americans on youtube

[cornishjoinery]

Anyone else noticed the amount of american 'woodworkers' on you tube who just make kit for their workshops. They seem to love it! and seem to spend the whole time buying tools just so they can build cabinets for their shop! You never see one speck on saw dust or shavings and everything is pristine. I know most of them are hobby boys but come on, pick up a piece of real wood (they love using the ply!) and make some dust! lol. Saw one guy who has nearly every festool piece of kit you can buy and all he does is make things for his basement shop, and plus he is a weekend warrior. They love it.

 

[Scottdimelow]

Haha I know what you mean, they have spaces like warehouses.

They have so many tools whatever they do make looks like it was made in a factory.

 

[Scoffy]

Yeah, I'm jealous too!

 

[No skills]

For a different take on this check out jimmy diresta on youtube (his channel), woodwork - metalwork - plenty of tools but then again he makes a lot of things

 

[bugbear]

Saw one guy who has nearly every festool piece of kit you can buy and all he does is make things for his basement shop, and plus he is a weekend warrior.

Some people play golf, some people go fishing (google "Bass Boat" to see what that can cost); this guy
has a workshop, and evidently enjoys it.

I'm not seeing a problem here. Have you seen the TV series "Weekend Warriors" on Yesterday? They don't achieve anything!

BugBear

 

[Brentingby]

All those American woodworkers are taking advantage of the fact that Youtube pays them to allow adverts to run on their videos. Look at the number of views they get. If the bloke making the toy box in Grayorm's thread makes 1/2 of one cent per view, he's made over $1000 dollars on that one video.

 

[SlowSteve]

It's also worth remembering that space is much easier to get over there, and tools are a whole lot cheaper.

I work for a US company and have a lot of friends in the mid-west. For the price of an average UK house, they are getting houses 2x - 3x the size, with (almost always ) a full sized basement below the house as well, which for most people in the US gets turned into a hobby room - what ever that hobby is.

Tools are also cheaper as far as "share of wallet" goes - as a minimum they are paying $ to £ - i.e What we would pay £100 for, they pay $100 (which works out around £60 at the moment) - so they can get a lot more for the same investment. Tools are also generally cheaper in the US - for example, there is a company selling a 10" bandsaw that is a clone of what Axminster is selling for £649 - so around $900 - for $200. Not a critisism of Axmnster, just an example.

If this forum wanted to save a bit of money, making one big order from somewhere like Rockler, as a forum order, and splitting down shipping, would probably save a lot of money.

 

[heimlaga]

There is a certain cathegory of American utube videos that are very strange to me.
Some American youtubers tend to have any number of fancy contraptions and speciality tools everything bright and shiny. All bearing clear evidence of the amounts money spent. Yet after all this money spent their main machinery are a consumer grade underpowered table saw and a 6 inch surfacer and a flimsy benchtop thicknesser (often fitted out with a ridiculously expensive cutterhead) and a router table.

For a one off job the greatest gains of mechanisation are in the dimensioning and moulding stage and not in the joint cutting stage. This means that to me an upgrade in planing and resawing and moulding capacity is more worth than any number of gadgets. When making one off jobs a basic set of hand tools can cut the joints almost as fast as machinery can at a tiny fraction of the cost.
On the other hand a hobby project does not need to be efficient..... but why throw money at it then?

 

[woodpig]

I like this guy.

http://youtu.be/53Upi0GUwVw

 

[Walney Col]

I like this guy.

http://youtu.be/53Upi0GUwVw

I unsubscribed from steve ramsey a while back when he started pushing grippers left right and centre. All that inane laughing for no apparent reason finally got on my nerves.

Col.

 

[ayuce]

There is serious American woodworkers on youtube also, like woodwhisperer.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheWoodWhisperer

They have enough space, money and cheaper tools, easy to be power tool junkie ( i had to admit sometimes feel very close to be one ). Biggest issue to me the way they use the electric tools, especially table saw is dangerous. Unfortunately youtube, magazines, books dominated by American way of woodworking.

 

[mouppe]

I'm in Canada, so not strictly in your "American" category but close enough to comment.

Yes, there are loads of woodworkers on youtube- myself included- but I have no ads running on my channel, which is mainly focused on hand tools. In fact, hand tool woodworking is huge over here- just look at all the nascent toolmakers and well-established ones such as Veritas and Lie Nielsen, and writers and presenters such as Roy Underhill and Chris Schwarz. People just don't shout about it as much as power tool people, and the hand tool market is much more fragmented than the huge power tool companies which dominate advertising, Home Depot, tool shows, etc.

Of course space is not an issue for some- it's a huge continent- but most people work out of their basements or garages. I myself rent a 250 square foot workshop in an old industrial building because I can't use my house, and working in the garage when it's -25 degrees Celsius outside is not much fun!

Cost-wise we certainly get a better deal than in the UK. Life in general is cheaper here. That's just the way it is.
Anyway, I wouldn't extrapolate from a few muppets on youtube about the woodworking habits of an entire continent. From the people I've met at shows, classes, workshops etc. they're mostly very pleasant, down-to-earth people who are similar to English woodworkers.

 

[heimlaga]

Thanks mouppe.
I am ill today and had been watching some youtube videos just before I wrote this post. Afterwards I continued watching and just as you pointed out I had only stumbled on some American woodworkers from the worse end.

Therefore I have edited my earlier post.

 

[Homerjh]

I like the Steve Ramsey, all simple, well used to be. Seems recently it is all grrripper thingy, audible.com and a lot more tools that the average Joe wouldn't have.

But then again, his ads have worked, and recall the vids were a main income source. He is probably making more from the mentioned ads than the YouTube so just covering his contract.

If the videos get views then that's all that matters.

 

[mouppe]

Thanks Heimlaga, I just edited my post too.

One chap I love watching is Curtis Buchanan. His videos are excellent.

 

[heimlaga]

I will watch him today. I got thoroughly sick and tired of those youtubers on the most incompetent fringes of the American competence spectrum.

 

[DennisCA]

Which where the americans you've watched heimlaga that made you annoyed?

And on topic, I don't really mind the americans and their practices that much, I wouldn't run a saw without a riving knife but OK that's mine and their choice to make, if they got something interesting to show I am going to watch. The way this forum sometimes goes on about the yanks is more annoying, I know we have more strict safety rules in europe too, but the brits seem to have taken "health and safety" light years beyond continental europe and scandinavia. Sometimes it seems to pervade everything you do.

 

[Mike.S]

The way this forum sometimes goes on about the yanks is more annoying,

+1

Too much generalisation - I find with the 'yanks' and other nationalities, including Brits, I've met that there's good, bad and neutral (in whatever context).

 

[yorkshirepudding]

I'm a a Festool junkie so I have no room to talk!
However, in my defense and that of our cousins, why not buy the best you can afford. I'm new to woodworking and at 67 too old to start an apprenticeship so need all the help I can get from using good tools and whatever jigs improve my work.

 

[aideym]

Having spent too many hours watching youtube myself, there is definitely a pattern. They start with nothing and make some pretty amazing stuff, then an expensive tool creeps in, they make more stuff and more expensive tools creep in. Pretty soon the reason for watching them, i.e regular joe does good, is negated by the amount of totally un-affordable tools and product placement in their videos. I stopped watching Steve Ramsey a long while ago too, along with a few of the other professional "amateurs" who make a living from youtube videos.

I also second the credit to Jimmy DiResta, at the moment he seems to have his feet planted and his armoury of tools are no better than my own. Another pair of interesting chaps are Savvas Papasavva, who is true to the amateur cause and not very American and Tehdoor who is quite Russian (although Festool are now featuring in his vids)

There you are, some more youtube fodder to keep you going.