The Novice Garage Woodworker: Recent Episodes
Erik Pearson
Howdy! I’m Erik Pearson and welcome to The Novice Garage Woodworker, the online woodworking how-to source for novice woodworkers, by novice woodworkers.
The Novice Garage Woodworker will be about my journey from Beginner to Craftsman. It’ll be a great trip, and I’m glad you’re along for the ride.
LIVESTRONG will have a strong presence at the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race, "The Race Across the Skies."
Look for the LIVESTRONG booth on Harrison Avenue near the start / finish line at 6th street. This is at the light in front of the Lake County Courthouse. We will be there from about 6am until the race finishes. Come hang out and spread the LIVESTRONG message, share your cancer stories, support the racers and the Leadville community. Let's try to raise $2000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, one dollar for each racer.
Come Early, Wear Yellow, Be Loud, Stay Late
WHAT: LIVESTRONG Booth at Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race
WHEN: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 6am until the race ends
WHERE: Harrison Avenue and 6th Street, Leadville, CO
Ron Black (l) and Eric Letzler (r)
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Ron Black, manager of the Denver Woodcraft store, passed away suddenly on December 9, 2008, at the age of 44.
I last saw Ron the week before he died, and he greeted me with a smile much like the one in the photo (that's Ron on the left with Eric Letzler, owner of the Denver Woodcraft store). Each time I walked into the store Ron would shout out "Hey Erik's here, double the prices!"
No matter how busy he was, Ron always took time to talk to the customers and never tired of teaching someone about woodworking. He was an avid woodturner and was directly responsible for getting me hooked on pen turning.
Ron may be gone, but his influence lives on in all the woodworkers he touched and inspired. I'll miss you buddy.
Armoire by Chris McGinness
Originally uploaded by The Novice Garage WoodworkerIt seems the whole world is on a green living kick these days. How does that affect woodworkers? In this episode we visit a Parade of Homes, examine the craftsmanship of one Colorado woodworker, and do some dumpster diving.
Click to Play
After listening to this episode, be sure to complete the 3 survey questions in the sidebar to the right.
Show Links:
Chris McGinness - McGinness Custom Woodworks
One Big Ass Dumpster - 40-yard dumpster
Click to Play In this conversation with Michael Dove, of KaytrimsKustoms, we discuss his work on video game controllers, the games themselves, and much, much more!
Click to Play Shannon Rogers, from the RenaissanceWoodworker and Rogers Fine Woodworking, joins Rick in a general woodworking discussion. A few tips for beginners sprinkled in here and there.
Click to Play Erik and I had the opportunity to have a great conversation with Marc Spagnuolo, of The Wood Whisperer, about his woodowrking background, his company, and generally anything that crossed our minds. Marc was a great guest and even recorded the conversation for us due to our technical difficulties. Thanks Marc!!!
Click to Play Rick and Erik wrap up their conversation on beginners' impovs and substituions.
Also, we are looking for guests on the show to talk about their experiences as beginners in woodworking. Even if you have been doing it for a long time, we'd love to have you on the show.
Click to Play This is part 1 of a 2 part series about how beginners can/will improvize in the absence of a tool. We will cover what are some good improvs, and some bad ones.
Erik and Rick (Rick Waters, from The Splintered Board Podcast) finally got their stuff together and recorded the introduction to The Sawdust Chronicles.
Download the podcast and find out why we are starting up a joint podcast.
As a new woodworker, there are a ton of things you need to learn and be aware of - most are for your own safety. While making the craft less intimidating, we want to help remove the ambiguity of some woodworking terms, techniques, plans, etc.
Join us as novice woodworkers try to help novice woodworkers.
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Today at The Novice Garage Woodworker we are introducing our new web page design, which we think you'll find more pleasing to the eye and easier to navigate. All the content is still here, and the information you've been used to seeing on either side of the main posts can now be accessed via the menu bar below our logo.
Please let us know what you think.
On behalf of all of us at The Novice Garage Woodworker, I want to extend our sincere thanks to all of our loyal viewers / listeners / readers. Because of you our reach has expanded farther than we could have ever imagined. Most of our audience is in the United States, but in the last 2 weeks we've seen visitors from the countries listed in the sidebar, in no particular order.
So, THANK YOU! Please let me know any ideas or suggestions you'd like see from the show, and we'll do our best to incorporate them. Until next time, let's be careful out there!
A quick update, due to technical difficulties this video episode is not currently available via iTunes, which sucks because that's where the majority of our audience gets the show. It will only be available on our website for the time being. Thanks for your understanding.
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Recently uncovered from the vault here at The Novice Garage Woodworker is the original Episode 2 video. Thankfully Geraldo Rivera was not on hand to help us with the unveiling! Listen to this short audio introduction, then enjoy the video.
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It's been almost a year since my last post, and a lot happened during that time. Hopefully this episode will clear up a few things, but please let me know if you have any questions.
All that said, I am going to continue thIs podcast, and I'm working on a few things right now, so please stay tuned. Thanks for listening.
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Loyal Novice Garage Woodworker fans: Thank you for your patience and persistence over the last few months during my absence. Several of you have written in to ask "What Happened?" and rest assured I will explain what happened in my forthcoming audio podcast.
A lot has changed in the on-line woodworking world since I dropped off, and I hope you have discovered all the latest and greatest resources out there. I encourage you to continue to check them out.
Now, get out there and build something! I'll be back with you soon.
My Fundamentals class at Red Rocks has been going great for the last several weeks. In this episode I do a quick recap of the last 3 classes and highlight a fun session we had with hand planes. I also discuss the challenges I'm facing as I try to design my semester project, an original table that I design and build. I mention a few of my design influences outside of woodworking: Steve McQueen and his Ferrari and the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle.
Some newly discovered woodworking influences have gotten my creative juices flowing: The Red and Blue Chair, the Noguchi coffeetable, the work of George Nakashima, Tage Frid his three-legged stool, and perhaps my biggest immediate design influence, the rocking chairs of Sam Maloof.
I've also posted a Flickr photo gallery with photos of the shop at Red Rocks, as well as some links to the web pages from several Red Rocks Fine Woodworking instructors. And, I hope you'll take the survey to the left as to which hand plane I should get as my next tool purchase.
Thanks for listening!
Click To Play Episode 3
I have 2 major announcements at The Novice Garage Woodworker.
First, I'm going back to college. I've enrolled in the Fine Woodworking program at Red Rocks Community College here in Denver for the Fall semester. I'll be going back to the basics of woodworking in the Fundamentals of Woodworking class.
Second, because of my increased work schedule and now my school schedule, I will be switching the format of the show to more of an audio format. I still plan to do videos occasionally, but I think I can produce the show better and faster through an audio format.
Enjoy Episode 2, and thanks for listening!
Click To Play Episode 2
Traditionally, table tops and fences for heavy duty woodworking machinery have been made from cast iron. But at the AWFS show in Las Vegas this week, Steel City Toolworks announced they will be shipping some of their tablesaws, bandsaws and jointers with granite tops and fences (in the case of the jointer). Popular Woodworking first broke the story, you can read it for yourself here.
Also, check out what other woodworkers are saying about it on the Knots Discussion Forum over at Fine Woodworking. Here's the FWW editor's blog discussion of the granite tops in their AWFS coverage. Scroll down to the entry for 18 July.
I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but I'm extremely impressed by the entire Steel City line. I think they are offering well-built, thoughtfully-engineered machines that offer a lot of features not normally found standard on other tool makes, for example, built-in roller stands on the cabinet table saws. Their prices are very competitive and their customer service is highly rated by the folks on the discussion forums. When it comes time to add some new tools to The Novice Garage Woodworker's shop, Steel City tools will be at the top of the list.
What do you think about all this? Please post your comments or send an email to garagewoodworker@gmail.com.
If you are looking for a project to build this summer, why not enter the Lumberjocks.com Summer Woodworking contest? The contest runs July 1 through July 31, and there are 2 categories: Garden Projects and Wood Joinery. The Joinery category sounds especially fun: build something held together with no glue, no screws, no nails, just good old-fashioned wood joinery techniques. In the Garden Projects category, you could build something to spruce up your favorite outdoor area. For us Novice woodworkers, this is a great opportunity to team up with someone more experienced and learn a few things.
Did I mention there are cool prizes?
Check out all the details here. Have a great time!
Wow, the month of May really flew by. In between work, a business trip up to Canada, general spring upkeep stuff around the house (Spring in Colorado starts around Mother’s Day), and even a 25 mile mountain bike race, I haven’t had any real time lately to spend in the shop, or even time to produce any of the next few episodes of the Novice Garage Woodworker. Honestly, I really think I underestimated what it takes to produce something like this. But, I’m committed to the podcast and have the next 2 episodes in production now, so stay tuned.
In addition to NGW, check out my other endeavor, in conjunction with Lumberjocks.com, The LumberJocks Interview Podcast. , you can listen to the first episode here, or download it from I-Tunes. Better yet, hop on over to lumberjocks.com and sign up. It’s free and the sense of community there is awesome. I’m proud to be a Lumberjock!
In all honesty, the time away from the shop was refreshing. First, I was able to get my internal batteries recharged, and in the process was able to do a lot of thinking about woodworking. I thought about where I want to take the podcast, how I want to arrange my shop and the rest of the garage, and some future projects I need to build. Sometimes stepping away allows you to come back better, faster, stronger…Can someone please queue the theme from the Six Million Dollar Man?
Thanks to all of you who have commented on the podcast, I appreciate your support.
Woodworking Blogs and Podcasts
- The Wood Whisperer
- Matt's Basement Workshop
- Furnitology
- Woodworker's Resource
- Splintered Board
- Kaleo's Workshop - This Week in Wood
- The Village Carpenter
- David Charlesworth - a Hand Tool Guru in the UK
- The Renaissance Woodworker
- Modern Woodshop
- Kaytrim's Customs - Michael Dove makes custom gaming joysticks
Woodworking Forums
- Fine Woodworking Knots (Free)
- Lumberjocks
- Wood Whisperer Town Square
Red Rocks Community College
- School of Fine Woodworking
- Red Rocks Woodworking Podcasts
Red Rocks Faculty Websites
Some of the instructors at Red Rocks are accomplished professional woodworkers, and it was my distinct privilege to interact with them during my intro class.
- Tyler Chartier - Chartier Custom Furniture
- Tom Harvey - Thomas Harvey Furniture
- Robert O'Brien - O'Brien Guitars
Woodworking Magazines
- Fine Woodworking
- Popular Woodworking
- Woodworking
- Wood Magazine
- Woodworker's Journal
Woodworking Sites of Note
McGinness Custom Woodworks, Evergreen, CO
We'd like to extend a sincere welcome to all of our visitors from around the world. It's your support that keeps the show going, and we appreciate you spreading the word about The Novice Garage Woodworker.
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