Woodworking Video Magazine-- First Impression

Hi Glen,

The link you posted I couldn't get to work, this one seems to:

I subsciribed to a DVD woodworking magazine last year, it is called Woodworking At Home Magazine. It is nice to see things being done for sure, but like any magazine every article/project doesn't always interest me. I'm more into using power tools, I know the purists out there strive to used hand tools in time honored techniques etc, and I do admire their talents greatly. But I get a kick out of electricity :). The Woodworking at Home DVD mag devotes time to both approaches so there is something for everybody.

On the Woodworking at Home DVD mag I would say all in all there is about 2 hours of instruction on each DVD, the subscription price is about 33 bucks a year for this one and you get 6 isses per year plus a bonus issue at Christmas.

Their web site is at:

I may try to get hold of a single issue of the one you mentioned in this post Glen and see how it stacks up. Do they spend time with hand/traditional construction techniques and power tool techniques, or lean more heavily towards one or the other?

Do you know how long their DVDs run, approx how many hours/minutes of instruction one of their DVDs contain?

Later Gator,

RangerPaul

distributed out of a place about a mile from my house!

John ...finally back on line after a month of suffering through ISP IP address registration problems that kept me off the news groups...

I have no doubt that if plate joiners and router tables were available in 1800, they would have been fully taken advantage of. "Purist" implies that using power tools and modern techniques is somehow "impure". I don't believe anything of the sort. Maybe "old school" is a better term than "purist".

Joe Barta

a better term than "purist".

That would have been a sight. I would have loved to see a belt driven shop/factory. I read a little about one once. It was amazing if you think about it. Much like electricity... those belts flying overhead and the drop downs to power individual machines. Must have been quite a sight... and quite a racket...

Joe Barta

For most magazines, you can check out the on-line media kit and find the editorial calendar. This should at least give you an idea of what an editor intends to present as subject matter at different times during the year. They're not locked in, and descriptions are not precise. It is truly unusual for ANY magazine to prepare an issue's worth of material a year in advance of publication. Too much can change in too many areas. Too, four issues on tape or DVD is going to take a lot less prep time than will 10 issues on paper (which is not good or bad, but simply factual, so please do not come back saying I claimed it was worse: you shoot the material according to a story board, make sure it fits, and copy it to the master, compared to shooting to suit, selecting from xx number...well, anyway, it should be simpler, which makes long term buys and descriptions easier).

A review can be found here...

I've not been impressed with their offering, found the DVD format limited in convenience, and declined to renew the last subscription offer. Maybe it's just me, but long live the print format ... DVD magazine formats pale by comparison thus far.

Now, if I could download a FWW magazine issue and read it on my eBook ...

So now I have to build a cabinet to hold the DVD player in the bathroom....

It's the only place I can read my magazines in peace.

jtpr

"That would have been a sight. I would have loved to see a belt driven shop/factory. I read a little about one once. It was amazing if you think about it. Much like electricity... those belts flying overhead and the drop downs to power individual machines. Must have been quite a sight... and quite a racket...

Joe Barta"

In the early seventies, a delivery job sent me into a small parts fabrication shop in Rockford Illinois. Couple of metal lathes, drill presses, wood and metal cutting saws, other machines I couldn't place. All belt driven from a main shaft about nine feet up in the center of the shop.

Not noisy at all. Much quieter than that many motored machines running at the same time. Just the sound of leather belts whirring through the air and the cutters, cutting.

NOT a shop where one would feel comfortable with a pony tail or loose clothing. There were a few dozen belts zipping around and not a guard to be seen. I was a little nervous. :-)

Main "shaft"? This main shaft was a belt, right?

Thanks for the corrected URL. I should have cut and pasted it so I wouldn't screw it up.

Each DVD ran for about an hour. I thought with Graham Blackburn being the editor Woodworkinginaction would have had a hand tool bias, but there is a mixture of articles that use power tools or tell how to use power tools. For example they had an article with Kelley Meher (sp?) on table saw kickback that was amusing as he cut pieces of styrofoam and made it kick back so he could explain the process. On the other hand there was an article on using a shaves to produce the spindles for a chair. I think they have gone out of their way to get articles that would appeal to both neanders and normites and at various levels of experience. If I were to equate it with one of the paper magaizines, it would be with Fine Woodworking. Four times a year seems a bit lean on the number of issues, but ultimately, it is going to be the quality of the articles that will determine if these guys keep my subscription. So far, I am happy.

I will have to check out the other magaz> Hi Glen,

The Joe Barta entity posted thusly:

Unlikely. I did not see the shop he mentioned, of course, but the two that I have seen were the same setup. A belt from the motor to a "main shaft". The main shaft ran across the ceiling, and on it were several pulleys (slightly crowned to keep the belts straight) that drove belts that dropped to each machine.

The snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com entity posted thusly:

Quite the thing. An uncle of mine had a full machine shop in a building on his property. He was retired, and spent many hours out there. Almost all his machinery was belt driven. Of the ones that were't, most were shop-built. The noise was nearly nonexistent.

I stopped by Toolbox Productions this morning and spoke with Graham Blackburn's partner on the Woodworking in Action project, Jeremy Ellenbogen.

Jeremy gave me a copy of Issue 2 of Woodworking in Action to review. A couple of the segments were filmed using local talent--very good local talent--that I'm familiar with named Steve Heller and Dennis Collins. BTW, Blackburn is a local guy too...

From my conversation with Jeremy, by design Woodworking In Action is not a "project" magazine (i.e., not along the lines of Wood, American Woodworker, etc.,). Rather the idea is to be more like Fine Woodworking and Woodwork. In that context the DVD met my expectations. It's not a slick "project TV show" like NYW or Woodworks and it's not a print magazine on disk (like the Best of Fine Woodworking CD). I found the DVD to be interesting and it certainly gives a lot of information and problem solving ideas. Looking at the equipment in the background warranted a second screening alone... Of note, Jeremy mentioned that their intention is to go to bi-monthly distribution, up from quarterly, in the not too distant future.

For the Woodworks fans, you can anticipate seeing David Marks on future DVDs discussing his gilding techniques. I met Marks in Edison, NJ last month and attended his presentations on gilding and bent laminations. Very pleasant guy... too bad "10 states in 10 weeks" had taken such a toll on his voice...

It was a very interesting discussion and we are likely going to be seeing more of each other. I'm the treasurer for the Northeastern Woodworkers Association's Mid-Hudson Chapter as well as treasurer for the Kaatskill Woodturner's Association SIG. We discussed the possibility of collaboration on presentations and video content... NWA has some VERY talented people, e.g, Keith Tompkins had a two page spread in the middle of the October 2005 Woodwork magazine.

Personally, from what I've seen and heard I think that Woodworking in Action has a place in my woodworking information flow. I dropped magazines like Wood, American Woodworker, Shop Notes and other project oriented fare in favor of Fine Woodworking, Woodwork, Popular Woodworking (I'm particularly fond of the Arts and Mysteries column--which the editor Christopher Schwarz tells me will continue to be a regular feature), and books oriented towards design theory and historical methodologies. On that note, Woodworking in Action may not appeal to all much as Woodwork doesn't appeal to all... but then, I sense that they aren't interested in "all."

As concerns a disclaimer, I fully understand that I have a bias here in that seeing local people, local shops, and a local sites on the DVD makes me feel like there is something useful going on around here in addition to my club! ;~)

John

Hey, go to The Cantebury Workshop online at:

RangerPaul

Get you one of those mini DVD players and take it in the little room or your shop. I use mine on the plane and when I'm out of town too, their pretty neat.

I guess the future is officially here when woodworkers are reading their magazines on computer screens.

RangerPaul

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 21:58:29 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "John Grossbohlin" quickly quoth:

May I be the first to say YOU SUCK!, John? Thanks.

All those folks in your locale... ;)

"Be the change you want to see in the world." --Mahatma Gandhi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -