Shopsmith Forums

About Norm and the New Yankee Workshop, you can watch a free episode weekly on the web site :
newyankee.com
click on the image on the right side and watch this week's : the jig making part #1.
Or you can order yourself the whole series of programs for 2999$ and watch it when you wish. Put that on my next Christmas gift's list. I am not sure Santa will agree ....

camerio wrote:About Norm and the New Yankee Workshop, you can watch a free episode weekly on the web site :
newyankee.com
click on the image on the right side and watch this week's : the jig making part #1.
Or you can order yourself the whole series of programs for 2999$ and watch it when you wish. Put that on my next Christmas gift's list. I am not sure Santa will agree ....

Thank you posting this reminder. I have watched Norm here before but it was then a different format. I really like this. You can't build (well maybe you can) from the details provided here but it does serve as a good motivator. Ahh, I need one of those.

I added a circle jig to my list of "small shop projects" that are needed.

All the programs were very well done and very interesting with no "hoop la", no special effects with noise behind it or music during an operation with the saw. I hate those new shows where they feel they have to have music behind the one speaking.
Coming back to the New Yankee Workshop, the shows on Jigs and the one where he made his own router station were my favourite ones and I am glad I can go and watch them again on the web site. I go every week to see the free show that we can watch that week.

Well in my opinion the gold standard of woodworking shows is New Yankee Workshop. No one was as thorough or interesting as Norm. Tommy Mac is talented but has a way to go in my opinion. But if you look at the very first NYWS episodes you may agree Norm has developed his presentation skills over the years too. Makes me wonder, did Norm retire, or were his ratings down, or was there some issue with the producers that he was forced out?

I like the Woodsmith Shop. The presenters are the same people behind the print magazines Woodsmith and Shopnotes. They are writers and woodworkers. Don the big guy is the publisher. Maybe they're not polished presenters or perfect human specimens but their show is pretty good all in all. I am thinking of gettting the entire set of Shopnotes or Woodsmith magazines or both on DVD, based on positive feedback here.

I recently started listening via podcast to Wood Talk Online and enjoying that while in the shop or in the car or anywhere I can just listen. It's put together by 3 guys: Marc Spagnuolo, Matt Vanderlist, and Shannon Rogers. I believe one of them is the Wood Whisperer, which if you do any amount of googling on a given woodworking subject you find his stuff.

I agree with New Yankee being one of the best shows out there. As a matter of fact, when Norm first started New Yankee, he was using a Shopsmith. Soon afterwards, with the need for additional revenue, Delta stepped in and well, the rest is history, but fascinating non the less that he started out using a Shopsmith on his show.
Thought I'd just throw that out.
Stan

Despite my complaints about it, I do enjoy the Woodsmith Shop. And I do find the magazines they publish to be quite useful.

But, as for most useful TV shows... I'd have to go with Norm's New Yankee Workshop and and WoodWorks With David Marks. For online videos, I find The Wood Whisperer and Woodworking For Mere Mortals both useful and entertaining.

transplanted wrote:I agree with New Yankee being one of the best shows out there. As a matter of fact, when Norm first started New Yankee, he was using a Shopsmith. Soon afterwards, with the need for additional revenue, Delta stepped in and well, the rest is history, but fascinating non the less that he started out using a Shopsmith on his show.
Thought I'd just throw that out.
Stan

But by Norm's own words he was not a fan of the Shopsmith. In fact in one of the Q&A's Norm recommends against the Shopsmith. So I don't think we want to remember Norm because of his use of a Shopsmith.

However I believe that if Norm ever had to deal with limited shop space his opinion of the Shopsmith would have changed.

New Yankee was an excellent program and yes over the years it matured and refined itself. I think the program done by Woodsmith authors will do the same thing. I don't hold a lot of hope for Rough Cuts but I have been wrong before. American Woodworker has been an on again off again work for as long as 30 years or so. The Woodwright with Roy Underhill is always entertaining and I learn of old woodworking ways but very little I can apply to my woodworking today.

As for magazines Wood in my opinion is the best for me. Fine Woodworking is fun to look at but I consider it way beyond me. The rest are little more than echo's of the each other with the exception of the Woodsmith and Shopnotes which are unique unto themselves. I enjoy both but I must admit I do miss the ads. I see ads as a way to stay abreast of the latest technology in wood working today.

This is Norm using his Shopsmith in Season 1 Episode 3 Drop Leaf Table (1989).

Lathe duplicator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFJrPRRylls#t=4m39s

Mortiser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFJrPRRylls#t=5m51s

You can watch the entire video from the start by using the youtube controls.

I live, by choice, in a pretty patch of woods some distance from the big city where I commute to work daily. So broadband Internet was slow in arriving. But after finally suffering through the requisite cable burying & pulling, Wifi modem setup, and iPad/iOS learning curve, online content has almost completely replaced TV viewing for me. Except, of course, for Saturday morning handyman and woodworking shows on PBS.

I have found one woodworking guy online who serves TWO very useful purposes. First, if you are as new as I am to woodworking, he explains the fundamentals in exhaustive detail. I learn a lot. Second, he speaks very slowly (and I was born and raised in Tennessee). It is a REAL challenge to stay awake if you are at all sleepy. Bottom line: perfect antidote to a busy/stressful workday. 1) Learn something while still awake. 2) Non-narcotic sleep aid. Check it out: http://www.cn-woodworking.com/. The twenty-some-odd "pie safe" videos illustrate the best of both worlds.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:I live, by choice, in a pretty patch of woods some distance from the big city where I commute to work daily. So broadband Internet was slow in arriving. But after finally suffering through the requisite cable burying & pulling, Wifi modem setup, and iPad/iOS learning curve, online content has almost completely replaced TV viewing for me. Except, of course, for Saturday morning handyman and woodworking shows on PBS.

I have found one woodworking guy online who serves TWO very useful purposes. First, if you are as new as I am to woodworking, he explains the fundamentals in exhaustive detail. I learn a lot. Second, he speaks very slowly (and I was born and raised in Tennessee). It is a REAL challenge to stay awake if you are at all sleepy. Bottom line: perfect antidote to a busy/stressful workday. 1) Learn something while still awake. 2) Non-narcotic sleep aid. Check it out: http://www.cn-woodworking.com/. The twenty-some-odd "pie safe" videos illustrate the best of both worlds.

For $22 a month he would have to be good. In fact I can probably do a project and fix most of the my goof ups that he would hopefully prevent for less than that. Tow of three more shows like and I be paying more than I do for cable, internet and phone.