01:45:37
Speaker
Well, so stuff won't slide around. So typically, if you want to maybe sand something, you might put it. Well, if you need to raise something up while you're running around, maybe. Yeah, there you go. I wouldn't trust it. I hang it off the table. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we use these anti-slip mats to sand on. So really, we don't have much of a use.
01:45:59
Speaker
Do you use, I call them nailers for finishing two sides of something? Yeah, in fact, there's other nailers up there. We just did old staircase. Some pin boards or nail boards. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I just got, I have maybe like two inch blocks with a nail in the center of each block, or screw actually, inch and five-eighths screw. One thing I was going to comment on is I really like your clamp rack because it's simple. Yeah. It doesn't take up a lot of space. No.
01:46:28
Speaker
And I mean, it definitely works with the Bessie. I guess it works with the Jorgensen, too. Yeah. But I'm probably going to rip that off for sure in the new shop space. Yeah, that's probably make a video. I came up with this idea. I just came to me one day. For you, John. Yeah, that was part of not our most recent sort of overhaul, but.
01:46:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was what at the end of last year, the beginning of this year, we kind of like ripped apart the entire shop. Yeah, it was a step up from the first one was just a flat board.
01:47:04
Speaker
Well, I noticed a big difference in the shop from the first time I came here, maybe eight or nine months ago to the second time. You just put the new mats and everything was definitely much more streamlined and organized. What I particularly like about that is there's not a lot of space in between those clamps. And it looks like just a simple
01:47:28
Speaker
L with some supports in it. That's it. And I mean, you could you couldn't I guess it's made of plywood. Yeah, plywood or some old piece. Yeah, that's actually like Windsor one one by. OK. Yeah, that was, you know, we've ripped apart the shop and that was something else. And now it's that.
01:47:45
Speaker
So a piece of Baltic birch plywood, if you want to make it look a little pretty or whatever, that would look nice. Definitely going to do that. Yeah. I cut those on the dado saw. Just set up a, um, on this dado saw on the, no, actually old Unisaw. Oh yeah. The old, the five more sides. Did you use a, uh, uh, a sled when you did that? Yep. Okay. Yeah. And just like move the fence over, uh, whatever that distance is inch and a half or something every time.
01:48:13
Speaker
Yeah, you see, you know, I messed up on some, we had to make some modifications. This one's a little different and over there is a little different. But it's nice because you got them all there and they're not taking up a ton of space and my shop is smaller. Yeah. And so I'm thinking, you know, I want to have all my clamps and I'm also going to
01:48:32
Speaker
go through my clamps because I've got a lot of bar clamps that I don't use as much anymore. We just moved all bar clamps out too. I meant to say pipe clamps. We had some big pipe clamps. And they get bent. To move the sander here we've wedged them underneath there. They have a big curve to them.
01:48:52
Speaker
So what's our thought now on the beer of the week? Oh, yeah. We've gotten to that point. Yeah, I think it was very good. I like it. Yeah, it was really an Indian pale ale guy. I didn't think it was going to be. I was associated that with very bitter beer. And this one wasn't wasn't that kind of in the middle of the road. Yeah. You a convert? No. Give me a Schmidt Schlitz wrangled.
01:49:15
Speaker
I don't think half of those even exist anymore. This was all right. Yeah, that's a good beer. No, it was good. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I mean, I was really in the mood for a nice beer, too. I mean, I was getting thirsty. Yeah, you were drinking a beer before Johnny McGonig. But I said I would have had a glass of water. We have some nice cool water. Everybody didn't have a glass. There you go. So I had to pop that beer open. Sometimes there's nothing like a beer. Yeah. What about you, Jeff? You're more of the connoisseur.
01:49:44
Speaker
I liked it. I liked the California, the West Coast style sort of IPAs. Yeah, it was good. Yeah. John, you know, usually the the bringer of the beer has the last word. I'm going to say I like it just always. It's always good. It's pretty simple. I think it's priced fair.
01:50:07
Speaker
It's you know, it's 11 bucks for a six pack talking about a decent beer. That's what you're going to pay and No surprises with this one, you know, sometimes You you'll go for some other beers and they're just you know There's a little funding or something where with this one if I don't know what to get if I don't want to take a risk I know I'm gonna like it
01:50:29
Speaker
Oh, cool. So all good. Four thumbs up on the Lagunitas. Yeah. Petaluma near my old stomping grounds. I did live out in San Francisco for about a dozen years. Yeah, you've been around. You got a cool background. I know you're an English teacher. You don't want to know.
01:50:44
Speaker
If there's a job, Rob's done it. That's right. Todd English, Todd history. Oh, it's so cool though. I think that's great. Yeah. Yeah. There's some wild stories about that. He was a stripper. That was only a couple of years ago. Yeah. I liked that Lord of the Flies analogy though. Yeah. Yeah. Lord of the Flies was such a, such a good book and my kids, so I got three boys. How old now?
01:51:09
Speaker
My oldest is 23. Then I got one who's going to turn 21 in December and I've got a 19 year old. And we we bought a house up in Vermont shortly. I think I think my oldest might have been in fifth grade when
Cultural References and Personal Connections
01:51:24
Speaker
we did that. And we had this house for about seven or eight, maybe 10 years. I don't know. And it really allowed them to be boys.
01:51:33
Speaker
I literally would just give them a pack of matches and say, go get a flyer. And so they would do that. They would go fish in. And there's a in the river, there was like a clay bottom in this one area, like really real clay. And they would take that clay and smear it all over themselves. And I got a picture of them and they're like in the river, like with sticks. And I swear it looks like right out of Lord of the Flies. All you need is a pig's head. Yeah.
01:52:03
Speaker
Yeah, and the conch. Yeah, that's right. The conch. I tried to reread that book probably about two years ago. I just, I couldn't get through it. Oh really? Just the writing was, it just feels so antiquated. Yeah, it's from like 1950s. Yeah, it's garbage.
01:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, I read it a while ago, but I know that they made, I think, two movies from it. They did. One, I think, was maybe OK. And then I remember trying to watch one. This seems like yesterday. It was probably more than 20 years ago, though. But they used an Alf reference. Oh, yeah. And I thought, how could they just do that? Like, it's a classic piece of literature. Yeah. It was like they're standing around the fire or something. They mentioned like they wish they were watching Alf. And I was like,
01:52:47
Speaker
Did that just happen? It's like a standard in every school across the country. Yeah, Catcher of the Rye. Catcher of the Rye. Yeah, we had to read those. I like Catcher of the Rye. That was another book. Yeah, we often reference the rabbits. If you mess up, we're going to take you to see the rabbits. Is that from Catcher in the Rye? No, that's from Mice and Men. Oh, Mice and Men. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good one. I get confused. Yeah.
01:53:12
Speaker
Mice and men's a good one. I'm gonna go see the rabbits Lenny Bunch of high browser So that's that's it for our podcast yeah This was a good long one
01:53:30
Speaker
Yeah, I enjoyed it. But usually we run one hour like on the nose with no, we don't even look at the clock. Yeah, I was good. I had even more questions for John. So we're going to have to save those. There you go. Totally. We love it. Yeah, fun. So next week we have our second guest. That's Will Fagan. You probably know him a little better as Wild Willy's Woodshop on Instagram. What will he call? Rich calls him Wet Willy.
01:53:58
Speaker
so
Preview of Next Guest and Podcast Dynamics
01:53:59
Speaker
send your questions in yeah this is great i can't wait to do it again good i think it's a great addition to everything you guys are doing it's just awesome yeah it's fun yeah i mean i look forward to it every week yeah yeah but if you look forward to it and it's good yeah you know and you could tell it i mean i i like i said i've been working in the shop doing a lot of
01:54:22
Speaker
things where I can listen to something. Yeah. And I've listened to every episode. It's just, it's fun. You know, I, I particularly like the gripe of the week. I had to agree with the litter. Oh my God. Talk about like
01:54:38
Speaker
maintaining your cool when somebody throws something out the window. Well, people that do what we do, you're going to have a sensibility of, you know, preservation and ecology. That's always going to rub you the wrong way. I mean, I don't know how somebody can do that. Yeah. It's just selfish. People are selfish. You know, it's the same reason someone goes from the left lane to exit all the way to the right. That's the slope across. Yeah. The jersey scrape.
01:55:01
Speaker
That sounds like a gripe. Yeah, I got a lot. Next time we're gonna give you the gripe for the week. I'll do it.
Closing Remarks and Thanks
01:55:13
Speaker
Not enough weeks in the year for all the grapes we got. That's true. Yeah. Boy, if you could hear us the other 39 hours of the week.
01:55:24
Speaker
Well, cool. All right. Ciao. Goodbye, everybody. Stay safe. All right. That was fun, man. I enjoyed it.