That guy should not be allowed around wood. I wouldn't trust him to fell a tree.
I was watching an old NYW and Norm was at some lodge back east looking for shaker style piece to copy and build. He was joined by the local "authority" on the furniture at the lodge. It was Bruce Johnson.
He may be a guy like Villa or Thomas who knows about styles and design, etc. but who you wouldn't want to touch a thing in your shop - or even enter your shop - or even look through a window into your shop
- or look at a picture on the internet of your shop - or even know that you had a shop...
Bruce Johnson is so bad that he makes that Canadian guy look like Krenov.
I was bored so I thought I'd see what ol' Mr Johnson was butchering on > tv this Sunday.
> He does enough strange things I though it'd be fun to try and spot all
> the funk that comes
> out of his garage.
>
> First a few words in his defense, he does seem to concentrate on process
> rather than details which
> some might find useful, but....
>
>
> His project was a large dining room table. First "step" was to joint
> some 6/4 or so board together to make
> legs. He showed why they needed jointing by placing them side by side
> and showing the gap. After running through
> the jointer, he cuts some biscuit slots, gobs on some glue and places
> them together. You can easily spot where the
> pieces still have angled edges and a large gap at the joint. He then
> clamps them (arrgh...). Next fubar is he
> joins this side piece with the table foot and apron. All parts are
> different thicknesses "I'll have to do some more
> sanding here...". He uses a drill bit mortise jig that slips around
> while he is drilling. Next he cuts square holes
> into some large cross pieces for wedges (arts/crafts type table). He
> uses a spade bit to cut the hole, no backer board so
> I'm sure there is plenty of chip out on the other side. To ensure max
> chip out, he squares the hole up with a chisel
> (again with no backer board). These same boards join the side pieces by
> a tennon (that is wedged through the hole). He
> stresses getting a good fit with the M&T, places the pieces together
> (pencil sized gap at the top/bottom of the M&T fit) and says "nice!".
> Usual slop on of stain and poly, then he talks about how great figure
> "8" fasteners are
> for holding the top down and keeping it from moving (no mention of why
> you use figure eights in the first place)
>
> Of course he had to cut some tennons on his "radial arm" SCM saw...
> When he shows the bottom of the table you can see all the glue squeeze
> out from the top glueup (nicely stained and polyu'd
> to preserve forever...)and that huge gap in the side legs.
> I was board, but this guy is fun to watch butcher wood. Makes Norm look
> like a fine cabinet maker compared with this
> guy when he at least Norm tries to minimize chip out and use care when
> cutting and fitting...
>
> -Bruce
>
>
>