Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Essential Hand Tools
16 Plays3 months ago
We talk about our upcoming video on essential hand tools for the production shop. We also look at and discuss work from Albert Kleine. Check him out here: https://www.instagram.com/albert.a.kleine/
Don't forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel Today's Craftsmen https://www.youtube.com/@TodaysCraftsmen
Merch:
The American Craftsman Podcast: https://amzn.to/482ttka
Greene Street Joinery: https://amzn.to/3Zfk5ph
Today's Craftsmen: https://amzn.to/3R5DRl8
Check Out Our Sponsors!
Visit Häfele at www.hafele.com
Visit Ridge Carbide at www.ridgecarbidetool.com
Support us on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/Greene_st_joinery
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.
Follow us!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greene_st_joinery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenestreetjoinery
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-american-craftsman-podcast/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Sponsorships Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
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. Additional sponsorship provided by Ridge Carbide.
00:00:28
Speaker
When you need the right saw blade for the job, put your trust in Ridge Carbide Tools. For over 50 years, Ridge Carbide has been producing industrial saw blades designed with the exact specifications for the cutting results you expect. Before you buy, call us and we'll help you determine the right tool that meets your needs and your budget.
00:00:45
Speaker
After the sale, Rich Carbide provides sharpening services for all your saw blades, dado sets, router bits, and jointer planer knives. Located in Kansas, Rich Carbide Tools provides high quality products with outstanding customer service at a fair price. What are you cutting? Enjoy the show.
Engagement with Sponsors and Brands
00:01:05
Speaker
Welcome back. I think I came in a little too early. The intro just feels painfully long now.
00:01:14
Speaker
Yeah, well, Rich Carbide is really getting a good plug. And I'm like, send us a few saw blades. You haven't heard from them since about January. So maybe it's time to look for someone else. Well, they got another 27 episodes prepaid. Still 27 more. Yeah. Hold all of season four.
00:01:32
Speaker
There would be so much more to talk about them even on the podcast if they would just send us a blade. I mean, they sent two blades. I'd put a new blade in my table saw. They'd get a plug on my channel. They'd get a plug on my Instagram, but it just seems like they're not tuned in. Yeah. Yeah. It seems to be the case with a lot of
00:01:53
Speaker
people across all industries. Do they have an Instagram? Yeah. I think it's relatively small. I'll reach out to them. What do I have to lose? I mean, that's the thing with Instagram. I'll just DM people. It's kind of like a shot in the dark. If it sticks, it sticks. If it doesn't. Yeah. You know, I, I sent something out to tough built and first they were really thankful that we made that video and that I've shared it. Uh, uh, I guess it was an Instagram story, maybe even a post.
00:02:24
Speaker
But then, then they really didn't get back to me. I was like, yeah, send me some horses. I would, I could use them for one thing and you're going to get a lot of exposure, but uh, they're like them and sashko. Sashko was going to send me some caulking, which I would use, which would be, I mean, think about how many eyeballs see that on, on a bad day. It's like 2000 people seeing Instagram story. Yeah. And it costs them. Let's say they send you a case of caulk, 12 tubes, which are, let's say it retails for $6 a tube.
00:02:53
Speaker
You know, it costs them less than a hundred bucks.
Product Promotion Challenges
00:02:55
Speaker
I know. It's, it's funny. I'm, I'm going to do it. Give a shout out to the caster company. I forget the name of it now. Yeah. I can't remember. Those are cool though.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, they are cool casters. So if you follow me or Jeff or today's craftsman on Instagram, you know that I'm doing a longterm borrow with Jeff's workbench and it's yours. Okay. I feel bad about that. Cause I'm like, one day you might want it back. It's so nice. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think I'm trying to find those casters in our text thread. Um, I just don't need to work benches like that in the shop, you know,
00:03:33
Speaker
No, I'm just saying like, you know, one day you might be like, have a little shop in your backyard and you want to work bench, whatever. So right now we've made the trade for my armor tool workbench. Which I like. It's used. It's definitely a handy workbench. Yeah. That is far more useful to me right now than two woodworking benches for sure. Sure. I mean, we wheeled it around. We wheeled it out today for a table for the video we just shot on hand tools. But getting back to the casters,
00:04:04
Speaker
they sent me two sets of casters, a sort of a smaller one and a more heavy duty one. And I'm going to put the more heavy duty one on the workbench. And the thing with these casters is you sort of pick up whatever, if it's a table or in this case, it's a workbench, you pick it up.
00:04:21
Speaker
the wheels drop down and now your table is on casters. And when you want it off casters, you pick it up again and it's like a little ratchet that moves. And then the, in this case, the workbench will drop down to the ground. So that's really useful for me since my shop is small and I kind of move that. I'll move that workbench from behind the Powermatic, depending what I'm working on. But also, but getting back to
00:04:52
Speaker
kind of what you do sometimes for free product. In this case, I'm giving them a lot. They sent me two sets of casters. And I'm just doing that because it's an American company. It's, you know, small, very small business. Kind of reminds me of my son, Walter, who has a machine shop. He's building a product and they just want to get their, their product out there. Now, all this being said, they don't have an Instagram.
00:05:18
Speaker
I was like, why wouldn't you have an Instagram? I even, I said that to them because I would talk about it in stories. But anyway, they don't have an Instagram. So I didn't tag them. And I did talk about them in a story, I think on Sunday or Saturday or Sunday. But the long and short of this is I'm only getting those casters. I think they're maybe $80 or
Navigating Sponsorship Disclosures
00:05:40
Speaker
less a pair. And I'm not even charging them for this video.
00:05:45
Speaker
And it creates work for you. It's a lot of work. I kind of kick myself for accepting them or even responding to the email because now I even have a conference call with them on Wednesday. Why do I have to spend any time having a call with somebody? Because you know how it is when you work for yourself. It's just like every hour is sort of accounted for. Oh yeah.
00:06:07
Speaker
I feel like every day it's like I have, I lose like three or four hours every day, every day between emails or sales person pops in or whatever. It's yeah, it's really, really difficult.
00:06:21
Speaker
I think maybe two or three years ago, I keep an ongoing list, like I call it today's list. And I wrote a note at the top of the list, always say no. I don't always stick to it, but that always is there because you do have a lot of people reach out and they want to send you product, but everything's
Boosting Content Visibility
00:06:40
Speaker
an obligation.
00:06:43
Speaker
So anyway, I'm not talking about this company at all. I'm really happy to have the casters. It's going to be handy. And it's going to work out with my workflow, but it would be kind of a very jerky move on my part to accept the casters.
00:07:01
Speaker
and then just never say anything about it. But that's easy to do because life is busy and all of a sudden you have these, some thing that somebody sent you and it's sticking around and you're like, oh man, I'm supposed to say something about that. And then you don't want to just say something about it to say something about it because then it's not authentic. So anyway, I forgot how I got on this whole tangent. Oh, rich carbide. Yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, like the whole idea of it creating work, like so since we did that Creality video on the Falcon 2 laser, we've had, I want to say three or four laser comp, small laser companies like that reach out one to send a machine. It's like, we can't just do it for a free machine because it's, the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Hey, the audience, our audience is not
00:07:53
Speaker
There's definitely people watching today's craftsmen who use lasers, who like the idea of having one, maybe they don't have one yet, but we can't become some laser channel where we're showing all these second-rate laser brands. We'll show it, we'll make a video, but at that point, it's a job. It's not like, hey, we got this cool thing, we're not excited about it.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, and at that point, let's say that you say, okay, give us the machine and $4,000. Then we would just say right off the bat, hey, we're getting paid to make this video. And I think that's kind of interesting for the listener and the viewer, like, okay, this is part of the way they make their business work and they're being very upfront with it. We're getting paid to talk about this. That's not like we're saying, hey, this is the best laser we've ever used. Go out and buy one.
00:08:46
Speaker
I think right in the video, like, hey, this is a sponsored video and they're paying us. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of people who are untruthful about the how if and how they're being compensated by brands. I agree with that. I see that. And like the law is very clear that you need to. What's the word I'm looking for?
00:09:14
Speaker
Well, it says sponsored on a Instagram text or, or even on YouTube, it says. Disclose. You need to disclose the relationship. Well, it's, so it's, it's a very kind of weird gray area because again, like with this caster company, I'm, I'll probably put this video out on Saturday if all goes well.
00:09:32
Speaker
And I'm probably going to click that button that says includes paid promotion, even though I'm not getting paid, but they did send me $160 worth of casters. So in my mind, I just want to be on the up and up. I don't know when you click that button, if that kind of throttles down, how much YouTube pushes your thing out there. I don't know. It could, but you don't want the FCC coming after you.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. It's just not worth it. And like, so when I put a project video, they do, they, they don't do very well, but my core audience tunes in and you can tell from the comments and that's kind of what I'm doing. I'm just putting out instructions in the world for people to build. It's like home furnishings, right? It's not about being a, the, the cabinet shop. That's what this is about. That's what today's craftsman is about.
00:10:24
Speaker
Mine is really for the woodworker who wants to build something for their home and doesn't really know what to build. And speaking from experience, I think the hardest part of getting started on any woodworking project is coming up with a design that's going to work. And I've seen a lot of woodworking projects and I've done a few where you put a ton of work into them and at the end, they don't look good.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah, I see a lot of that. Well, it can be it can come down to a fraction of an inch, whether something looks kind of clunky or something looks elegant. And so if you look at my sort of portfolio of furniture designs and there's something there that you'd like.
00:11:10
Speaker
Well, then you've taken the guesswork out and you know that if you put in all this time, you're going to end up with something that you're you feel good about instead of something that you're like, oh, man, I should have done this differently. So that's sort of the. That's sort of the audience that I go for, and I don't care if I would love the videos to get a million views, but.
00:11:31
Speaker
I'm past that point where I get upset if a video doesn't break 10,000 views. I just figure, OK, that's just another thing out in the ether to
Website and Design Inspirations
00:11:41
Speaker
to help people and help me sell plans. And really, that's the business of it.
00:11:47
Speaker
Who knows? It could hit six months from now, a year from now. But I was going to say, a lot of these people who put out plans, they just don't have the eye. You're an artist, you're well-learned in furniture design, you've clearly studied different furniture designs and created them yourself. You have an eye for design. Thanks. A lot of these people putting out plans just don't have that skill. So it's like,
00:12:12
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's kind of what I see. So I, I, I got a new web guy and I'm really excited to be working with him. Eventually I'll tell you who he is. Cause I forget his address, his web address now, but maybe somebody will work with very, very reasonable and gets it. You know, we had a really good conversation. The last web guy I had was difficult. He was sometimes unresponsive for a couple of days and it was terrible. So this guy's right on it. And, um,
00:12:41
Speaker
We were looking at some other sites because I was saying, well, I like what this person does. And I was telling them, my strength is really a furniture line so people can build their end tables and maybe a couple of different pieces of furniture for a particular room in their home. And at the same time, we were looking at other people out there who have plans on their site.
00:13:05
Speaker
And I had said to him, I said, well, a lot of their plans are sort of very rudimentary. They're kind of a step above a shop project. And then like 15 minutes into our meeting, he's like, oh yeah, I can totally see what you're talking about because it's just another
00:13:25
Speaker
I don't know, coffee table that just, you know, whatever it's, it's, doesn't look much different than something from a Creighton barrel or something. You know, well, I don't even know what Creighton barrel is, but I've heard it before. Yeah. I don't know what they're, I guess they're kind of just riding the, whatever the fads are, but yeah. So anyway, so that's, um, that's what's going on there. I don't know how we got into this tangent either. Um,
00:13:52
Speaker
Oh, we're talking about the casters and making video. Oh, we were talking about the ad disclosures. Oh yeah. Yeah. So.
00:14:02
Speaker
So I will say that the last project I did, did have a sponsor and that's GEO veneer. So they do pay me and they also do supply the veneer. Now the weird thing is I will end up giving them a lot of freebies after the project's done. Cause you have all that content. And at that point, I don't know if you have to say, you know, paid promotion or whatever. I don't think you have to. Yeah. We were talking about that. It's like, um,
00:14:28
Speaker
It may be that you only have to disclose the first post that is
00:14:36
Speaker
you disclose the relationship in the first post and then that's your disclosure for any future. Okay. That may be the case, but I don't know. See, that's the thing. There's so much gray area. Yeah. And I don't think you really ever know. So it's better to just try to be up on the up and up. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Better safe and sorry. That's like with taxes. Oh my God. I'm like, listen, buy the books. Yeah. Yeah. Not worth it. So we just shot a video on hand tools.
00:15:02
Speaker
Hand tools are great. Yeah. I moved all the hand tools from my bench before you picked it up and slapped them up on the wall, which it was something I had meant to do since we moved in here anyway. But, you know, I don't know. I have this hang up with like permanence here where I'm not ready to do permanent things all the time because it's like, what if I want to change something, move something, you know, like the dust collection on the cabinet saws. I don't know how long that's going to stay like that. Just a hose going across the floor because it's like,
00:15:31
Speaker
I could duct it in, but it's going to take time and money. And then if I want to move it, it's set, you know, I can't change it. Well, eventually when you get the CNC in here, you'll probably have a better idea of how you want the shop to be more permanent. Yeah. And then that'll be like at that juncture, I'll re-pipe everything, do it right, pay somebody to do it.
00:15:55
Speaker
So we're looking at all my hand tools and I have this spokeshave that I won in a giveaway and something that we wanted to do on the podcast was actually... Oh, here's that business card I was telling you about. Oh, nice. Yeah. Something we want to do on the podcast is sort of like talk about other
00:16:16
Speaker
people in the community, be it, you know, woodworkers, any sort of maker, content creator. Or artist. Because I think it'd be fun to have a conversation about an artist with you, somebody that you may not know. I mean, the idea is to broaden both of our horizons, right? So this woodworker that you're bringing up here, I don't even know of.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah. So this is Albert Klein. His Instagram is Albert, A-L-B-E-R-T dot A, the letter A, dot Klein, K-L-E-I-N-E. And, uh, I'll try and remember to put a link. Super talented. You can tell right off the bat. So he does a lot of marketry. He's actually, um, just wrapping up a book on box building. So that's what all these posts are. Yeah.
00:17:12
Speaker
So basically the idea of this, uh, I don't know if I can explain audio, the idea of this like segment of the podcast is yeah, to, um, you would, you would come up with an artist and I would come up with a, and I guess what we'll go back sort of back and forth. Sure. Um,
00:17:31
Speaker
to just highlight somebody and check out their stuff. So we have this up on the screen right now. And also the nice thing today is you can learn so much at a click of a button that you just might not even know. Like I didn't know about, about this artist, this woodworker, Albert Klein. And now, now I know to sort of take a deeper dive. And it's one of those things you may or may not want to take a deeper dive. You can kind of get an idea right in the beginning. Right. But I know from,
00:18:00
Speaker
from an artist, like an artist and an art historian point of view, I know that when I learn about an artist and I kind of take a deeper dive and start to understand their process, it sticks with me. And it makes me appreciate
00:18:18
Speaker
other paintings and other art more. It's no different than understanding what trees you have in the forest that you're at, right? If you understand what a popular tree looks like, you might enjoy your walk in the woods a little bit more. It might be like, holy cow, look at the size of that popular tree.
00:18:34
Speaker
And look how tall the trunk is because you probably know that poplars shed their branches as they don't get light. And that's why you end up with these huge boards that are straight as an arrow for the most part. We're just learning the difference between a red oak leaf and a white oak leaf. And then when you're walking, you say, oh, this is a white oak. And the trunk and the bark, yeah.
00:18:53
Speaker
Uh, for me, like music is big in that, like, so, you know, there's certain bands that you like, but then if I go and I read something about the band, like you find out these little tidbits of information, it makes me appreciate them even more, you know? Yeah. Well, and that's like anything film appreciation. You know, I went back and watched a Quentin Tarantino movie recently because I heard a, I heard an interview with him on Joe Rogan and it was, um,
00:19:22
Speaker
Man, I cannot remember an actor's name for the life of me, but basically the premise of the movie is this guy would have these cars and he would set it up like a race car, like a total roll bars and all this stuff.
00:19:39
Speaker
But the passenger seat would have nothing in it and are barely any kind of a chair, like no seatbelt. And he would just destroy people by driving like a maniac. And this was made into a movie? This was a Quentin Tarantino movie. So, yeah. Damn it.
00:20:00
Speaker
Really the movie was better because I listened to the interview and then I, I kind of took it. Deathproof? Deathproof. Yeah. Okay. I was going to say that because I remember that was like a double, that movie was like a double feature, deathproof and something else. The other one was, uh, um, another famous guy, uh, Eddie grind house. Yeah. Double feature. Robert Rodriguez planet terror. Yeah.
00:20:30
Speaker
Really? Look at that. Yeah. Now, did you see death proof? I think I did, but I don't really remember. I know that didn't ring a bell, that idea of like somebody sitting in the passenger seat and getting killed. It basically shakes them up. Yeah. You know, but it was.
00:20:51
Speaker
I enjoyed the movie more because I listened to the interview on Quentin Tarantino and I kind of got a better understanding of what he was doing. And I think it was probably right after I saw his most recent movie, which is a Hollywood story with Brad Pitt. And that's a good movie. I haven't seen it. That looks good, though.
00:21:13
Speaker
Really good. I actually bought Walter and Michael to that. That's gotta be three or four years old now. We saw that in the theater and it just, the ending is awesome. It's a good movie. I like the whole movie.
00:21:28
Speaker
But anyway, so the idea of talking about an artist or a craftsperson or a woodworker here is just to sort of bring somebody out into the light a little bit. And then you can decide whether or not you want to take a deeper dive on. I know that a lot of painters will inspire some of the furniture that I make. So it's sort of it. You never know what's going to inspire you. Yeah. And I think that's also a very hard thing.
00:21:57
Speaker
to find when you're trying to design and build a piece of furniture. Like, where's your inspirations coming from? And your inspiration can be pretty close to what you're actually looking at. You're just changing it a little bit.
00:22:14
Speaker
And that's kind of how it's been through history, even with music, if you, you know, if you're if you're like Led Zeppelin, how how closely that's linked to a lot of the rock music, American rock music that only came a generation before them. Yeah, Chuck Berry. Yeah. Yeah. And like that inspiration can't be forced. You ever like try and like look at a piece of furniture and say, I want to be inspired by this and and try and design something? Usually doesn't work.
00:22:43
Speaker
I guess you're right. Or it's more forced. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I've done that. Like I was trying to design something. I'm like looking through these books like, Oh, I need to, you know, get some inspiration. It's like, Nope. I think the funny thing with furniture is a lot of times it's the simplest stuff. It is, at least in my, in for the way my aesthetics,
00:23:08
Speaker
The simplest stuff is often the best solution. So I mean, I like razor. Yeah, that's right. Uh, I like modern furniture, which, which tends to have cleaner, more simplistic looking lines, but at the same time, isn't always that easy to make, but some of the most complicated pieces of furniture that, you know, took hours and hours and hours. I just don't like, it's just an aesthetic viewpoint. You can get lost in the,
00:23:39
Speaker
the details of it too, you know? Yeah. And it's, it's almost like a Victorian house, right? There's so much work in a Victorian house. And I look at it and I'm like, wow. It's like less than some of its parts. Yeah. And, and at the, the, uh, the same time, like, especially with a Victorian house, I guess this is the older person coming out. It's like, I look at things now as what kind of maintenance is that going to entail? Yeah.
00:24:05
Speaker
going to scrape and paint all that decorative wood siding every five years. Oh my God. I've been doing a lot of painting this summer, so I know that. And I have a brick house. Yeah. So I'm not doing that much painting, but. I'm just scrolling through Albert's Instagram here. So he's really into marquetry. Yeah. That's beautiful with the those leaves. Yeah. Have you ever tried it? I haven't. Me neither.
00:24:32
Speaker
It seems like you could probably have a simpler workaround with a laser, right? Yeah. Yeah. CNC. Yeah. CNC. I like using a fret saw. I think I would be into marketry, but... Well, we were talking about that with your mallet, right? That Jeff's got this really nice... Is it a Lee Nielsen? Veritas. Veritas brass mallet.
00:24:57
Speaker
And so there's woodworking where... Here's the box that... Oh, that is pretty. Yeah. There's woodworking where you have to make a product, finish it, deliver and get paid. And then there's woodworking where you kind of get the joy and satisfaction of using a hand plane and a draw knife or a good sharp chisel or dovetail saw.
00:25:23
Speaker
Oh, look at that. Go up to that little, um, that little step stool. That's nice. I like that. So I did a cheat on my step stool where it's just screwed together and then it's got those square pegs. A lot of people build that again. Uh, I think I might do one of those. So now that I've got a workbench in the shop, that's a, that's a nice, what I like about that is somebody's going to have that step stool for decades. Yeah.
00:25:53
Speaker
Number one, it has a function. Number two, it's just going to get more beautiful with age. And, uh, and number three, it's just a classic, you know, it's, it's, uh, that could look good in a traditional home or a contemporary home because it's it's your, it's your, um,
00:26:14
Speaker
It's your design, but it's also your material. It's just a combination of two honest things, an honest design with a smart approach and great material. And, you know, it's functional. And then also that just like sitting up against the wall. It's like a piece of art. I totally agree. I love Shaker furniture.
00:26:35
Speaker
See, that's really nice because we're looking at a drawer front right now, which that looks like mahogany to me with ash on the sides of the drawer. So it's hand cut dovetails, but then there's a hand cut or hand turned, very elegant looking knob, which I'm assuming some kind of hardwood. Yeah, sitting in that scoop, that recess.
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, sitting in this really nice recess in the drawer. So that's what I love about like good furniture is like when you touch it, like the way your fingers are going to wrap around that knob. It's like almost sensual. It's like a beautiful thing about it. And it's not going to be cold like a piece of metal, you know.
00:27:19
Speaker
I just like the feel of things. Like that's like, how does, how do your hands feel when they interact with, that's the thing with furniture. There's an interaction, you know, between the human and this form. And you, uh, you definitely get that with his work here. Wow. This is pretty cool. That looks like. It's a pealy with Earl and somebody is okay.
00:27:48
Speaker
Peely curly maple catalogs. So this is one of those projects where you would go out and you would use that dovetail saw and that in that brass mallet. The only, the only thing is in order to use those tools, you don't have to, you kind of have to be in a place where you're not thinking about money. Right.
00:28:10
Speaker
You're not thinking about, okay, at the end of this job, am I going to get paid? Am I going to, is it going to turn out to $3 and 50 cents an hour? Yeah. Well, so the kitchen client, I was talking to her on a Wednesday when we did the initial install.
00:28:24
Speaker
And she's like, oh, so like, how'd you get into this? It's like a family business, blah, blah, blah. And we're talking, and she's like, yeah, my, I forget, uncle or something is a woodworker. He makes the most beautiful stuff, blah, blah, blah. And he's a hobbyist. I said, yeah, I said hobbyists make the most beautiful stuff because they don't have to make any money doing it. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Given unlimited time, you could make, this isn't a knock against hobbyists, but you know, there's things in the shop here are very restrictive.
00:28:53
Speaker
need to build what the client wants for the price that they want to pay. So that's the driving factor. Given unlimited budget and unlimited amount of time, you know, we could design and build some amazing stuff. But the reality is that those jobs go to very few people. This is cool. That's actually even a nice still life. Like before he entered the frame, that looked like a painting. Yeah, that is nice.
00:29:27
Speaker
That's like a very 90s idea, like the fake, fake window. Yeah. Did you like that though? Like, is that something that you would put in your home? No, no, definitely not. But I can appreciate the, I can appreciate it too. I like, uh, but when it comes to art, I generally, well, I have a, I have a pretty eclectic taste. That's a beautiful table. Yeah. When it comes to art, I like, I have a theory, right? Like, uh,
00:29:57
Speaker
A large painting occupies space,
Art and Design Discussions
00:30:00
Speaker
right? So it's occupying a large space on the wall and it's working with the architecture of the home. A small painting creates space, right? So that might go in an area where like a bathroom or a small foyer and that's where you sort of discover the painting and it creates, it makes the space a little bit bigger and doesn't really depend as much on the architecture of the home.
00:30:27
Speaker
So a small painting can kind of go anywhere where a large painting, I know that's kind of a, it's not something that anybody ever wants to admit to that the art needs to match the furniture. And I don't agree with that at all. I don't think the art should match the furniture. But I do think that there's sometimes, no matter how good the painting is, if it doesn't look right in the home, it's just not right. It just doesn't work. So maybe,
00:30:56
Speaker
something that looks good in the gallery might not look good in your house might not look good in my house you know absolutely so that's why when we had the art business i would eventually like it started with us going to two clients homes with you know three or four different paintings that the client had picked out in the gallery
00:31:16
Speaker
And then it evolved into dropping those paintings or maybe even a larger assortment of those paintings into the client's home after I made an initial appointment to photograph their home. So you would measure, you would take a picture of the, say it was going over the mantle, you would measure the mantle. The mantle was 70 inches wide and your painting was 50 inches wide. You then had a good idea of
00:31:42
Speaker
how to scale that painting to the room. And that ultimately changed our business because you didn't really need a commercial space anymore. And with Red Bank, the rent's just going up, the parking getting more difficult. So that was one of the big reasons why we ended up just shutting down the commercial space, not the commercial, but the brick and mortar space.
00:32:08
Speaker
I don't know now. I might be like, might be eight years ago. Wow. You know, I don't miss it at all. I don't miss paying rent or something I don't own. I did it for, I think, I don't know, close to 20 years, 15 or 20 years. Yeah. It hurts every month when I get that invoice. Yeah. Paying rent sucks. Yeah.
00:32:32
Speaker
And once you have a commercial space, it's sort of like, you know, anybody can walk in and I used to have people in my business, you would have a very small handful of clients and they would be great. And you're willing to sort of do whatever it takes to work for them. Then you'd also have people who I felt like they knew they were wasting my time. Tire kickers.
00:32:55
Speaker
Yeah. And I felt like I'd have people like ask me like, Oh, could I grab this painting from somewhere or like somebody who was never going to, to actually purchase something and they'd be like, they, they want the most time out of you. It's crazy. So I don't miss, I don't miss that.
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah, I get stuff like that here. Well, don't you have a thing on your website now where it's kind of like you kind of have to be somewhat serious to even have a conversation? Yeah. Well, so I have a new client questionnaire that you have to fill out.
00:33:30
Speaker
I don't always send everyone there. Like I got a call from a guy this morning and I had just ordered that stuff from Lowe's. So I thought maybe it was like a driver or something. So I picked up, usually I don't pick up. And he's like, hey, hey, is this Jeff? So I immediately knew that he was a referral from somebody.
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I am in Colts neck. I have, you know, want to do this closet, blah, blah, blah. I didn't send this guy to the questionnaire. He's already semi vetted. You know, I'm not going to invest a bunch of time, but I also don't want to turn him off by making him go fill out this.
00:34:03
Speaker
thing. It's often a feel thing. Yeah. You just got to get the feel for it. And not everybody's the same. Yeah. But yeah, you just like, uh, call and leave a voicemail. Hey, I'm looking for some work to get done. Can you call me back? No, it says on my voicemail. If you're a new client, go to the website, go to the contact page. And if you don't do that, I'm not calling you back.
00:34:24
Speaker
You can't. You can't do it because you're just not enough hours in the day. If you can't follow that most basic instruction, I don't want to work with you. Yeah. I've requested that you go to the website and fill out the form. If you want to work with me, then, you know,
00:34:40
Speaker
So what's going on? You're almost finished with this project. Last time we talked, you were dealing with the door situation. Yeah. Are they still on target to get here on the 7th? As far as I know, my last email went unanswered when I was asking if they could get them here by the 6th, which is tomorrow. So as far as I know, they should still be here on Wednesday, the 7th. So Cameron and I went up there last, so Tuesday. So we had the podcast we recorded on Monday.
00:35:09
Speaker
Tuesday, I rented a U-Haul 16 foot box truck. We filled it to the brim on Tuesday in that heat and drove up there and delivered everything, which wasn't too bad. The U-Haul sucks. It was such a heap.
00:35:28
Speaker
215,000, or no, no, I didn't have that many, 140,000 miles or something, but just- Did it have air conditioning? Yeah, but you know, it was such a dog. And when I got on it, we're on like, 287, 208, it's all hills up there. Because you can drive that on the parkway. No, so we had to take Turnpike to 287,
00:35:50
Speaker
to 208 to 17 or something like that. And it's all mountains up there. North Jersey's all mountains, if you don't know. And every time we're going up a hill, the motor's really struggling and the air conditioning just stops. Unreal. And the seats were all blown out. My back was killing me. My neck is killing me.
00:36:12
Speaker
So we got that done, we got back here, I think at a pretty reasonable time. Then Wednesday we shoot up there. We have to leave here at 6.30 to get there at eight. So leave shop at 6.30, get up there. I'm surprised you're not getting more traffic because that's like peak hours. Yeah, I think a little bit later is worse. Okay. Yeah. So it's like an hour and 15 minutes in the morning, actually. That's not bad. An hour and 20 minutes, two hours to get back.
00:36:40
Speaker
Two hours to get back. Yeah. You would think it'd be reverse flow, but wait, what time are you getting on the road to come back? Like we left there at four. Oh yeah. Okay. That's not good. So you have all the city traffic. If you were able to leave it like two. Right. But we had to get ready for templating. So we had to set all the cabinets, island, everything, uh, to be ready for templating. So that's what we did. We, it was actually, it went pretty smooth, uh, got everything set. You know, luckily the floor was pretty good. The walls were pretty good.
00:37:10
Speaker
So we got everything set aside from the fridge cabinet, which we didn't have to get done for templating. So we finished Wednesday for templating. Thursday, we're in the shop. Cameron was actually out sick. So I was here by myself. I built the fridge panel.
00:37:27
Speaker
because that's something I'm waiting for from Richelieu. So they need to start installing the appliances. They need to install the fridge that I can do the fridge panel. So I'm like, let me just make this one panel. So I fabricated that. I had to make a filler. What else? Yeah. So that you scribe that to the wall.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah, that I had a filler next to the, like on the sink run. Cause basically I wanted to set the cabinets equal and then just make the filler to fit rather than cut it on site. I figured we're coming back anyway. So, so I made that filler and then Keith and I went up there on Friday. Same thing left here, like six 30 and we left there. I want to say around like 12 30 or one. That's an early day for Keith because he's about an hour from you, isn't he? Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
I was like, Hey, I was like, we could leave a little bit later if you know, that's cool. Yeah. He's awesome.
Project Logistics and Challenges
00:38:20
Speaker
He, I think the move to this place.
00:38:24
Speaker
I don't know how you would have done it without Keith. Oh yeah. That truck was unbelievable. Yep. We would have had to rent like a, some kind of a Bobcat or something to, does he still have that truck? I mean, what's, does he use it that often? Uh, I think just when he has to like move something big, you know, cause that's just like a big work truck. I don't know what you use it for. Yeah. It's a pickup truck with a lift gate on it. Yep. That's cool. Forget what,
00:38:51
Speaker
I think he got rid of something. Was it one of his Jeeps? I don't remember. He drives like a, he drives a GTI as like his daily driver. Is he going to pick up this boss? Yeah, I don't know when. But he can use that. Yeah. Cause he, I thought he moved it here.
00:39:11
Speaker
Actually, Rob and I moved it here in the van. Oh, okay. That was one of the, we moved that. Oh, because it's on casters, you're able to get it up into the van. Yeah, with that loading ramp that we have. A treated wood loading ramp. Yeah. Which brings me to not so much my next project, but something I have to do.
00:39:29
Speaker
we have an outdoor shower and right now it's just, we've got a 36 inch bluestone in the back and the shower just goes onto the stone and the water eventually just evaporates, sinks into between the cracks, whatever, but it doesn't drain great. And I'm going to put a dry well. So I'm going to remove
00:39:48
Speaker
two of the stones that are closest to the shower, which will give me a 36 by six foot platform. And I'm going to dig down probably 18 inches. I'm going to put down landscape fabric. I'm going to fill it with stone. I already bought some. I was going to just buy the three quarter inch bluestone gravel, but I was at Lowe's and they didn't have that. And I ended up buying the white, but you're never going to see it anyway. Right.
00:40:16
Speaker
cheaper if you were just to buy the stone by the ton, but I didn't want to deal with a ton of stone. Yeah. Then they have a minimum delivery. Yeah. And it gets dumped and then you have to shovel it. And these are just a convenient bag. Sometimes you pay a little bit more for convenience. So the idea is to fill this six by three foot area with about 18 inches of stone.
00:40:39
Speaker
about three and a half inches, the size of a two by four to flush with the, with the blue stone. And then I'm going to deck over it.
00:40:50
Speaker
The easy answer is to deck over it with e-pack. This is inside of the shower. Or is it right outside of the shower? The shower is not enclosed. The kids would come home after surfing. Yeah, wash the sand off. After I cut the lawn. Mostly it's boys. My daughter really doesn't use it. Mostly the boys will just take a shower with their boxers on.
00:41:16
Speaker
If I cut the lawn, like I cut the lawn yesterday and it was a hot sweaty day and I just rinse off in that. So the decking, I'm thinking about using e-pay, but man, e-pay is just through the roof expensive. Yeah. What are they getting? Like $8 a foot, $9 a foot? Something like that. I didn't even look because the last time I bought it was a while ago and it was really high. So it's just going to be higher. Why don't you use teak?
00:41:42
Speaker
So I'm wondering what is, what would be, I mean, I could always, I don't want to use treated, I don't want to use treated decking. I think I may end up just paying for the e-pay, probably. Yeah. You know, they sell like these tiles, like these deck tiles that are probably made out of teak that you can probably get for inexpensive. Where do you get those?
00:42:04
Speaker
internet and they like clip together. Yeah. Okay. And they go on to like a, like a, some sort of a base, like a track kind of thing. And they snap in like a foot by foot. All right. Yeah. I'll look into that. So I'd have to frame it a little bit differently. Probably for that. Deck tiles. Yeah. Like something like this. Oh, look at that. Obviously Wayfair is not a good source, but all right. And then you could just picture frame it. Yeah.
00:42:33
Speaker
And then if, you know, if one gets messed up, you just pop it up. You know, 24 by 24. Wow. 50 bucks. That's not terrible. No, but, um, yeah, 24 by 24 is not really going to work for me because I got a three by six.
00:42:54
Speaker
I, I, you know, the easiest solution, I'll do the math, but I was wondering, I almost thought about cherry for just cause choice. So inexpensive. Yeah. And it's good outside. Yeah. But church good outside, but I don't know if it's good for like a bottom of shower. Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
I don't actually, Rob has a Adirondack chair made out of cherry that it's got to be over 10. No, probably 15, 20 years old outside. No finish. Well, the guys over at, um, what's your lumber yard? Okay.
00:43:30
Speaker
Now, Louis, Louis, Louis, who's who's your who's your contact there? What is it, Brian? It was Mike. And now it's Joe, I think. I think I talked with Mike and Mike was saying that Chury Chury is a good word for exterior use.
00:43:48
Speaker
But you bought up at a Rhonda chair. You want to talk about this pro bono project? Yeah. Yeah. So I ordered the material today. It should be coming at some point from Lowe's. Um, Kingsburg approached me. They did a little bit of a bait and switch on me. Not a bait and switch, but they, you know, when you like give somebody something and then ask for something. So they were like,
00:44:08
Speaker
Hey, you know, the mayor was asking on your rendering that you gave us when you went in front of the town council, you showed some planners outside. The mayor was just wondering if you're still going to do that. We have a couple of planners that, you know, you might see them around town. We could just drop off. I'm like, yeah, it sounds great. They're like, yeah, by the way, you know, those big beach chairs that you see, you know, and all these beach towns, like a giant Adirondack chair. I'm like, yeah, they're like,
00:44:35
Speaker
Well, the town wants to make one. We'd wonder if you would, uh, if, you know, if we paid for the material, if you would build it. I see. I hate stuff like that because I mean, this was okay. We'll just ask the mayor to pay for it. Yeah. I mean,
00:44:51
Speaker
why should you have to pay for this? Why should you have to give your time to this? I know you're going to do it because you already said so now, once you say you're going to do it. So that's why I wrote on my notes, always say no. And it's not to be a jerk. It's just that people will ask you to do stuff and all of a sudden you're like, all of a sudden I'm doing something that I didn't have the time to do in the first place. I'm not getting paid for it.
00:45:16
Speaker
I mean, you're not going to get any, in my view, you're not going to get any business from me. Somebody's not going to, somebody's going to not see that chair and be like, Oh, I need to have a kitchen. Yeah. Yeah, man. I want one of these chairs too.
00:45:28
Speaker
Uh, my whole thing was, you know, I was like, I was like, listen, I'll do it. I'm not doing any finishing because I figured building the chairs. That's pretty easy. All right. Um, you know, it's, it's made out of fur framing material and, and the main driver was, I thought it would make a cool video. Yeah. So we'll do that.
00:45:51
Speaker
So you'll get to see what we're talking about. Yeah. Uh, cause Jeff, Jeff sent me a text and I think I was like, now I said, you don't want to do that. I don't know what I said, but I was like, are they paying you? And I think I might've said, are you getting paid? Um, now you say far it's not going to be treated.
00:46:08
Speaker
No, it's just, and they're going to, they're going to be responsible for some kind of finish. I like it better that it's not treated. I'm not messing around with treated wood. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a pain in the ass. So, uh, Douglas first good. The funny thing is if you were making out of pine, I don't know if I could shoot it. I can't be near pine. Yeah, actually this is, these are the plans. So I, I just went and found somebody's two by six, two by 12, two by 10, uh, two by 12, two by 12, two by
00:46:38
Speaker
12 tens, eight and sixes. I think we could do a video just on the material. Let's see what, when you order material from Lowe's, what comes? Yeah, I'm hoping they're not messed up. That's what I mean. Like I'm looking at this and I'm like, okay, he's getting two by twelves. What kind of bananas are these things going to look like? Right. And like, I would rather go pick them out myself, but again, I'm not taking that time now. Is there a delivery fee from Lowe's?
00:47:03
Speaker
It was free. Because it's so much? I guess, yeah. So let's see.
00:47:14
Speaker
Just got the order has been prepared. Yeah. So I got three two by tens or two by eights. Uh, I got four things, a PL, a box of a two and seven ACE like, um, timber locks. Sure. Two by 12, six of those.
00:47:38
Speaker
You have your total? Two, two by sixes, 360 bucks. And I got a five pound box of three inch screws. All right.
00:47:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think you got two videos here. What comes when you order your lumber? Because I'm not trying to pick on Lowe's or Home Depot, but I've never been impressed with either of them. I mean, my feeling is if you want to have an extra exercise and frustration, just go to either of those places. Yeah.
00:48:09
Speaker
If I go to Mometh, not Mometh, Monteith, I know that they're expensive, but I see Eddie there and shoot the breeze with Eddie. It's a great experience. I'm paying more money. They do give me a little bit of a break. They should almost give me a lot of a break because a lot of people send me notes on how they've learned about Monteith from my channel. I even shot a video there with Buzzy when he worked there.
00:48:35
Speaker
But great experience at Monteith. If I'm going to buy any kind of hardware or just about any kind of thing, when I'm working on the house, I go to Jaspin Hardware. And, you know, right away, you're going to see Jack or Brian or Chuck. And they're all just super nice guys. And it's almost like a it's a great experience. But you go to Lowe's and it's just like, oh, my God, I got it. I have to go here because there's no lumber yards anymore. I mean, yeah, you could go to Builders General. You go to Builders General. You go to Mamath Mamath.
00:49:05
Speaker
I don't know if I like going to Mammoth. I don't like Mammoth Building Center. I only go there if I can't get what I need at Builders General. See, I find everybody at Builders General great. I've had like one or two guys at Builders at Mammoth just not be pleasant. Yeah. Right. And I'm like, you know what? You guys are a little bit further of a drive. I'm not going to come here anymore.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah. And like, so I used to be at Builders General multiple times a week when I was a carpenter, you know, I'm always picking up material. And you're right there though, because that's like right next to Rumson Ferry. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's where all your jobs were probably close to that. Yep. And like knew all the sales desk guys by name. I go in there now. I recognize one or two people. That's another turnover. Yeah.
00:49:51
Speaker
but you go in the yard there and everybody's pretty nice. Yeah. Yeah. The guys in the yard are great. Um, yeah, I like builders, but even there you gotta go
Pro Bono Projects and Content Creation
00:50:00
Speaker
out there into the outdoor yard and pick through and
00:50:04
Speaker
You and I take it for granted, there's a little bit of a confidence that you have to have to go into a lumber yard, where you don't need that in a home store. Yeah. You go to builders or mamas, there's a little bit of a machismo. This guy has no clue what he's doing. You might feel a little judged if you're just some homeowner guy in a
00:50:28
Speaker
You know, in an SUV or a car, you got to drive back into the lumber yard, you know, pick your stuff out, drive up to the gate. They got to check what you have. It could be intimidating.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think I've heard that. I mean, I've been going to Lumberyard since I was a kid, but there is a little bit of that. That's why I always say Monteith is great because you can go pick through an entire pot. You can spend an hour there. I mean, you do have to have a little Lumberyard etiquette. If you're going to pick through it, well, put it back. Yeah. They don't sell dimensional lumber at Monteith. They do two by fours and stuff.
00:51:01
Speaker
No, they do sell some plywood, which I never buy there, but. It's expensive. Yeah, they are expensive. Monteith is very, very expensive. And especially after buying the material that I bought for the sauna that is sometime going to get built. It will get built. After, after buying that at Lewis and just the how easy it was, you know, with a straight line rip.
00:51:30
Speaker
I can't see. I just can't bring myself to spend, I don't know how much it is. It might be $4 a linear foot for a one by six of poplar. And the quality from Lewis is amazing. You can get more material for this. Even if you just spend the same amount of money, you could get double the material and then have it for something else. And you just spend a little extra money on milling. So I had the boards plane down to three quarter.
00:51:59
Speaker
So that means they're clean on two faces. And I also had a straight line rip. So they're mostly 10 footers. I think I got mostly eight or 10 footers or somewhere between eight and 10 feet, maybe nine and 10 feet because the dimensions work out for the sauna dimensions. I forget, we worked it out though.
00:52:16
Speaker
But with that straight line rip, it's just so easy. I went through the lumber and basically got it to its closest dimension because I think I've got five and a half, six and a half, and seven and a half. And I just kind of piled those boards up and then I just ripped them all down. And it's kind of nice actually.
00:52:36
Speaker
not having to think, you know, you just kind of behind the table saw for, you know, an hour and a half, two hours. And, uh, and you end up with this great material. I mean, and I think it was like 200 bucks or something. It was very little. Yeah. Cause I ordered Oak. I think it was, uh, I have a thousand dollar minimum, so it must've been 500.
00:52:59
Speaker
Something that, okay, there you go, yeah. It wasn't a lot though. And I mean, if you didn't hear any of these conversations, I'm using Poplar for the interior of the sauna because Poplar is one of the 10 woods suggested. I think there's, everybody knows Cedar, but Cedar is just through the roof expensive. And also if you go into a sauna, you'll notice a Cedar sauna, you'll notice that it's mostly clear.
00:53:26
Speaker
And the main reason for that is the knots are so dense. They're talking about the heat. So you could lean up something. Now you could lean up against the knot. Like, I guess it burns like so that you're so soft. You know, that's what would turn me off. It's like, you know, just like it hit it with anything. It's going to dent. Yeah. But I guess the idea there is it it hardwood. You might burn yourself on. Yeah. So I thought about using cherry.
00:53:54
Speaker
but the fact that cherry was a little bit harder. And also somebody said that cherry bark contains like a natural Sinai in it. And I was like, okay, I don't know anything about that, but I don't feel like finding out just later. I did try to find some things about it online. Didn't really see much, but I was like, okay. And then a friend I follow on Instagram, the lawn whisperer,
00:54:21
Speaker
He, he DM'd me saying that the sauna at his public gym is popular and it's great. So my only reason for not using popular is it's such a light color wood, it would get dirty, but it naturally yellows. Yeah.
00:54:37
Speaker
I'm not so worried about the walls getting dirty and I'm going to design it so the bench can be taken out and cleaned with bleach or power washed or something like that. Because that's the only thing that I think would get dirty. And it's not like it's in a public place. It's basically me and some of my kids. Maybe my wife will use it if it ever gets done.
00:54:59
Speaker
Well, you're, you're too far along to back out now. Yeah. I've got the framing material and the, and the, uh, shiplap material. So I am too far along. That doesn't mean anything. I bought the material for my kitchen, I think in 2020 and you're not using it. No, that's the even funnier part. Yeah. Oh man. So you've got a lot of extra, is that all pre-finished apply with that you bought or is there no finish on it at all? There's pre-fin one side, pre-fin two side and half inch, pre-fin one side.
00:55:26
Speaker
That's the, that's the old stuff. That's the Garnica. Yeah. Okay. And why'd you decide not to use it? I didn't have enough to, uh, like send up to the CNC guy. I would have like, I would have went and dropped it off, but like the quantities didn't cause I already use some of it for cause I have cabinets that I made. Sure. Um, so there just wasn't enough and I couldn't, Fez didn't have it anymore.
00:55:50
Speaker
So you'll end up just using that up over the years. I mean, three quarter inch per plywood, you'll use it on something. Oh yeah. For sure. Yeah. Like, uh, you know, next job I get in the shop that needs pre-fin. I'll just use that. Is your kitchen cut? Yeah. And it's here? Yeah. It's just not edge banded. And when you start in that? Um, when I get back from my WF.
00:56:13
Speaker
And your floors in your house are done. No. So you got to have your floors done before your kitchen goes in. I got to do that. I got to paint, you know, I, so I, I did one coat of primer, but then the spackle guy had to come back because I found, you know, a bunch of issues. So they had to fix that. Um, so I need to prime probably want to, you know, get a coat of paint on the walls. I have a three windows that I still need to put in.
00:56:41
Speaker
I saw those in your shed on the shed video. Well, you'll be busy. Yeah. And you're getting back from IWF on Thursday? No, Sunday. I leave Wednesday and I'm back on Sunday. So how long will you be at the show? Is it like a Thursday and Friday? So the show is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Obviously I'll only be there for like a half a day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
00:57:09
Speaker
And then you're just going to have some R&R with your family. Yeah. Nice. I'm sure Hunter's excited. It's always nice to get away. You got a pool in the hotel. Yeah. It's almost a prerequisite when you have a kid. My wife was like, Oh, you excited to swim in the hotel pool? I'm like, there is a pool, right? I'm like, before you start, you know, promising. Yeah. If we had to check, it's actually an outdoor pool. Oh, nice. Yeah. That's going to be great. It's a nice hotel. It's, um, it overlooks like the Mercedes, um,
00:57:40
Speaker
Uh, stadium. Okay. It's amazing how long a kid, I mean, a kid will just stay in the pool all day long. Oh yeah. And he, he's a, he likes to swim. So you got to have all this stuff. You got to have his little goggles and, uh, some diving toys. I always get confused when I go to Google maps. Oh, here we go. Settle way. How far is the hotel from the convention center?
00:58:08
Speaker
It's, it is in the, that's nice. Yeah. So here's the hotel and here's that stadium. There's the hotel and there's that. It's a new stadium for the Falcons. Okay. Cool. Wow. Pretty cool looking. It's so funny like football and uh,
00:58:31
Speaker
As you get older, you sort of know what you like. And I get invited sometimes. I think, did we talk about this? But I'll get invited to like go to a football game and like, you know, 10 or 20 years ago, I'd have been like, Oh yeah, I'll do that. Now I'm like, I just know I don't enjoy it. So I'm like, no thanks. Yeah. Like, Oh, to like go to an NFL game. I got invited to go watch a hockey game and nothing against that. It's just not for me. Hockey. I might go see football. No.
00:59:01
Speaker
I got turned on to watching hockey maybe 20 years ago. My uncle was into it. So that made it fun to watch. And also I was watching hockey when the US won the Olympics against Russia. I think it was in fifth grade. That was like a big deal. So I did get kind of into that, but I just know
00:59:22
Speaker
you get to a place in your life and you sort of know your routine and what you like. And it's better to just be like, okay, this is where I'll put my time and this is where I won't. So my cousin, Dave asked me if I wanted to go canoeing, I guess they're doing a whole trip in the Delaware. And that sounds like a lot of fun cause I like all the guys, guys and gals, family members.
00:59:47
Speaker
But then it's like two hours and 30 minutes from my drive. It's an hour for them because they all live in North Jersey. So five hours in the car on a Sunday.
00:59:58
Speaker
And I was just like, it's just better to ruin your Monday instead of saying to them, Oh yeah, I might want to do that. And like, you just get to know yourself. You're like, no, I'm not going to do that. So we were at a family party last weekend and my, my nephew who's now about your age was standing next to me and Dave brought it up. I was like, yeah, thanks, but now it's not for me. And Tanner just laughed because that's awesome. It's so cool that you know yourself. So.
01:00:24
Speaker
Uh, I had a question. Did Corey started a podcast or has he been doing a podcast from CT woodworks? He was just on working hands. Keith's podcast. Okay. Well, I wanted to listen to that, but he, he, we were going back and forth on DM and he said something like, uh, you'll have to come on the podcast. And, um, cause I said, I'm looking forward to seeing you again up at maker's camp because I maybe before that, uh, on the, you can be on the podcast. So it's news to me if you did.
01:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I'm just trying to see. Yeah, because I, I didn't.
01:01:03
Speaker
Maybe sooner than that, I could come on. Oh, I could come on the podcast. Yeah, that'd be great. That'd be awesome. Also, we've talked about Cory before, off season. We don't want to do it in the summertime. It'd be great to go to his shop and shoot an episode of Today's Craftsman. Definitely would be fun to do that. I love that area. And I haven't been there in probably 20 years. His shop's cool. I bet.
01:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's like really like a little slice of paradise back, you know. I'm a little jealous. Yeah, it's cool. He's got a big yard and the shop, the shop, you don't really see that much of the shop on Instagram. Yeah. You know what it is? It'd be good to see it from a drone's point of view. Yeah. But at the same time, you kind of want your privacy.
01:01:55
Speaker
That is the nice thing about a commercial space. You can sort of show more of it, because it's not where you live. Yeah, this is already out there. You could just go online and find out where the shop is. I don't have to worry about, you know, somebody finding out where it is. They already know.
01:02:13
Speaker
Exactly. I remember I think it was probably April Wilkinson talking about sometimes people will find out where she lives. And that's kind of a little, little weird.
01:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that's like before we like really knew each other personally. Like I just drove by your house. I was like, Holy shit. I was like, that's John Peter's house. And that's gotta be weird. You know? Yeah. A few people know, a few people know where I live, but not too, too many. Cause the barn is just so recognizable. You drive by it. You're like, Oh, there's the barn. Yeah. Cause I used to use the bat in like a drone shot. Cause I thought it's not, it's kind of a cool looking thing. I don't do it anymore. Cause I just kind of get right into the meat and potatoes of the video because I feel like
01:02:58
Speaker
Intros, nobody cares. Yeah, no, they can't be like long, you know.
01:03:04
Speaker
I sometimes I'll search something and I'll get like a 45 second intro of something going on. I'm like, holy cow. I cannot believe I'm waiting here for this, you know? And then you start to scrub past it. So yeah, right now it's just, if I have a sponsor, I might give them a 15 seconds shout out in the beginning. Uh, but mostly I just get right to it. Just like we do here on today's craftsman. Now we do get a sponsor.
01:03:31
Speaker
I think we can do a 15 to 30 second shout out with the product because I also think that I think that the viewers who are tuning into today's craftsmen are maybe they're more focused.
01:03:46
Speaker
on what you're saying and they're not coming here. They didn't just click on it. Exactly. So they may even find it interesting that we've actually found a product that we endorse that has actually helped paying for it. Yeah. So it's all good.
01:04:02
Speaker
The worst is when you are trying to do a how-to. I forget what I was doing. How to check if a capacitor is bad. And I click on a video and it's taken two, three minutes. I'm like, dude, get to the point. I don't need your intro. Tell me your life story. This is a how-to video. Get right to how to check it. That's absolutely true. And I think that going into the future, we got to figure out what are good
01:04:31
Speaker
problems that we can solve in a three to five minute video. Because I do think, like I made a video on changing the tire in my pickup truck, how to get the spare out. I think it's two minutes and 30 seconds, the entire video. And it's got at least more than a hundred thousand views.
01:04:52
Speaker
And the comments you get back from that is like, oh, you saved my life. I was on the side of the road because it's a little complicated. You don't have to jump a Mercedes Sprinter. Yeah, we had a hell of a time with that. The battery is in the cab. You got to take the whole floor up.
01:05:05
Speaker
I didn't find out until the next day that there's a way to jump it from the engine bay. We really need to discipline ourselves to make these three to five minute, just bare bones right to the point videos because yeah, I don't want to know the name of your dog when I'm coming over here to figure out this question. Cause I'm in trouble. I need to know right now, you know? So we should do that. We should definitely, I know I have it on our notes, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. So I actually think that
01:05:35
Speaker
when we get into the fall, I'm going to work my schedule around. So I'm like sitting at a desk here from like whatever 10 a.m. Like maybe after we shoot the podcast, I hang out for three or four hours and just build that in like, OK, that's going to be every and work on shorts and also work on the video that we just shot in case I need some extra B roll. And I think that would be a good use of time, something to
01:06:01
Speaker
Uh, something to definitely focus on getting into September. I think the shorts too, it's like literally everything that's ever happening in there is worthy of a short or a real, but it's all about cap capturing it and having that outside perspective of, Oh, wow. That's cool. Cause to me, none of this stuff is cool anymore. I agree. It's all just month. It's this every day mundane. Um, it's all very focused, uh, like.
01:06:29
Speaker
whatever goal-oriented it's like we're just trying to get the job done. Yeah, I think it'd be a good use of time to kind of get done the things I need to get done to get the video out on Saturday and then just walk around the shop sort of see what you're working on and then just make really try to get one short or one Instagram real.
01:06:49
Speaker
four to six days a week. And then I think that would really help build the channel. And also the, or the Instagram, and then the shorts, the thing with shorts is it's like gambling. Cause you have a short takes off. I've mentioned it before, but that one short has gained 213,000 subscribers. Now, again, it doesn't really mean anything, but I think it's gotten me close to a million. So I think once I get over a million,
01:07:19
Speaker
If somebody says, oh, what do you do? I've got a YouTube channel. It's got more than a million subscribers. All of a sudden you're taking a little more serious. So if we can get a short that gains us 60,000 subscribers, I think that'd be great. And I think it's totally doable. It's just about just got to keep pushing out the content.
01:07:38
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, I know a couple of guys who became really focused on growing their YouTubes and Instagram specifically and TikTok. And that's what they did. It's like one or two every day. And that's the secret sauce. That's how they did it. And they're huge now. They're full time.
01:07:57
Speaker
Oh, I'm going to have to do that. And I think maybe I'll take over doing the, um, tick tock. So, um, I have, we, we have one. Yeah. So once we get, once I get over here, I'll get the logins to that. Cause I can even post a lot of my old content.
01:08:17
Speaker
re-edit it a little bit differently. Things that blew up on my Instagram with more than a million views and put them on TikTok and that could get the tick. Cause now people are paying for TikTok. Yeah. We'll see how long it's still around, but yeah, I think it is going to stick around. Yeah. We're about to hit 3 million on that, uh, Craig jig reel. And meanwhile, it didn't do anything on YouTube. Yeah. So who knows? Yeah. Yeah. It's like you said, it's a crapshoot.
01:08:43
Speaker
That's for sure. So unless you got anything else going on, I think, uh, we've been on here a while, right? Yeah. Let's see. We've got a comment of the week. I, uh, I haven't responded to the comments yet. It's only Monday, but, um, let's see. Well, I know the comment of the one I like because it's going to, it's going to give us, um, uh, a good video and that is the whole process.
01:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, I have it right here. Yeah, you do it. So this is from Finnesen. F-I-N-I-S-O-N-1. Finnesen 1. Request for video would be nice to see an entire cabinet set, doors, drawers, and carcasses painting process from start to finish. Staging, painting, how you get them out of the way to dry them and get the next piece ready, et cetera. Then how you handle, sorry. Then how you handle prep them for shipping as to not damage the finish.
01:09:38
Speaker
See, I'd like to do that. And I think that maybe if we could get potentially Apollo, potentially general finishes, it'd be great to get that one sponsored because I could see that being like a 45 minute video. And maybe it's your kitchen. We don't have to do the install, but everything else. So it really comes down to your time. If you've got the time, I'll make the time. And cause that's going to be more than a one day shoot.
01:10:04
Speaker
Oh
Content Planning and Audience Interaction
01:10:05
Speaker
yeah. Yeah, for sure. It might even take two weeks. Yeah. You know, jumping around, whatever, but it would be good to see the, um, you know, the raw material, whether that's the MDF doors or whatever it is. So, uh, yeah, just let me know and I'll work around my, I'll make my schedule work around it cause that'd be a good one. But at the same time, I do think we hold on to it until we get paid for it by a few potential sponsors.
01:10:34
Speaker
Yeah. Cause you don't want to like have to phone parts in, you know, for the sake of time. Absolutely. So that's a good one. That was a great comment. Yeah. A lot of great comments. Thanks everybody for leaving the comments. Like I said, Jeff usually responds to those and you do a great job at it. It might take you a few days, but we do read them all. Yeah. I know that's, I look forward to reading all the comments on not only my channel, but on today's craftsman. I,
01:11:01
Speaker
within an hour, I'm always checking any comments yet, you know. And I love, you know, we get comments from a lot of the same people every week, that Bill, Tim, Rick, yes, Peely Steve. Yeah. Like there's a ton of guys who, you know, and we really appreciate the support and for sure that they liked the videos. Cool, man. Yeah. So, uh, make sure you leave your comment. You could be coming to the week next week. That's it.
01:11:29
Speaker
All right. Talk to you next week. All right. Have a great week, guys.