Norm Abram: The Early Days

[smorgasbord]

While looking for Norm's Highboy build for another thread, I found this from NYW season 1:

A simple trestle table, first aired Feb 1989. My, how far Norm and the woodworking world has changed.

1) Runs rough lumber through a thickness planer without flattening a face first.
2) Thickness planer not connected to a dust collector. Matter of fact, no dust collector in shop for any tool.
3) Squares the edge of the boards on the tablesaw with nothing to stop twist or bow from causing kickback.
4) Runs the tablesawn edges through a short 6" jointer to clean up the saw marks.
5) This is even before Norm discovered the biscuit jointer, as his top glue up is just pipe clamps - using actual pipe.
6) Legs have wide mortise and tenon joints at top and bottom, completely glued. I wonder how well those joints have held up.
7) Does breadboard ends on table top to accommodate movement, though.
8 ) Track saws didn't exist in 1989, so uses circular saw with wood guide to cut the breadboard tongue.
9) Lots of radial arm saw usage. Only new radial arm saws sold today are expensive.
10) $3 a board foot for cherry back then was pretty expensive. I bought some earlier this year for about $5/bf.

[attachimg=1]

 

[Svar]

4) Runs the tablesawn edges through a short 6" jointer to clean up the saw marks.
5) This is even before Norm discovered the biscuit jointer, as his top glue up is just pipe clamps - using actual pipe.

4. Totally works with care and multiple shallow passes. The beauty of jointer that it can be much shorter than the board it straightens, think of your hand plane.
5. What's the problem? That's how I do it all the time. Aligning glue ups with tenons, be it biscuits or dominos, is amateurish and lazy.

 

[Muttley000]

New Yankee Workshop was one of the very few shows I would schedule to make sure I could see.  Things have certainly changed over the years, but Norm was a big influence on me and many others my age (in my mid 50’s now)

 

[smorgasbord]

4) Runs the tablesawn edges through a short 6" jointer to clean up the saw marks.
5) This is even before Norm discovered the biscuit jointer, as his top glue up is just pipe clamps - using actual pipe.

4. Totally works with care and multiple shallow passes. The beauty of jointer that it can be much shorter than the board it straightens, think of your hand plane.
5. What's the problem? That's how I do it all the time. Aligning glue ups with tenons, be it biscuits or dominos, is amateurish and lazy.

4. The problem is that you're running a non-straight edge against the rip fence and so the board can rotate a bit while being sawn, and especially without a riving knife (which Norm didn't have), you can get nasty kickback. The proper procedure is to joint one edge straight, and then go to the tablesaw to rip.

5. No problem, just noting the change.

 

[Cheese]

While looking for Norm's Highboy build for another thread, I found this from NYW season 1:

Thanks for this...with the advent of today's machines, it's apparent of how spoiled a group we are.  [big grin]

I've never seen this stuff before because at this time of my life, I was into house repair & not furniture making. Pretty interesting how times have changed.

 

[twistsol1]

Back then I told my new wife if I had all Norm's tools I could do that too.

Well, now I do, and I can't.

 

[Imemiter]

Sheesh... I used that same lunchbox planer for ever!

 

[Michael Kellough]

Sheesh... I used that same lunchbox planer for ever!

Recently watched a video of Michael Fortune (could be an old video) planing thin resawn strips for a bent lamination using an old early model lunchbox planer. And he has access to the full range of machines. The small planer was/is a huge benefit to woodworkers.

 

[Imemiter]

...
The small planer was/is a huge benefit to woodworkers.

And all I've ever had the space for.

But to the topic I was pleased to find out (in my not-so-deep dive,) that Norm's workshop on the show wasn't his real, actual workshop, which I'm sure followers of the show already knew. Interestingly, the "New Yankee" shop was filmed in the shed that got him the job in the first place. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Abram

 

[Crazyraceguy]

...
The small planer was/is a huge benefit to woodworkers.

And all I've ever had the space for.

But to the topic I was pleased to find out (in my not-so-deep dive,) that Norm's workshop on the show wasn't his real, actual workshop, which I'm sure followers of the show already knew. Interestingly, the "New Yankee" shop was filmed in the shed that got him the job in the first place. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Abram

They never really claimed that it was, but everyone just assumed it was his. It actually belonged to Russell Morash, the creator/producer of the show. His name was in the credits, every episode.
The Victory Garden (also popular at that time) was also on his property.
Watching those early episodes is eye-opening. Seeing how far the shop progressed over the years is interesting. That table saw looks so lonely out there in all that open space. The lack of the hutch (as he called it) behind the back bench, looks so bare. He built a lot of "shop furniture" on that show, over many episodes, along with a growing tool collection.

As far as the short planer...In this case, it is not really straightening the board, at least completely. It is basically just cleaning up the saw teeth marks and maybe tear-out too.
I certainly don't advocate ripping without jointing (or straightening with a jig), but if it is reasonably straight, a shorter jointer might be ok.

 

[smorgasbord]

All of Norm's NYW videos now on YT (except for 2: a child's toy and a high chair since neither meet today's standards):
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