Season 1 Episode 1
-
-
Amazing what a basic project he used for his first episode.
Is he still doing any TV?
ETA: "The blade guard has been removed for photographic clarity."
Um...you can't cut finger joints with a blade guard in place.
ETA again: Interesting that he used the radial arm saw for the half-lap joints of the case but when it came to cutting tenons for the door, he did them on his tablesaw.
ETA again again: Hope that mirror never breaks because it's not replaceable. Also, using dowels to reinforce his mortise-tenon joint is probably not necessary, but ... if you're going to use dowels, at least make them yourself and and ensure that they're side grain, not end grain.
-
On the YT channel, the producer of the show does a short tour of the shop. He says that Norm still drops by to putter with something every now and then.
The shop is not Norm's, although Norm built it for the producer. Being impressed with Norm's scrap pile (or lack of scraps) during the build, the producer asked Norm to be on a show he was producing.
The show was This Old House. They later went back and reworked the shop a bit to make filming easier, and started filming The New Yankee Workshop.
Why start putting the series on YouTube? Money, I guess...
-
It's interesting to look at some of the equipment in that episode. That router table is SO small. I built my own which was at least twice as large and make milling large pieces easier (and safer).
A radial arm saw? Really? If I'm not mistaken, it looks like a
CrapsmanCraftsman. I had one of those - for about a year. Hated it.He casually mentions that he "cut a groove down the center of the rail" by centering the ¼" dado blade. Centering a blade is damn hard to do, and in my hands, impossible. A better, easier, and more accurate technique is to approximate the center, run the board through the blade, and then flip the board end for end. Run it through again. Auto-centered.
Finally, he talks about that trick of mixing some sawdust with glue to fill gaps in a finger joint. Great tip. Should have used it on the miter joint of the door.
-
Or maybe not. My first cousin retired a couple of years ago and his big project this winter has be redoing his wife's kitchen. He's done all the work, from floors to cabinets.
His hand slipped while sawing a couple of weeks ago...They reattached the two fingers, but I heard yesterday it doesn't look like he's going to regain function.
-
I always enjoyed watching Norm work. His workmanship was, well, workman-like. I'm no pro, but I can follow a set of instructions, and occasionally I can design something serviceable, like my desk.
But I enjoy nit-picking his technique, and I always thought he used nails too often.
