(upbeat music) marc: ah, the woodworking shows. a place where everyone knows your name and you're always greetedby a friendly face. well, at least two people knew my name and nicole was one of them. but for the jersey boywith that gleam in his eye, the woodworking showsare a wondrous toy land full of the stuff woodworkingdreams are made of.
the woodworking shows are agreat place to do some shopping, observe cool new tools in action, do some shopping, meet up with friends from the local guild, maybe do a little shopping, annoy the guy at the wire-cutting booth, do a little shopping, and observe some excellentfree and paid demonstrations. in this episode of the wood whisperer,
i'm going to give you a quick introduction to the woodworking shows and show you just what they're all about. we even have some great interviews with a few of the experts from the show. our story begins with a 45minute car ride to scottsdale and me dropping some of mycoveted pearls of wisdom. nicole: (laughs) are you excited? (laughs)
marc: no. yeah! well we first had a hearty breakfast. a hearty, healthy breakfast. nicole: watch the road. marc: i am watching the road. nicole: no you're not. i would like to say i do not condone videotaping him driving. because- marc: yeah we do.
nicole: that could cause an accident. marc: and now that we have full bellies we're going to go to the woodshow and cause some trouble. ask questions and tryand find some interviews. so it should be a good time. i think. i hope. nicole: we'll find out. stay tuned. marc: and i'm going to beflexing the plastic today. nicole: oh yes.
marc: time to purchase some new toys. i have a couple of tips for everybody on your way to the wood show, just a couple of things to think about. number one, i'm just makingthese up as i go along. number one, always plan on spending more than you think you're going to spend. because there's alwaysgoing to be something that you go "oh i need that."
and then you'll probablytake it back to your shop and put it in a cabinet somewhereand never touch it again. but that's not the point. you're going to spend morethan you expect to spend. number two, resist the urge to bring your wife. nicole: (laughs) marc: go by yourself, geta buddy, go with a friend, that's really the best way to spend money.
you can encourage eachother to spend money. and the funny thing is,as you go to these shows there's nothing funnier thanwatching the husband walk around. and it's sort of the role reversal that you see when you're at the mall and the husband is tailing the wife and she's having the time of her life. same thing here, it's just reversed where the guy's walking aroundlike a kid in a candy store
and the wife has a pout on her face, you know maybe she has a diet coke. as they say in europe,"off to the wood show." or as they say insweden, [unintelligible]. nicole: what does that mean? (laughs) marc: or as they say in jersey, "let's go to the wood show. oh!" marc: the first things younotice at the woodworking shows are lots of people and lots of tools.
i mean, lots and lots of tools. pretty much every major toolmanufacturer is present here. and if you're anything like me, you like to get a little hands on time before making a major purchase. that's not an optionwhen you're buying online but it sure is here atthe woodworking shows. if you adventure a littlefurther into the show you'll soon come across numerous
live demonstrations and seminars. believe it or not, they're all free. there are paid seminarsthat you can sign up for on the woodworking shows website at thewoodworkingshows.com. now let's listen in for a moment on this seminar given by jim heavey. jim: [unintelligible] puta whole bunch of patches that look like small footballs,
but they've cut out a bad spot and they've put another pieceof veneer into that spot. works very well for projects where you're only going to see one side. so you can easily use thatto save a lot of money by buying what's calledshop grade plywood. on the other side of that is what's called cabinet grade plywood. that's what this is.
both sides of this are just as nice. so on a cabinet where bothsides are going to show, you're sometimes stuck with buying something like cabinet grade plywood. if they were these bookprojects or bookshelves, bookcases on the side here, in many cases those are up against a wall or they're built into a smalllittle opening in a wall. you could easily use shop grade plywood
there without a problem. but on something like this whereit's visible from both sides and it shows top andbottom and everything, i think you may want to startlooking at the cabinet grade. marc: i was actually at the hot-dog stand and i ran into some guy who we're going to ask a few questions. actually this is jim heavey. he's a master craftsman for wood magazine
and also the representativehere at the show today. we're going to ask him somequestions about the show. how are you doing jim? jim: nice to see you. marc: good to see you. now, let's see. i'm just going to becompletely unprofessional here. so what is your rolehere at the show today? jim: what i'm doing for the show
is representing wood magazineand a few of my sponsors and providing three differentprojects during the weekend. one of the old ideaswas to have one project and kind of expound on itover a three day period but for a lot of people, ifthey didn't like that project then they didn't come back again. or if they saw one partor they see a table, and say "oh i'm not into tables." so i came up with three different projects
which we think interestacross the spectrum of different woodworkingtools and techniques. so my job in here is to spend three days teaching three different types of projects and giving people tips and techniques. marc: ok, that's awesome. what would you say is your favorite thing about working at the shows? what do you like themost about your job here?
jim: the travel. i know it sounds lousy but the people in the area, every different communityhas a unique group of people and every part of the country is unique. so as we see woodworkers, and woodworkers are verynice people to begin with. marc: sure. jim: just, you findsome interesting people. and with my connection with the magazine,
i get a chance to see what the average person thinks about our magazine. rather than have an editorial viewpoint, mine is actually based on content. it's whatever thesepeople are looking for. i get a chance to talk to them and then i bring that back to the issue. marc: oh, fantastic. now what would you say, if there is one,
what would the mission ofthe woodworking shows be? what is their ultimate goalto the woodworking community? jim: you know, i'd like to saythat the woodworking show's ultimate goal is to providea learning experience from both the beginningto the advanced woodworker in any way they possibly can. i have a feeling that over time shows in general like thisare going to morph though. marc: ok.
jim: if you look at tv shows now, the more popular tv shows havea lot of diy interest to it. marc: absolutely. jim: and i have a feeling that maybe combining this with furniture construction along with crowning yourroom or something like that will add even more interest. but i think the show's goal is to appeal to a verybroad range of people.
right now it's woodworkers and we're trying to approachevery different front we can. from education to tools and techniques and that kind of thingin hopes of doing that. marc: ok. that makes a lot of sense. we watch tv all the time and it's all diy. jim: exactly. marc: everything is diy. now i remember we were here last year
and i think you were working jim: i was. marc: i actually got to sit in. it was an excellent seminar. if you could give, i knowfinishing for most woodworkers is probably one of themost perplexing topics. they get in their head that it's just a really difficult thing and they usually,
that's the worst part oftheir project in their minds. for a lot of beginning woodworkers, they could really use apiece of advice from a pro that might give them an idea that this really isn't as hard as it seems. what advice what you give somebody in terms of finishing, tosort of settle their minds and maybe fall back on someold reliable techniques. what kind of advice would you have for
woodworkers in that regard? jim: i think my biggest advice to them is always to experiment on something before they tackle their finished project. and i know it sounds very simplistic, it sounds like somethingeverybody should know, but nobody does it. marc: true. i don't do it.jim: they take all of these things, they've always done this stain,
they've always done this finish, they do it on a project andfind out it didn't work. marc: right. jim: so if they would setup from the pieces of wood that they have as part of their project sample sets that will allow them to try not only the woodworking techniques but the finishing techniques, they would be a lot more comfortable.
and i think lastly, to notbe afraid to make mistakes. all woodworkers make them. i think that they feel a betterwoodworker never makes them and it's just the better workers find ways to disguisethe mistakes they made. jim: and if they would learnto lay back a little bit and be a little bit more understanding, i think that they'd be just fine. marc: that's good advice there.
jim, thanks very much. jim: thank you. marc: have fun at the showjim: i will. marc: and we're going tocheck out your seminar in a few minutes. jim: sounds great. thank you.marc: great, thanks. jim: see you. nicole: so what do you have for us here at the woodworking show?
tall man: this is the bestassembly system on the market. it's a 3d square. nicole: ok, can you giveus a little demo of it? tall man: i'd love to. you know no matter howmany years you do this, holding parts together justdoesn't get any simpler. nicole: i know. you onlyhave two hands right? tall man: that's correct. well now you've got three.
nicole: alright. tall man: you stick a 3dsquare into your project, that does two things for you. the first thing it does is, it just holds those parts together so they don't fall timeevery time you touch them. but the really cool thing is, it actually squares up your project and it keeps it square evenwhen you put on your glue clamp.
now a lot of times you puta glue clamp on a project and it racks everything out of square. and then of course the glue'sdrying, the clock's ticking, you're clamping those diagonalstogether trying to fix it. now you put on a glue clamp, the 3d square holdseverything in alignment and you got yourself a square project. nicole: that's pretty cool. tall man: isn't that cool?
nicole: that's very cool. tall man: now that worksbecause they're precise. we machine them, guaranteethem plus or minus 2000th's of an inch over thewhole length of a square. that anchor square is guaranteedat 1000th's of an inch. that shows you how precise we are. we're actually the fourth most precise square in woodworking. nicole: ok.
tall man: bridge city andstarret, they're the cadillacs. [unintelligible] the third most precise at 1000th's of an inch. so we're only the fourth most precise, but we're the first in assembly. nicole: there you go. tall man: if you'redoing a bigger project, like a bookcase and a cabinet, even when you've got help in the shop
you can't hold this many parts together. nicole: right. tall man: well now you setthat square where you need it, that first clamp anchors the square. look at how easy that is. that holds everythingsteady, keeps it square. you can assemble largeprojects all by yourself. nicole: well thanks so much. tall man: thank you very much.
nicole: alright, you bet. cut. marc: be sure to check out part two of our woodworking show episode where we have a few more interviews and some more senselessbabble coming out of my mouth.