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Trestle Table Talk
150 Plays2 months ago
This week Jeff and Jon discuss a recent video shoot, Maker Camp upcoming, and more.
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Transcript
Sponsorship Introductions
00:00:01
todays_craftsmen
The American Craftsman Podcast is sponsored by Hayfla. Hayfla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture making industries. From hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, wood glue, shop carts, and everything in between. Exclusive product lines such as looks, LED lighting, and Slido door hardware ensure that every project you create is built to last. Learn more at hayfla.com.
00:00:25
todays_craftsmen
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00:00:51
todays_craftsmen
Located in Kansas, Ridgecar by tools provides high quality products with outstanding customer service at a fair price. What are you cutting? shame Enjoy the show. chain
Engagement in Video vs. Audio Formats
00:01:07
todays_craftsmen
All right. Welcome back to the show. Our second video podcast. I've got a couple of years. Yeah. the Last one. Yeah. I don't know if those are on top of our you know, did we get people? Did we pull people away from the audio only? Or is it 500 on top of what we usually get? So I have no idea. Be good if it was on top. Yeah, that would be or at least some. Did you see the flashing? I just saw. it Yeah, I don't know what that is. Yeah, that was one of the comments. Yeah. ah Yeah, you get a better view of the office now. You could see the old ah linoleum floor.
Office Redesign Inspired by 'Mad Men'
00:01:45
todays_craftsmen
What so I texted Jeff I think shortly after the last podcast and we said we really would be fun to have a design meeting and go over this space and we didn't have time to do that yet but It might be fun to watch the ah just an episode or two of Mad Men just to see some of that stuff not that you want to do Mad Men in here but because obviously you want to have something that represents some of the cabinets that you make yeah some of the hardware that's available and things like that. But
00:02:21
todays_craftsmen
I don't know, just take a look. have Have you ever seen any of the Mad Men series? I think I've seen i've i've seen clips, but and I haven't watched it. One of my favorite one of my favorite series. I heard it's good. Just really...
00:02:35
todays_craftsmen
just a very interesting time period. And it is like a history lesson because it takes you, you know, through the Vietnam War, through the advent of television, as opposed to radio and magazines, because that's where all the it's an average, it's a show based in advertising.
00:02:52
todays_craftsmen
And, you know, Kennedy's assassination. It's very cool. So I'm actually, I may actually watch that again. But it would be fun to really do this place over because it's got tall ceilings. So you could put some big artwork in here to do with some lighting. And that would be a ah fun project. So maybe we'll meet.
Creating a Showcase Office Space
00:03:17
todays_craftsmen
I don't know. We have to meet before we shoot the next podcast. Yeah.
00:03:22
todays_craftsmen
and maybe Maybe make that a focus and really kind of. Now, are you thinking mostly built ins? How about any freestanding furniture? I was thinking mostly cabinetry. Yeah.
00:03:37
todays_craftsmen
and I just say that because i I thought maybe one like console, maybe like a eight foot long, just bank of drawers, like three, nine drawers all together, kind of floating on something. It could be a cool veneer piece, really cool mid century modern piece. And it could even be a piece that's for sale. Yeah, theoretically, anything in here, if it's not built in, could be for sale.
00:03:59
todays_craftsmen
yeah Yeah, Rob and I had you know had the idea that you know one day if we had like a big window there, you could have something you know like a little... What do they call that? Not a showroom. It's like a show. it's Yeah, but like a window where you had a storefront, where you had like a piece that was you know people could see as they walk by and it would be for sale. Not that the market here is... Yeah, well, you never know. yeah I mean, this whole area may change. I don't know. Yeah.
00:04:26
todays_craftsmen
um But when when we had the gallery, we sold so many paintings from our windows. We had probably 15 feet of windows and we had lights on timers that went off around midnight or something like that. And it was always a big part of like, okay, what's going to be in the window? And you would get a call, oh, that painting in the window, whatever, cause I come by and see it.
00:04:50
todays_craftsmen
So like you said, it's not really, you probably don't have the clientele looking by. Maybe not yet. Not yet. But still, it it might be nice. It might actually, as long as you're not worried about inviting like a problem. It would have to be like, yeah, like bulletproof glass. Yeah, it's gonna say.
00:05:11
todays_craftsmen
But you can also have a ah like a kiosk.
Selling Strategies Through Display Windows
00:05:15
todays_craftsmen
So let's let's say this was the kind of area where you had walked by. Then you could have just a slideshow going of all your different projects. Yeah. In the window. Yeah. So we had something like that for a while. The TV would be gone. Yeah. Yeah. Keensburg is in Red Bank. Yeah. I saw a thing ah a ah a real and it was like a guy You know, and and the caption was like, oh, my buddy just got like ah got finessed or something on Facebook Marketplace and he bought like a TV, but it was from like a ah Arby's and all it showed was the Arby's menu. That's historical. Somebody would have this TV and it would just be pictures of cabinets. Yeah, we we used a um I forgot what we used, but we did do that with ah like a just a slideshow of different things available.
00:06:08
todays_craftsmen
That didn't do as well. I thought that that would do better for the business. What really did was good for the business was just always having fresh windows. So every two weeks, we would rotate the R around, maybe even more than that, you know, as that was like the whole thing is just kind of keep the whole thing exciting. Because especially in the Red Bank area, it's a major ah restaurant town. Oh, yeah. That's what it is. People go to Red Bank just to walk around.
00:06:36
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, they go to just walk around and have um have coffee, but i I wouldn't want to be a retailer in Red Bank because you have to you have to sell a lot of merchandise to cover that rent. The rents, when when we left,
00:06:53
todays_craftsmen
our rent was through the roof and it was nothing compared to what you'd pay on Broad Street. ah Yeah, you could pay 30 grand on Broad Street, easy. It's insane. it's real I mean, just to cover just to cover your rent and your lights. I mean, I don't know. It's it's not for me and I don't miss having that that commercial space at all because the rent and then just Anytime you got a
Challenges in Red Bank
00:07:20
todays_craftsmen
commercial space, there's somebody can get their hand in your pocket. Yep. ah We need to do this or you need to have, you know, whatever it is. So we some kind of a headache. And and then you don't have it here. But in Red Bank, they, um they made the parking really, really difficult. When we first moved in,
00:07:39
todays_craftsmen
They were ah supposedly just about to break ground for, ah ah I think, a four-level parking garage right across the street from where our business was. And ah somebody shot it down, and it just never happened. And as you know, trying to find a parking spot in Red Bank is is a total headache. yeah So I don't go. I haven't been to Red Bank.
00:08:03
todays_craftsmen
I used to go there every day when I would work there. I've been to Red Bank less than five times since i since so we closed that business. We went to a show at the Basie a couple years ago. Even that can be hard to find. That can be hard. Because fine White Street, is that's the main parking, yeah White Street. But depending on what time you go, everybody's out to dinner, you're not finding parking.
00:08:28
todays_craftsmen
No, in what I've done, we saw some show recently, well, not recently, maybe two or three years ago now, and we ended up parking, I think, in the TD Bank parking lot, but which ah you could get in trouble for. My eye doctor is right there. Yeah, but I ah feel like after like a certain amount of time, they don't really... Yeah, like if the bank's closed, who cares?
00:08:49
todays_craftsmen
unless you got somebody who's just like a landlord who's just, you know, they haven't. Yeah, they they have a deal worked out with the tow truck guy. That's right. Yeah, exactly.
Woodworking Projects: Trestle Tables and Beds
00:09:00
todays_craftsmen
So Jeff just built a trestle table. Yeah, I walked in. And it's not going to be a project video, but it's kind of a project video. Yeah.
00:09:12
todays_craftsmen
I mean, it's yeah, it's ah we're not we don't show the actual building, but we'll see if I can mess with the color on these um on this camera. We don't go through building it, but it's enough, I think, to show you how you could build it. You know, for sure. It's simple enough.
00:09:33
todays_craftsmen
the The plans are going to be on our website Saturday. And I think anybody anybody halfway decent at Woodworking can build that with the with the help of the plans.
00:09:46
todays_craftsmen
And I think we're just gonna have the plans on there for a limited time, maybe three to four weeks or something. And then eventually, put them for sale and maybe even make a project video around who knows. Yeah. um But there's a few details that we went into. And I think those details are helpful. And also you explain the construction on the video, which I think helps because if you don't know that you use dominoes, you might be thinking, Oh, that's a mortise and tenon joint, right?
00:10:13
todays_craftsmen
So nice big cherry trestle table, I like it. Yeah, it'll be nice to have a nice big table again. Isn't that gonna be nice? Tables, I think, and that's going in your kitchen. Yeah. I think kitchen tables, tiny tables too, but maybe even more kitchen tables have a real um sense of importance in a home. Yeah, because so much happens around a kitchen table, if you think about it, and to have something solid that you can sit at makes the experience ah's just so much better like than a table that, you know, is rickety or something like that. It's just something that
00:10:53
todays_craftsmen
You can put your elbows on, you can put a drink down and just having that big expansive space, you know, like so over the last couple of years as the as I've been working on the kitchen and not having a big surface like that, like, you know, you get to Christmas time, you got a wrap presence.
00:11:11
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, ah do it on the floor. You don't have another option, you know, you need four feet by, you know, four feet by three feet or something to do stuff like that. Or even just putting something down, you know, you come into the kitchen, you got to put a whole arm load of crap down. Need a spot to put it. Yeah, absolutely. I it's funny you talk about wrapping Christmas presents. I mean, I guess I still do that a little bit. But back in the day with four kids, it was like a job.
00:11:39
todays_craftsmen
Oh, yeah. And I can't imagine not doing it on a table like trying to wrap Christmas presents on the on the floor. ah I mean, Laurel would do it, too. We would. I'm actually pretty good at wrapping Christmas presents. I like it. Yeah, I don't do the bows and everything. Laurel does. Laurel does that. I just do the wrapping, cut everything with a razor blade. It's ah it's very like akin to woodworking, I feel like. Yeah. And you got to make sure you get all your folds in the right spot, nice and crisp.
00:12:09
todays_craftsmen
That's our next project video. yeah but You know, the Japanese take gift wrapping very serious. There's like a, there's a name for it. I don't know what it's called. Well, are are they the inventors of origami?
00:12:21
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, so it makes makes sense. Yeah. I was watching something on ah actually somebody sent me a ah Japanese wood joint on a Instagram message. It's kind of like amazing. And I'm like, I mean, I'm sure you've seen them where they just kind of these interlocking pieces and and they put a key in it. Yeah. the yeah key in there it's like And it like spreads it. How do you build that? Yeah, do that with a chisel.
00:12:47
todays_craftsmen
Yeah. And then, I mean, geez, chisel and a saw, I don't have no idea. Yeah. Well, those temples are like, a you know, a thousand plus years old, some of them. And they're still that's how they were built. I saw the dismantling. Now that you said it I saw the dismantling of a ah ah an old building in Japan.
00:13:06
todays_craftsmen
and they had a lot of very long beams that would be connected. So it might be a 50 foot long beam made of three pieces that had that kind of crazy joint in construction. Interlocking scarf joint kind of thing. Pretty wild. So what else are you working on?
00:13:26
todays_craftsmen
Leilani's out there actually working on the bankette for my kitchen. Been trying to get that knocked out and out of the way. um And the material just arrived today. I don't know if we talked about it last week, building two beds and a trundle bed. um So Leilani built the bed trundle, which is like a drawer box that's like 75 inches wide and like 40 inches deep. One drawer box? So a mattress, twin mattress goes in it. So you roll out.
00:13:54
todays_craftsmen
And so what are you going to put to make it roll out casters, some kind of a caster? So yeah, we have like unidirectional ball bearing casters, and then a 600 pound Accuride slide. Nice. Just to keep everything straight, you know. Are you finishing this piece too? Yeah, so to be painted ah Van Dusen blue, Benjamin Moore.
00:14:18
todays_craftsmen
And you're going to paint it are you going to use the ah the new pressure pot to paint it? ah Maybe I don't know if that'll be enough. Like enough stuff that has to get sprayed because it's pretty sparse, you know, it's just ah some little verticals and then like the bed frame part is mostly just like bed slats, which I bought. um But definitely when the doors show up for my kitchen, I'll be using that pressure pot.
00:14:46
todays_craftsmen
So that might be next week's video. Yeah. Well, next week's maker camp. We're still going to put a video up. I actually, you know, I thought about this. I don't think my doors will be there. Do you want to um I think I should bring the microphones. I mean, it's easy enough.
00:15:02
todays_craftsmen
Do we want to interview a couple of people at mik camp and make that a video? Yeah, we could. I mean, I'm sure Jimmy would talk to us because you could and not shitty better. Yeah. I just ah just mic you both up. Yeah. And you could just ask like you could ask Jimmy, like how this all start.
00:15:20
todays_craftsmen
And then you could just ask other people, you know, what, why do they come, you know, whatever it is. And that way, anybody who has heard of Maker Camp but hasn't been, you get a good sense of it from um and it could be a long video. I mean, it could be as long as I don't whatever. Yeah, we did one last year. So we did a good tradition to. ah We did one last year that focused more following a project around. Yeah. Yeah. But I just mean a video app maker can be good to, have you know, make that a yearly we post that to today's craftsman. Yeah. OK.
00:15:55
todays_craftsmen
Okay, yeah. I remember Rob Bliss and Corey. Rob DeMarco was in it. Yeah, that's when I realized that Bliss and Viz have New England accents. They never dawned on me. They definitely do. Yeah, they never dawned on me until that video. Yeah, they definitely do. It was funny because I was washing my roof on my barn yesterday, which I'll talk a little bit about, but Matt was like, his mind's next. It was a bit of a job.
00:16:23
todays_craftsmen
My barn, i I kind of renovated. I had some really some issues happening with my barn around 1990 or I dealt with them. I had to deal with like some siding. I remember that. I put a new roof on it. And so the roof is only about five years old. And the north side,
00:16:46
todays_craftsmen
just was looking horrible because the north side of any roof is always going to look bad because it doesn't get direct sunlight. Yeah. So you you get your moss growing your lichens and that deteriorates your roof like the lichens actually feed off of your roof. If you've ever on my old roof, I was pulling the lichens off and there was like nothing underneath it. There was no. Yeah. So you don't want you don't want that. You don't want your roof to get super dirty. It'll definitely take away from the lifespan of your roof.
00:17:16
todays_craftsmen
So um I washed it just with 50-50 bleach and water.
Roof Cleaning Video Plans
00:17:23
todays_craftsmen
I've washed my barn before. like ah That's usually the solution I use if I'm going to paint something. Outdoor bleach or just regular bleach? Outdoor. yeah Now, if you have If you have shrubs and things like that that you want to be careful for, then you should wet them down with the hose first. Even that, I think, is a little sketchy. yeah um But I didn't um don't have anything because the water just lands on the like these stones that I have. Is that the street side or the back side?
00:17:49
todays_craftsmen
that's the side that you would see if you're going by my house on. Yeah. um So the back the other side faces south. And it doesn't get any light in the summertime because there's so many trees. Yeah. But it it gets plenty of light in the winter and that side is fine. That side looks completely fine. So that's an easier side to clean because I've got ah a cassette I saw that flash. Yeah, I don't know what's up with that.
00:18:16
todays_craftsmen
I've got ah like a shed dormer on the on the south side of the barn and that has a metal roof so I could actually stand on that roof and and work easily. I don't really like being on a ladder. Yeah, well, and it's a gambrel roof and and the sides are like almost straight. Yeah. They have like a little pitch to them, right? Very little. yeah Very little. Originally, 30 years ago or whatever it was, I roofed that.
00:18:43
todays_craftsmen
and um I didn't roof it last time. ah you know I'm just not comfortable with heights. My feeling is as soon as you become uncomfortable, especially with something like heights, don't do it. Like if you start thinking about it, if you're on a ladder and you start thinking like, wow, this is kind of scary, you shouldn't be on that ladder. yeah That's just how it is. When I was a kid, I used to work for a mason, I would carry brick tongs, I would walk up a ladder with like no hands.
00:19:13
todays_craftsmen
But now, forget it. And then you start to think of the math. You say, OK, I'm saving a couple hundred bucks here. And when I'm lying in the hospital bed, how much am I spending? And then you get the bill. Yeah. So so I worked off the 12 foot step ladder. And that's so comfortable. I forgot all about that thing. Well, I have it whenever you need it. Yeah, no, that's yours. It comes in handy. it comes I'm going to use it again.
00:19:38
todays_craftsmen
I'm going to wash my chimney. Again, the north side of the chimney is all stained. And I'm going to use the bleach, but I thought about using vinegar, because somebody sent me a ah dude named the dude on Instagram said, um Hey, that looks really good, John, but it's not as good for the environment. um Would you ever try vinegar? And I've used vinegar for other like,
00:20:05
todays_craftsmen
water vinegar and a little palm olive is great for washing windows. Yeah, vinegar is just just cleans things really good. It's also good for killing weeds. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was used salt salt and vinegar. Yeah, works really good. ah Laurel.
00:20:22
todays_craftsmen
All right, Laurel will not allow me to use Roundup around the house. I don't think it works any better than the salt and vinegar. Like if you use ah you have to get to do it more often. yeah Yeah, you have to get the high percentage of vinegar. Yeah. And you hear so many tearric acid. You hear so many terrible things about Roundup if you can avoid using that. So I just.
00:20:44
todays_craftsmen
So maybe ah maybe I'll try the vigar vinegar, but I have some of that outdoor bleach, so I'll probably use the rest of it up. That's gonna be one of those satisfying. things to clean the chimney. And I'm probably going to post a video on Saturday on cleaning the the roof just because I don't have anything else to post. And there really aren't any good videos on how to clean a roof. Yeah. I couldn't really find anything that great. So I figured, wow, I got all the footage. Why not? Yeah. I know my father-in-law did it recently. I don't know what he did. When are you going to aerate?
00:21:20
todays_craftsmen
I don't know, the last weekend was the weekend, but it fricking rains all weekend. Yeah, but. but now your soil should be looser. That's true. Oh yeah, so we'll talk about the bike, but I was taking the bike around the backyard. The one side is so soft, I like couldn't even turn. Because of the moles? It's a combination of that and like that is the north side of my house. So the ground is ah is mossy. Okay. um And it's like real spongy. And plus I haven't cut the grass back there in a while. So it's like grass is high.
00:21:54
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, it might be difficult to grow grass there. You might have to just deal with the moss. Yeah. I have a few areas where it's long as it's green. That's all you know. Yeah. I don't care what it could be clover. It could be whatever.
00:22:06
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, I kind of feel the same way. There's areas that I let go, and then there's areas I like to be like nice. Yeah, the front. I would like the front to be nice grass, but the backyard, whatever. The dogs are back there. First thing I did on the bike was drive through dog shit. Oh my god. That's my biggest pet peeve. I hate. So I was riding, I don't know, a couple of weeks. It was such a traumatic experience. It still stays with me. It seems like yesterday. It was probably six months ago.
00:22:36
todays_craftsmen
I was going down some trail. and just like in the best mental place, you know, flying down this trail. And next thing you know, I must have hit like this, just large like wet dog crap. And if you know you hit it with your front tire and you're going fast, it's everywhere. And it was just like you could just it was like a stink bomb. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, my God. Luckily, I was going slow. So it didn't sling up into my face. I'm sure it was like on my my clothes. So then I just went home, washed the bike, took an outside shower. I mean,
00:23:08
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, that. I can't stand it when I run over dog dog shit with my with my bicycle because it doesn't come off that easily. It's they had to hose the I had to hose the tires. I did it twice. Yeah. um Do you have a fend a little fender? I don't know. You could do that. They have little plastic ones that are just kind of like. I've thought about just for the front. Yeah. um A lot of bikes have them. I've thought about it, but I just haven't done it.
00:23:35
todays_craftsmen
um probably won't. I probably won't. But I mean, I remember when I used to motocross, you could not motocross without a fender. Oh, yeah, I can only imagine. I mean, you had to have a fender. I remember breaking my back fender a couple times, you know, just pop pop on wheelies and you break your back fender. And then you'd ride without a fender until you got a new one to get a strip of mud up. Yeah, it would just be a total mess. It's amazing what a fender will do. But with a with a mountain bike,
00:24:02
todays_craftsmen
I don't know if I need one that much. Seems to throw a lot of dirt right on the down tube and the down tube on my bike because it's got the battery and it's pretty wide. Yeah. It definitely collects a lot of dirt right there. I guess if I was riding like in the rain, you probably wouldn't want one. You might. Yeah, if you're riding in the rain, you might. Yeah, because you're going to get it. Your back's going to get wet. Yeah. So you went on a ride today?
00:24:30
todays_craftsmen
Yeah. Yeah. So the bike showed up yesterday had to be signed for, which I didn't know before, you know, until it had shipped. It was like signature required. I'm like, mother, I would have had it delivered here yeah to the shop. Um, so I luckily FedEx had a window of 12 to two. So I went home. I got home, made sure I got home at like 11 45 just in case they were a little bit early and they showed up about 12 30. So I threw it together real quick. And, uh, I just took a couple of laps around the backyard and then I came back here. I was back here by like two.
00:24:59
todays_craftsmen
um But yeah, this morning I went out probably about 5 5 15 something like that and
Optimizing Mountain Bike Shocks
00:25:07
todays_craftsmen
rode for about 45 minutes. Nice. Yeah, it was nice. So you like it? Yeah. Now you said you had to adjust the shocks or something. Yeah, I had to set the sag or whatever they call it. How'd that go? It was pretty easy. I think so I had to buy a shock pump, which is like a high pressure. I have one. Yeah, I figured I better get when it was only like 18 bucks or something. Um,
00:25:29
todays_craftsmen
So initially, I think I just wasn't screwing in the thing far enough because I couldn't get it above like 150 PSI. But they say like you should have 25% sag. So I just it has that O-ring. You slide it up, sit on it and I just adjusted it. and The front doesn't have an O-ring and I wasn't busting out like a measuring tape. So I kind of just like eyeballed that. You know, I'm not freaking out there a professional mountain biker. It doesn't really matter.
00:25:57
todays_craftsmen
the The black bike I have has a Fox shock. The white bike, same manufacturer, same model, actually, has Suntour. Is it the Copperhead? Yeah, Copperhead AM3. Yeah, they're doing a giveaway I entered. yeah It was like, which bike? i was like It looks like the Copperhead is the...
00:26:16
todays_craftsmen
Yeah. um the My older bike has better suspension. So I think that they probably tried to figure out a way to... So the the mount the bicycle the whole bicycle industry is having a hard time. Keeping up with demand.
00:26:34
todays_craftsmen
No, selling. Oh, wow. Yeah, because there's so much competition in the space. Like Trek had to reduce its overhead by like 10% recently. Wow. um So I my bike originally retailed at something like $6,400. I didn't pay that. But that's what ah originally retail that that's the Copperhead AM three, I think it's a 2022. The 2023 retailed at, I think 3900. So I think they just look for ways ah to to bring the cost down to try to get that bike to as many people as possible. Now all that being said,
00:27:15
todays_craftsmen
If i have my I have my choice of which one to ride, unless one's in the shop or something, I usually pick the black one because of the suspension. this is Yeah, what's the new one? The Suntour? Suntour, yeah. Yeah, so like I bought the T7, like the six has Suntour suspension. This has RockShox. Nice, nice. Which I guess is...
00:27:34
todays_craftsmen
Yeah. And there's all kinds of levels, which I don't know, I should know more about this stuff. Like, apparently rock shock makes a really great shock. um I don't know what it is. But i I rode my my black bike this morning. And I just, I just love the suspension on it. It's really it just kind of floats over everything. It's a good bike. Yeah, i I like so I have, I have an area with mulch where we put like a swing set.
00:28:03
todays_craftsmen
and its it butts up to like the where the garage was. And it's like, you know, it's maybe like 10 or 12 inches high. Like I have landscaping ties built up. And I went off of that a couple of times and it's like, it's just crazy. Like a mountain a mountain bike versus the bike that I was riding, just like the feel of like, and I was going over, I have all kinds of brush. I went over this brush pile. You can never do that with the other bike. Obviously it's not made to do that, but. And your gears, the low gears, you can go, you can climb so much with the low gears. Yeah. So it's a, it's a one by 12. Um,
00:28:39
todays_craftsmen
which is cool, I haven't had a bike with gears in so long, like you know shifting up and down. It's just nice when you're riding, because like the trail looks pretty flat, but there's a lot of like long gradual uphills and downhills. um So it was nice to be able to like, I stayed in like probably, I don't know, the lowest gear, maybe one up the entire time, but then like you know when you start going up for a while, you like start to burn, you just shift,
00:29:08
todays_craftsmen
I guess it would be up a gear. So it's it's weird. It's kind of counterintuitive. So the lowest gear is actually the biggest sprocket in the back. OK. The highest gear would be your smallest sprocket in the back. um Think about it. Like, if you're driving a car, first gear is what you start with. Yeah, yeah. So with a bicycle, it's the same thing. So first gear would be the big sprocket. OK. And that's going to give you more power to go up. ah You know, you're going to pedal a lot, a lot of rotations. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:29:35
todays_craftsmen
But you'll be able to climb something. And that's where you get to a point where you just try to keep your cadence always the same. So whether you're going up a hill or a flat, you're always going at whatever it is, 70, 80 RPMs a minute. Right. You know, back in the day when I used to race, I would always like focus on my cadence and my um whatever our whatever it is mile an hour average speed ah that was on a road bike with a mountain bike you just kind of focus on your cadence yeah because you you can't really focus on your um your average speed so much it's a lot different yeah so I was probably in like the second highest gear for the most part
00:30:17
todays_craftsmen
second lowest gear. Second highest second highest. I confused myself. ah But then yeah, you know, your legs start to burn a little bit. Yeah, okay. I'm gonna kick it down a gear you're gonna ride tomorrow. ah Yeah, maybe nice.
00:30:32
todays_craftsmen
I think that's the way to exercise is you find something you like to do. So my wife and I are playing a little pickleball. That's fun. Yeah, that's, you know, it's not too difficult. And you can get ah ah a little bit of a workout. And so like after dinner, we'll go out and play for half an hour. Where do you go over by Middletown North? Usually now it's in school. Okay.
00:30:58
todays_craftsmen
That being said, it can be hard to get a spot. Yeah, it can be hard to get a spot. That's the thing, though. like i don't I don't like doing stuff around other people. Well, I kind of I kind of feel I mean, like, I mountain bike because I don't have to depend on anybody. Yeah, I don't have to have anybody to go with. I don't have to listen to somebody's BS conversation about Oh, my God, did you man, man, man. I don't want to hear that. You know, I saw one person that this morning. That was it. Oh, you know, on the weekend, though, you'll probably see a lot at five o'clock in the morning. No, no, no, no, five. Yeah.
00:31:32
todays_craftsmen
So what else is going on? I don't feel like I feel like we can't see the bicycle. I'm going fishing. Oh, yeah. yeah So my buddy Peter, who um I've been friends with for a long time. He is a major fisherman. And I'm not exactly sure the whole the whole logistics of it. But I believe he belongs to a fishing club. Okay. That owns a home or house.
00:31:59
todays_craftsmen
on a river. So he texted me. on the salminar ah forget it's Not It's like right in the backyard. So he texted me the other day. He goes, can you go fishing Thursday, leave Thursday, come home Saturday? And I you know i just ran it by my wife just to make sure I wasn't doing anything. She's like, no, that's great. You should go. So ah it's just knowing Peter. Yeah. Because he like he knows like fishing. It's like fishing with a guide. It's like fishing with a guide, exactly.
00:32:28
todays_craftsmen
He's like, you don't have to bring anything a lot. And I said, I have waiters, he goes, let's bring your waiters if you want, but you don't need anything. And in fact, he's even picking me up. So it's like, do you know, where the Catskills, but I don't know where I'll know. I'll tell you when. Yeah. and So you're going for trout. Yeah, we're going for trout. Okay. And ah looks like beautiful weather. Yeah. On wood. Hopefully we'll get beautiful weather and maker camp. But anyway, so I'll be we just shot this video on the trestle table. um You know, Jeff was was planning down the edge. It's like a nice detail. Yeah.
00:33:04
todays_craftsmen
And ah so I'll get that edited. I'll get that on there tonight. Do the thumbnail tonight. You can add any links or anything else that might be important. Yeah. Oh, the plans link to the plans, whatever.
Earnings from Home Improvement Videos
00:33:17
todays_craftsmen
um If I can, I'm going to try to get a video up for the for the washing of the roof because you know, the funny thing is when you do a home improvement project,
00:33:28
todays_craftsmen
Sometimes they can really generate a lot of revenue over the course of a couple of years. Like when I did that insulation thing, I think that's generated like seven or eight grand. nice Yeah, it's amazing if it if it takes off. So like the one viral video that we had, that's generated like five or 600 bucks. yeah So imagine these guys who are making these videos who get like a million or so views.
00:33:54
todays_craftsmen
they Yeah, or the people who get, you know, five hundred thousand a week on just their regular video. Yeah, that's that's twenty five hundred bucks a week. Yeah, that's sweet. That's what I've never experienced. We're working towards it. Yeah. So anything else going on or you want to call it short?
00:34:12
todays_craftsmen
um
00:34:15
todays_craftsmen
Well, let me see, working on the kitchen, trying to get that done. I got I ordered the doors yesterday. um New a new profile from new doors. Really? Called Savannah, which is pretty nice. I'll show you. Is that going to. Is that for your kitchen? Yes. Oh, nice. um So it was like 30. Thirty seven doors or something, and I have a small kitchen. It's crazy how fast the doors add up. ah Paint grade.
00:34:47
todays_craftsmen
Oh, the two and a quarter.
00:34:51
todays_craftsmen
It's a little chamfer, a little chamfer. That's nice. So they have a door called chamfer, but it, it just connects here and goes straight down to the panel, which I don't like. But this I like it's got a little little reveal there a little step there. Yeah, that's nice. It's amazing how they can do that on a router. Because you would think that that is a mitered corner. Yeah.
00:35:14
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, they um they just released a couple different profiles. um Let's see, they have the Savannah. This one's called Georgia. I don't know what what's up with the ah Georgia names, but that's kind of interesting. Not something that you would typically use, but yeah, it's nice. It's different. I mean,
00:35:36
todays_craftsmen
It's got that got that little art going. I mean, what what I what makes me like it? Is that a style in the center? or Is that supposed to be two doors? That's a style? ah Yeah, style. Okay. Huh? Yeah, they must be going after like, people who have older style yeah kitchens and they're refacing. Yeah, so this is the chamfer. Which is not as nice in my opinion.
00:36:04
todays_craftsmen
That goes right to the panel. yeah Yeah, yeah, there's like no step. Yeah, I like the step. They got a good website. Yeah, it's so all moxie.
00:36:20
todays_craftsmen
Which is cool, you can plug in your dimensions and it spits out spits out a number. So there's no like, you know, with Meridian, who is like our five piece store supplier, I'm just catching the picture of the floor. I don't think our last episode showed the floor where there was a ah filing cabinet that seems to have rusted over time. Yeah. This is. This is like really starting from scratch. It's it's better than starting from scratch. Yeah. This could totally be redone. Might want to change the angle once we redo it so you can see this wall a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
00:36:58
todays_craftsmen
um maybe if it was down there like where the keyboard is all right just kind of straight so you're gonna get those doors you gotta paint them yep do you want to talk about that video yeah so i i'm not sure if we mentioned it but i had apollo send out the pressure pot so it's a two and a half quart remote pressure pot um so instead of having a cup on your gun you just have a fluid line that comes from the pressure pot which just sits right on top of the uh It's going to make it a lot nicer. Yeah, my shoulder and my forearm and my hand just getting under stuff. Just the whole thing when I started when I started to
00:37:38
todays_craftsmen
spray years ago I sprayed with compressed air and I had a pressure cup and then I just had hoses coming off of it. Yep. And it was a lot nicer than like because right now my gun is on top of the cup. Yeah. So you have to be careful about hitting your project with the cup. You ever think about switching to PPS for you know just buying the adapter?
00:38:01
todays_craftsmen
I don't spray not like it becomes an afterthought. I just the bottom cup always seemed so weird to me. Like I can I don't think I could ever run that. It gets in the way of your spraying the inside of a cabinet, especially, um you know, you hit like you hit the finished surface with the cup and you just want to kind of. Yeah. You know, you just just get aggravated because It can be a real pain. A lot of times you're kind of coming over it. So it's not going to matter. but A lot of times it does matter. Yeah. I just feel like with the top cup, like you're kind of like pulling back this way. That is better. But you're pushing. You have to like kind of push with the bottom cup to keep it. You could just get an adapter. It's like 20 bucks and then you get the PPS cups. All right. Yeah. probably I might do that. Yeah. If I start spraying more. Yeah.
00:38:50
todays_craftsmen
I think this next thing I'm going to finish I'm finishing with water locks because it's got a big holla. It's so it's the Donald Judd chair if you know what that is. And um it's really not comfortable at all. but Just a flat. Yeah, it's really funny because it's probably I would say that that chair is more expensive than the Sam Aloof rocker. Yeah, I don't know.
00:39:18
todays_craftsmen
Well, Donald Judd sells for tens of millions. Yeah, he's an artist. That's the weird thing. Who's to say? Maloof's not an artist. yeah It's just a different thing. yeah But the art world, well, not the art world, the people who will spend that kind of money will spend that kind of money on a Donald Judd, but maybe not on a Sam Maloof. Yeah. I don't want to offend anybody, but that's what I've noticed over the years. Yeah. um I don't know. I'm not big on the Maloof stuff.
00:39:49
todays_craftsmen
I'm gonna agree with you. So this is the thing. Here's a perfect example. It's like extreme talent, a lot of work, absolutely beautiful, if you like
Design Philosophy: Judd vs. Maloof
00:40:01
todays_craftsmen
that. Yeah, like that? Okay, so the Judd chair could go anywhere. The Maloof chair, that can't go anywhere. I think you're right. I think you're right. I mean, I... um Like that in a contemporary home, it's just not going to fit. Yeah, I think you're right. Although the judge here in like a traditional home. So the judge, I was convincing myself that no this chair is really comfortable or more comfortable than it looks until I took it off the workbench and put on the floor and sat in it. It's like, wow, this kind of gets you with a really sharp edge right in the middle of your back.
00:40:41
todays_craftsmen
That's like people who drink whiskey and they're like, this tastes great. Yeah, I'm not a whiskey person at all. I know people who are, but I'm not, thankfully. Um, so what I do see though, I could see it being great for like playing chess because when you're playing chess, you're, you're usually leaning forward a little bit. You're not really leaning back. And so I could see the two judge chairs and then like a simple table. So maybe that'll be another veneer project. Yeah. Would you cut the veneer to make the chess board on the top? I thought about that integral into the table.
00:41:20
todays_craftsmen
No, I'll tell you why. and would' be rather and rap Well, I think it I think it takes away from the design. I think that I'd rather have a chessboard that fits into like a little shelf, either in the seats or in the table. And then just keep it again looking very minimal.
Artistic Strategies for Video Content
00:41:40
todays_craftsmen
And So the the way i I'm going to get a million views on this is I'm going to make these two Donald Judd chairs and um
00:41:56
todays_craftsmen
Uh, I'll end up making the table. And then I've, I ah know these, these twins, they're models and they're just knockouts and they've agreed. I like where this is going. They've agreed to do the thumbnail nude. So they'll be nude, but you will not actually be able to see anything. Are you serious? Yeah. And they're and they'll be playing chess now. But the funny thing is i men they're men. men they're bad ah What I I really like the ah there's a famous fashion photographer named Horst P. Horse. And he would have these really beautiful models really artfully done. And so like, I could see though, I could see like ah an artistic photograph with models with that furniture looking really cool almost as a poster. And you make that as a thumbnail. But the problem with that is,
00:42:52
todays_craftsmen
then the whole video, the the the viewer sees this thumbnail, they click on it, and then they say, hey, welcome back to the shop.
00:43:04
todays_craftsmen
That's, ah I think that's the way I have to go if I want to get my my views up. Yeah, that or influencer face. I can't do that. I can't believe people are still doing it. ah It works, I guess, but I guess I don't think it would work with me. um I don't think it has I think I may have tried it a little bit. I think you tried it a little bit. Yeah, we did a couple and um I think what worked for us was just having like that one piece of hardware people didn't really know about and you know,
00:43:38
todays_craftsmen
unless we can get some really attractive new models using that hardware. I love the comments we get. It's like these have been around forever. It's like, where in the video did we say that this was a new screw? I don't know.
00:43:50
todays_craftsmen
Well, I love getting those comments because that bicycle video is taking off again. So it's getting 500,000 views a day. The same one with the... Just the down throw. It's a 15 second video. So it kind of goes up like this. It's now at 202 million views. Wow. And again, it's not... I wish that was a full length video. Oh my God, that would be amazing. Because it's not generating a lot of money. It's generated enough to pay for the bike. So I can't complain. That's pretty cool.
00:44:20
todays_craftsmen
but it did generate, I think it's 230,000 subscribers. And we talked about this last time, so. Does that mean anything? Does that mean I'm getting more views? No. But it does mean that I'll be over a million views or a million subscribers in like three or four or five weeks or whatever. yeah And does that mean anything? No. Except when you say to somebody, well, it's got a million subscribers, then and they at least think that it's a successful channel. Yeah. We're about to hit a million views. I can't believe it. That doesn't seem... Well, that that video helped out a lot. Yeah.
00:44:58
todays_craftsmen
That's pretty crazy, a million views. I think it's good. it's good i'm I'm excited to redo this and then eventually start making some furniture. yeah and we You can only do that though once it makes financial sense. like That's the thing. like with that With my table, you know I knew the whole time I was building it, I'm like, this would make a great video just to shoot the whole thing. But it's like, sometimes I just got to knock something out. you know I just have to...
00:45:24
todays_craftsmen
If we had a sponsor who was paying to make the video that's different, then you could slow down and it doesn't matter. But like, A, I'm not getting paid to make it because I'm making it for myself. Yeah. And B, it's like I got to just get it done. Well, I think too, I think like I think that you and I could build furniture together where you're doing really like 80% of the build ah because somebody's got a video. Yeah. And.
00:45:50
todays_craftsmen
I think that that would be good once we get there. um When you have to set up the camera and build on your own, it's it's kind of not as fun and it takes a lot longer because there's there's a lot of things in woodworking that have to be done but don't necessarily need to be done by you and don't need to be done on camera. yeah you know so Like milling all that wood up. Yeah. you know yeah Plus, like if you're going to like make a video, it requires more planning for the project itself. like That table I approached with total... It's like that little stool I made. There is no plan. I'm just going for it.
00:46:33
todays_craftsmen
you know and you can do that when you're not on camera right because you know if i have to stop and stand back and think about it for four hours and do something else totally unrelated to that table i can do that but if we're trying to make a video it's like you can't you don't have that freedom you know you have to just Yeah, in a perfect world, you'd make two. yeah you know like And it's funny because I've talked with Jeff about this idea I have with this. I kind of know of somebody who I almost feel like could be a producer or not maybe not a producer, but could like kind of not ah i don't know manage the show or something. Creative director.
00:47:13
todays_craftsmen
Well, would it would almost be a way for that person to advertise their product through the projects that are being made. Yeah, yeah. And that would that would open up so much more creativity. A benefactor. Yeah, that's exactly.
00:47:31
todays_craftsmen
ah Rich on cold but well there's a there's a few people I I've thought about approaching who but it's just not there yet I think yeah I think would so that's kind of what a million subscribers does to like you approach somebody and say okay this is not me making the videos and the projects this is me working with this other ah craftsmen creating something and kind of having this conversation and this is going to benefit your brand. So you're like the main sponsor and your job is to.
00:48:04
todays_craftsmen
sell these things we're making or have a reason for them to be made. Right. right That puts purpose into the project. So this may sound really abstract. Makes it easier too. A hundred percent. Building something that has a purpose that has defined limitations in terms of spatial design.
00:48:22
todays_craftsmen
It's so much easier to build something. I've talked about this before. when when you're It's not all on you to figure out what am I going to build and what's it going to look like. When the client gives you these requirements, it's so much easier to make something.
00:48:35
todays_craftsmen
i Agree and you can get excited about it because you're gonna see you're going to see it fit that purpose And it makes I think the video a lot better because then the viewer sees that there's a purpose and then this Everything sort of makes sense and because you're building it with somebody with another purpose that almost creates like a three-person ah conversation. So that's just something that, you know, I know, like I said, this is like kind of a very abstract conversation, because I'm not naming anybody or any, any location. But it's definitely a doable thing. And it's more doable.
00:49:15
todays_craftsmen
with you and I than with just me. Like, you know, like, like, I've always thought, okay, I'd like to work with somebody, but I like being behind the camera. And I like the conversations that you and I have when we're building stuff, when you're building stuff almost, but but that's a lot of it because I've built stuff and I kind of know the questions. but yeah And what the viewer might be wondering, like, what would they want to know here? And because maybe I'm just coming in on a project, it's the same thing I want to know.
00:49:45
todays_craftsmen
So we'll say, I mean, right now the sky's a limit the limit. The idea is to just keep building, building this channel, I'll keep building my channel. And who knows? And then I would like it to get way more creative.
Channel Growth into Creative Furniture and Art
00:49:57
todays_craftsmen
So into very creative furniture, into creative art pieces, assemblages, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, I mean, like I said, it's really comes down to um having that freedom to create until you have that until it makes financial sense, it's not really worth doing. Yeah, you got to do what makes money. Yeah, exactly. So that's what you have to look forward to. Yeah. Sounds good.
00:50:27
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, so hopefully I'll have the maybe I'll have a table by the weekend. We'll see it's only so Wednesday. Yeah, I would like if you just just set up the camera and and um shoot the finish going on there. Yeah, because I think that's even a Wednesday video because a lot of people are really perplexed when it comes to what finish to use. Yeah. And so you've got some very specific reasons for using the finish you're using. And um and you've got some history to back it up. Yeah. So I think that would be a ah good video. And you can go see what might be cool is is ah is the piece that you have small enough to bring in.
00:51:09
todays_craftsmen
Uh, yeah, it's due to be refinished. So then what, well, just because cherry gets so dark, the difference in the piece that you built, you know, so many years ago, yeah, that'd be kind of a fun contrast too. So that's a video. Maybe that's, maybe that's our ah video for next week. Uh, just because um you're leaving Thursday, right? Yeah. We should try to shoot Monday or Tuesday next week.
00:51:33
todays_craftsmen
Yeah. Cool. Reminds me I got to order figure eights for my, uh, my table. 12 gauge. Sounds good to me. So the figure eights is, where's the movement? Uh, rotates. Oh, it does. Okay. Yeah. So you put one into the trestle and then one into the table and then it'll just, you know, you countersink it with a Forzner bit into the trestle.
00:52:03
todays_craftsmen
Power of Amazon. Well, I just hope nobody looks under your table hoping to see nice little wooden buttons. I told you I'm going to put a sign under there. It says FU. No, no flash photography.
00:52:22
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, that'll be quick and easy. Cool. Cool. So maybe we'll see ah some of these people at maker camp. I'm sure we will. Oh, yeah, we're gonna do a podcast next week, too. Yeah. That'd be cool. Yeah, we can do that.
00:52:36
todays_craftsmen
Yeah, no problem. We'll do the we'll shoot whatever we have probably the cherry thing or maybe the ah pressure pot. Yeah, or the or with the bank at will probably still be in. There'll be plenty of see if any drawers in that bank. No, just lift up. Okay. Yeah. So you just put stuff in there that you never want to see again. Exactly. There you go. All right. I'm good. I got rolling. So talk to you guys next week. Have a great week, guys.
00:53:01
todays_craftsmen
If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend or share it on social media. You can leave a review of this podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. And don't forget today's Craftsman YouTube channel has an upload every Saturday morning at 8.30 AM m Eastern. We'll see you next week.
00:53:35
todays_craftsmen
A cold name's a name Ain't no shame, but there's been a change