YouTube addiction and frustration

[Adrian Thompson]

During lockdown I've sought inspiration from numerous websites but find our cousins across the pond have huge workshops, endless equipment and bottomless budgets. I have found Bradshaw Joinery probably one of the best over here - he really comes across well and if only he would do 1 week courses! Can anybody recommend any other good, domestic YouTube videos - in particular making traditional sash windows with a router table rater than spindle moulder please?

 

[Essex Barn Workshop]

The comment I put on a you tube video that got the most likes and replies was on a video from America called cutting boards for beginners.
I said
" Beginners woodworking in the UK = a hammer, 2 odd screwdrivers, a crow bar and a roll of sticky tape in a falling down 6x6 shed USA = a mitre saw, a table saw with a cross cut sled, a palm router, a CNC machine, a Jointer, a separate planer all in a custom built workshop."
Because in a beginners video, he used all of those tools. To date, 640 likes and 43 replies to that comment!

 

[Ex-Counsel]

That's a fantastic comment! it's terribly disheartening to see these guys with all of the equipment completing loads of projects. I'm still struggling with my falling down 6x4 shed that's holding two rickety old saw horses I've borrowed from my grandad and all the free wood I've been collecting from FB marketplace over the last few months. I'm a long way off from any bigger power tools like a table saw or thicknesser. At the moment, I'm thinking about just starting off with the hand tools and maybe in years to come I'll be able to make some of the larger purchases!

 

[Jacob]

Youtube is almost entirely self publishing froth, with only a few items of real interest/value.
I'd say books first, especially the established classics such as Ernest Joyce Techniques of Furniture Making.

 

[artie]

Good points but you guys are comparing TV/videos to real life.

Get in the car and go out around a few houses in West Virginia and check out the standard of some workshops, believe me, you'll feel better.

 

[Fitzroy]

I’ve never found one channel that fits with how I woodwork. I’m fortunate to have a pretty well equipped shed, after 7yrs of hobbying and having built a new shed. However I started in a pretty typical shed and have built up over time.

I tend to watch a variety of channels, read info/advice on here and then I have a book or to. I then have to adapt what I see/read to my situation, tools, and skills. The most critical thing for me is understanding what I am trying to achieve and then practice/prototype to learn.

I’m also currently building window sashes. Once I worked out the profile I needed for each piece I then could understand how to use router table, table saw, and hand tools to achieve each.

 

[thetyreman]

it's just how america is, having gone there, everything is just bigger on average, I try not to compare myself too much to other people, couldn't care less how big somebody's workshop is or what they own, envy is poison.

 

[Ttrees]

Youtube is almost entirely self publishing froth, with only a few items of real interest/value.
I'd say books first, especially the established classics such as Ernest Joyce Techniques of Furniture Making.

Not that I totally disagree, but there's a lot of stuff if you look for something in particular, which actually does what it says on the tin.

Tom

 

[seanf]

I know how you feel. As a beginner it really is hard when every video seems to be “It's so simple, just use this £700 tool, then run it through this one for £5000 and finally this one for £1400” often followed by “I'm just using these tools because I have them, but there's other ways too” as if that will appease us newbies

A very good example of this is Bourbon Moth Woodworking, I found his channel a while ago after seeing a project I liked the look of. I just accepted that his was a professional workshop and kitted out as such, but after watching a few more videos he's actually a full time YouTuber and has recently employed a shop assistant too. I find now it is best to take these huge American setups with a pinch of salt, plus they rarely seem to be good examples of actually doing the work with some very questionable safety practices used

Sean

 

[Ttrees]

Seems to me, some folks are looking for an all in one kinda thing.
Obviously if one is working solid timbers and starting out, then hand tools will be the
way to go.
Can see who's worth watching in about 10 seconds, and the rest.
Planing is the first thing which would be addressed, and a dead give away whether they actually have used a plane often, i.e, unsupported work, bevelling the back of the work, taking swipes with nothing coming out of the plane, or taking too heavy a shaving and not checking progress etc

Should be able to decide after getting proficient with the hand tools on what machine would be the most useful after that.

Plenty of ways to do the same job, just depends on what suits you best for your work for the space you have, capable large bandsaw would be up there if you have no space for anything else but a decent workbench.

I don't see much lacking TBH

 

[Stigmorgan]

I prefer to watch the smaller channels that are run from small workshops/garden sheds, my biggest inspiration was Al Furtado the rebel Turner but since he sold his house and started living on a boat his channel is dead.

 

[Yojevol]

Have a look at the 51 videos produced by The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine, USA. Really good no frills advice.
Brian

 

[Ex-Counsel]

Thanks Lovejoy, I'll definitely have a butcher's when I'm able to escape the office!
I've recently enjoyed Mr Chickadee to watch some great hand tool work

 

[recipio]

They have so much land available that getting planning ' permits' seems to be easy. I like 'Out of the Woods '- a Tennessee sawer using a top of the range Wood Mizer - he is refreshingly free from sponsorship.

 

[Ex-Counsel]

I always enjoy finding the ones that don't have any sponsorship. It's almost like the ones that have a sponsorship are tainted!
I do like the wood whisperer to be fair, even more now that his Sponsorship with Powermatic has ended!
Lincoln Street Woodworks is a guy I enjoy watching as well. His vids are more talking than building but I appreciate his bluntness about not needing the biggest and best tools as well as his very dry humour. Quite a small channel if I remember rightly as well

 

[D_W]

there's a whole lot of topical stuff on youtube that's very good. When it's in depth (like buchanan's chair videos), it tends not to trip the youtube algorithm because people watch a little and move on. It doesn't look like something easy to do (which is what people want - most people want to watch woodworking videos and imagine they could easily do them - 90% will never do anything. The same audience made Norm's show popular - it looked doable if you just buy all of the stuff that he has. )

The other issue is youtube is geared for targeted advertising. If you can get a Numbs video or something completely devoid of usefulness, but it curates a very desirable market (escapists who will buy just about anything), the algorithm will push it with vigor.

If you are like Curtis, though, at least from my view, and not trying to make money from the videos or get paid promotions, etc, you really don't want 10 million people viewing each one. Beyond the first slice of capable viewers, the rest will be people who have nothing to offer but potentially ask a bunch of questions, waste or your time, and then they'll never do what they were asking about in the first place.

I think most beginners don't have any discretion to tell, or really any intention of doing anything long term, so they'll probably always land on stumpy numbs or channels that are "unsponsored" but that constantly badger for patreon and sticker or shirt sales, etc.

 

[D_W]

it's just how america is, having gone there, everything is just bigger on average, I try not to compare myself too much to other people, couldn't care less how big somebody's workshop is or what they own, envy is poison.

there's probably more space here (because it's cheaper) and more cheap equipment available. The kind of folks like my dad won't be on youtube. what do I mean by that? He built a bunch of stuff around the house, but never was it his intention for it to be a hobby. Rather it was benches, shelves, and small cabinets very plain stuff.

With what? A 7 amp circular saw (800 watts) and a dull blade, a cheap jigsaw (like 2 amps and hard plastic cased), a very cheap (probably also about 2 amps) drill with a 3/8" chuck and a 1/4 sheet sander (you guessed it, cheap and underpowered).

Everything that he made was nailed, nails punched, puttied over, and then the wood was stained, then polyurethane with the cheapest foam brushes he could find.

he would give me sandpaper to use as a kid that looked like it had three grains left on it. He's not exactly poor and stupid, either (he's beyond comfortable in retirement, college educated and grew up on a farm). There are a lot of people like him. the last thing he'd have tolerance for is someone making fun of him for using cheap tools and not caring to go any further than nails - fancy for him is knocking the nails deep with a punch and puttying the holes.

 

[thetyreman]

The kind of folks like my dad won't be on youtube. what do I mean by that? He built a bunch of stuff around the house, but never was it his intention for it to be a hobby. Rather it was benches, shelves, and small cabinets very plain stuff.

I'm not having a personal dig at you if that's what you mean, it's just bad for people in general to envy somebody else's workshop, I just try and enjoy what I do have.

 

[Ttrees]

@Adrian Thompson
Have you come across Tim KillenWOOD before?
A lot of what he does is hand work

 

[D_W]

I'm not having a personal dig at you if that's what you mean, it's just bad for people in general to envy somebody else's workshop, I just try and enjoy what I do have.

oh no, my workshop is a mess that nobody would envy, and large is relative term - it's not large like a lot of freestanding shops.

I'm on your side of things here - while I do waste a lot of space, it's not for big equipment, it's due to wanting to make three different things at different times (tools,, furniture once in a while, and guitars). I would like to use less space (it'd be lovely if in my particular case, I could have narrower interests, but I don't) and think people who outfit large overly tidy shops and don't make much are kind of posers unless they're willing to admit that they're basically nesting.

My point in using my dad as an example is that there are a few folks (maybe more than a few) here who grew up in the post-depression generation and learned to do basic things from their parents, and they sometimes end up doing more and making more than people who have large shops. In my group of friends (wife's friends my friends from growing up ,etc), nobody has more of a shop than pretty much what a traveling joiner would have in a van.

100% agree on envying other peoples' shop. It's generally something that occurs when there's not enough interest in front of our own noses to keep our minds occupied. The solution isn't getting a bigger shop or thinking about it (in my view), it's getting in our own and challenging ourselves to find something interesting that we want to do.