IIRC when Bob Vila was the early host of TOH, most of the stationary tools (RAS, TS) as well as some portable tools were Craftsman. Then some sort of rift occurred between producers, Vila and Sears about endorsements then poof no more Craftsman.

8 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

IIRC when Bob Vila was the early host of TOH, most of the stationary tools (RAS, TS) as well as some portable tools were Craftsman. Then some sort of rift occurred between producers, Vila and Sears about endorsements then poof no more Craftsman.

https://tedium.co/2021/08/13/bob-vila-this-old-house-departure/

 

 

12 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Yeah, the shop transformation from the early shows to the later ones is significant. I suspect that once Delta signed on as a sponsor he got those nice upgrades to most of the stuff. Then there was the tools Delta didn't supply, like that Hitachi resaw and the huge Timesaver belt sander. That's sort of what happened to "Home Town",one of those home remodeling shows . His shop was really cool with all kinds of older tools. Then suddenly everything was new and gold in color.

Yeah, in my opinion, he was an excellent carpenter and blooming woodworker.   Soon became a shop full of tools that few could afford.  Never said what to do if it did not turn out "there, perfect", too much glue, and no real safety lessons.   I sort of quit watching after a year or two.

 

And TOH also became too luxury rehabs for me.

Edited January 24, 20233 yr by kmealy

18 minutes ago, kmealy said:

Yeah, in my opinion, he was an excellent carpenter and blooming woodworker.   Soon became a shop full of tools that few could afford.  Never said what to do if it did not turn out "there, perfect", too much glue, and no real safety lessons.   I sort of quit watching after a year or two.

 

And TOH also became too luxury rehabs for me.

 

noticed the same drift too.  but it gave people something to aspire to.  and on the other hand, he only used a handful of router bits, roundover and cove were a repeated pairing.

 

guess when you are trying to sell fancy woodworking tools, that sponsoring a guy who can do the project with just one or two main tools isn't what you are after.  i made all our kitchen cabinets just using the TS, didn't use the router table i had (that i had used for the previous kitchen).

 

someone asked me if i was going to run the cutting board i'm working on thru a drum sander....um...no - don't have one, don't have space for one, wouldn't use it enough to justify dedicating all that space to such a special tool.  belt sander and orbital sander will have to suffice.

3 hours ago, DAB said:

https://tedium.co/2021/08/13/bob-vila-this-old-house-departure/

 

 

Thanks DAB. Interesting read and perspective.

Looks like they got Season 1 thru 3 going live. Their uploads are just days old, so they are working on it, very cool!

https://www.youtube.com/@newyankeeworkshop/playlists

Update...feel good Friday...Norm Stops by the Workshop...

Fun to see Norm and Russ just hanging out together for a few minutes

 

 

In my day I watched that show and any others from which I might have learned from. I too learned much from Norm. Today most all such shows are acting, maculate  clothing and totally not interesting. One of the things that really annoys me is when some lady is using a large  maul to demolish  some cabinets. Like someone said {twin sinks in the bathroom,new kitchen, beautiful everything and a 1,200 000  budget. unrealistic for most sad change from Norm's era

yeah, i cringe when they destroy perfectly good cabinets that could be used in a garage, store room, laundry...donated to Habitat for Humanity.....they aren't useless, just old.  little fixing up, and they'll serve many more years somewhere besides your precious kitchen.

 

that's what we did:  reused old cabinets we took out of our kitchens.  we also bought a mess of wall cabinets from HfH and used them in the garage for extra storage.  little paint, they look just spiffy.

Another nugget from Russ and the Yankee Workshop

 

 

YouTube been showing a video of Norm building the Storage Shed outside the New Yankee Workshop building...