How It's Made

[J T]

If you haven't seen the TV show How It's Made I'd say you should, if you can receive it. Besides being interesting, fairly often it covers things made of wood. Tonight's show included making caskets and glider rockers. Other shows have had segments on making bagpipes, recorders (the musical instruments), accordians, etc. Hmm, seems to me one of the shows had something on guitar making too.

Tonight's show also had a segment on kitchen knives. They fiished them up by putting on a wooden handle, and then honing them on two, off-set, grinding wheels. So sharpening isn't as big a deal as a lot of you make it out to be. LOL

Sure, the stuff is mass-produced. So what? It's fascinating to see some of the machines and set-ups they use. Plus you can maybe get a few idas for making a variation for you shop. Sharpening the knives gave me an idea for a older that would semi-automate sharpening my chisels - if I cared, and didn't sharpen them on a belt sander. Be nifty for plane irons tho - if I sharpened any plane irons.

Neat show anyway.

JOAT When in doubt, go to sleep.

- Mully Small

[Gary Kemper]

It is a great show. I have almost all of them recorded.

Lots of wood projects.

Pool tables Pool cues Acoustic and Electric Guitars Bent Hardwood Conga Drums Pianos

Just to name a few.

Gary

[jo4hn]

Ayup. LOML learned to knit a fridge out of steel wool. Boof. Actually it's a great program. smart ass, jo4hn

[Buddy Matlosz]

The Pine Cone Turkey episode was my favorite.

B.

[Robatoy]

You should be ashamed of yourself telling tales like this. (Consider the joke stolen) On How It's Made, I want to see the episode that shows how checkered paint is made.

spill, r

[Joe Gorman]

It's just 2 coats of striped paint at 90° to each other. Be sure to get the angle right. Joe

[GROVER]

Joat, I have watched "How Its Made" and find it interesting. The camera moves pretty fast and you don't get much time to see details. I suspect that manufacturing companies are concerned with industrial espionage and limit what they allow to be filmed. I'm sure they keep anything they consider state of the art or proprietary out of range of the lens, and who can blame them. Joe G

[Robatoy]

That won't work. Tried it.

[Joe Gorman]

How long did you let it dry between coats?

[B A R R Y]

Not with TiVo.

[Robatoy]

11 hours and 44 minutes, just like it said on the can. I get either black squares with white blocks or white squares with black blocks. Doesn't look like a checker-board at all. Maybe I should try another brush?

[Morris Dovey]

Robatoy wrote: | On Feb 14, 11:49 am, Joe Gorman wrote: || Robatoy wrote: ||| On Feb 13, 11:58 pm, jo4hn wrote: |||| Gary Kemper wrote: ||||| It is a great show. I have almost all of them recorded. ||||| Lots of wood projects. ||||| Pool tables ||||| Pool cues ||||| Acoustic and Electric Guitars ||||| Bent Hardwood ||||| Conga Drums ||||| Pianos ||||| Just to name a few. ||||| Gary |||| Ayup. LOML learned to knit a fridge out of steel wool. Boof. |||| Actually it's a great program. |||| smart ass, |||| jo4hn || ||| You should be ashamed of yourself telling tales like this. ||| (Consider the joke stolen) ||| On How It's Made, I want to see the episode that shows how ||| checkered paint is made. || ||| spill, ||| r || || It's just 2 coats of striped paint at 90° to each other. Be sure || to get the angle right. || Joe | | That won't work. Tried it.

I've discovered that by using just the right amount of Flotrol I can produce fairly accurate tartans. You might need to clean your nozzles with a bit of thistle before spraying...

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Swingman]

Use white heather for best results.

[J T]

Wed, Feb 14, 2007, 10:09am (EST-3) [e-mail] (Robatoy) doth claimeth: That won't work. Tried it.

Then you were either using the cheap stuff, or didn't follow the manufacturers instructions, or both.. You've gotta shell out a few bucks extra and get the good stuff, and then follow the directions. Oh yeah, you'll need the special brush too.

JOAT When in doubt, go to sleep.

- Mully Small

[Robatoy]

Angela was born, bred and educated (StFX) in Nova Scotia. My house is full of tartan: placemats, serviettes, kitchen curtains, tablecloths...

flotrol and thistle, eh?

Now I'm looking for an albino named Heather as well?

[Joe Gorman]

You're using a brush? I sprayed mine on.

[Pete C.]

It's more a function of the limited time allotted for each segment of the program. You'll notice on a few of the more complicated items the narration is heading towards auctioneer pace to fit all the steps into the available time. They note when they skip over proprietary steps or ingredients. The scale of some of the facilities they show is amazing.

Pete C.

[Morris Dovey]

Robatoy wrote: | On Feb 14, 1:31 pm, "Morris Dovey" wrote: | || || I've discovered that by using just the right amount of Flotrol I || can produce fairly accurate tartans. You might need to clean your || nozzles with a bit of thistle before spraying... || | Angela was born, bred and educated (StFX) in Nova Scotia. My house | is full of tartan: placemats, serviettes, kitchen curtains, | tablecloths... | |

|| soooo.. flotrol and thistle, eh? | | Now I'm looking for an albino named Heather as well?

If Angela is your wife, I'd strongly suggest asking her, rather than looking for Heather, to help clean your nozzle.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[bsa441]

So far, the segment that really blew my mind is how much material and labor goes into ballet slippers. there are at least 4 or 5 layers of various materials in the toe box.

Also, I saw a pair of hockey goalie leg pads being made. I kept thinking "these have gotta be expensive, there's so much labor in them". At the end they informed us that they are $1600 a pair! I'll stick with woodworking.

[Pete C.]

My favorite for the pure amusement value was the chick (chicken) breeding facility with the miles of conveyor belts full of fluffy yellow chicks.

I think the most amazing one from an automation standpoint was the car engine plant nearly devoid of humans.

Pete C.