Finding his legs at last.

[Tom K]

Paul Sellers making legs for the bench if you were half way through this build this is for you (homer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 4KDvRIwfIY

 

[woodbrains]

Hi,

Does woodworking look like wrestling a pig, when others do it, or is that just Mr sellers?

Mike.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Hi,

Does woodworking look like wrestling a pig, when others do it, or is that just Mr sellers?

Mike.

Please forgive me for misinterpreting your remarks if I have, but that sounds unnecessarily sneery. Not all of us are lucky enough to start our woodworking in well-equipped workshops, with vastly experienced tutors on hand. I started my woodworking with a Black and Decker Workmate and a cardboard box to keep my B&Q tools in, so I can appreciate his approach - he's trying to get the person who has no facilities whatsoever started with making a bench. If that looks like 'wrestling a pig', well so be it - even the finest craftsmen had to start somewhere.

 

[Jacob]

But should woodworking resemble precision engineering or Heston Blumenthal cookery - which you might imagine from some forum content?

I think he is ruthlessly practical and gets the job done very well.
Any beginners should look no further if they want to start woodwork with a practical bench and a sensible approach to making things.

 

[TobyC]

Hi,

Does woodworking look like wrestling a pig, when others do it, or is that just Mr sellers?

Mike.

That is the proper, careful use of hand tools, and he is positioning the work for the camera. I find no error in his methodology. Perhaps you are unaware of Paul Sellers.

Toby

 

[woodbrains]

Please forgive me for misinterpreting your remarks if I have, but that sounds unnecessarily sneery. Not all of us are lucky enough to start our woodworking in well-equipped workshops, with vastly experienced tutors on hand. I started my woodworking with a Black and Decker Workmate and a cardboard box to keep my B&Q tools in, so I can appreciate his approach - he's trying to get the person who has no facilities whatsoever started with making a bench. If that looks like 'wrestling a pig', well so be it - even the finest craftsmen had to start somewhere.

Hi,

It probably is sneery, but not unnecessarily. In my experience few, if any, are lucky enough to start woodworking in well equipped workshops; I certainly wasn't.

My bench was made from sawn beech and sapele for the underframe, with a 05 1/2 jack, a smoother, a bit brace and some washing line for cramping the thing together. I remember having to buy a chisel wide enough to do the large mortices, as I did not have one at the time and I stretched to a B and Q electric hand planer, with a cobbled together side fence, so I could get some reference surface on the sawn material. My tablesaw was a hand held circular mounted upside down under some conti-board and a clamp on batten for a fence, or used hand held against a tacked on batten on the timber itself, (cut from both sides, as it was not powerful enough). The bench is still used now, as it is good enough (not perfect) to find it hard to justify building another. I did have the common sense to brace up an old kitchen cabinet as a temporary work station to do the work. I could do the work calmly and precisely; my planing did not look like I was beating the timber to death, I needed to make no excuse as to why everything looked like a boat in a heavy storm, things were solid and rigid. There is no need to make beginners and hobyists feel like things should be tough, because they aren't if they are given relevent and useful advice.

Why did Mr. Sellers not put the saw horses on level ground and tack on a couple of stretchers to the underframe, to make them solid. If he is as practcal as people seem to think, this would not be beyond the realms of a sensible person. Incidentally, where did those saw horses come from? Made with no tools and no bench at all, presumably. If beginners see planing looking like this, at what point will they find out that it is nothing of the sort! It is calm and precise and much, much less effort. It is patronising to those who genuinely want to learn, to show hem something that is not what is really done, and excuse it with statements like 'beginners don't have many tools to start with', as if this is what they should expect. No it is not, at all.

That is the proper, careful use of hand tools, and he is positioning the work for the camera. I find no error in his methodology. Perhaps you are unaware of Paul Sellers.

Toby

I am quite aware of Mr Sellers, and I detest almost everything he teaches. That is not to say that he might not do good work, but just that he does not do it like he shows others. His so called no nonsense sharpening uses one of the most expensive sharpening mediums available (diamond plate) and still he manages not to go to a fine enough grit to make his tools truly sharp. This is nonsense for a beginner. The video where he completely FUBAR's the soles of his planes is mind blowing, and I shudder to think of the number of unknowing hobbyists who have junked there perfectly good planes by following his nonsense advice here. Anyone who beats the hell out of a shoulder vice when chopping mortices, instead of clamping the work to a bench, it truly stupid, cast iron has very poor resistance to shock, and will crack. Don't beginners deserve to know this? If his videos are some sort of primer for beginner woodworkers, then god help craftsmanship of the future.

Mike.

 

[Noel]

Please forgive me for misinterpreting your remarks if I have, but that sounds unnecessarily sneery. Not all of us are lucky enough to start our woodworking in well-equipped workshops, with vastly experienced tutors on hand. I started my woodworking with a Black and Decker Workmate and a cardboard box to keep my B&Q tools in, so I can appreciate his approach - he's trying to get the person who has no facilities whatsoever started with making a bench. If that looks like 'wrestling a pig', well so be it - even the finest craftsmen had to start somewhere.

Hi,

It probably is sneery, but not unnecessarily. In my experience few, if any, are lucky enough to start woodworking in well equipped workshops; I certainly wasn't.

My bench was made from sawn beech and sapele for the underframe, with a 05 1/2 jack, a smoother, a bit brace and some washing line for cramping the thing together. I remember having to buy a chisel wide enough to do the large mortices, as I did not have one at the time and I stretched to a B and Q electric hand planer, with a cobbled together side fence, so I could get some reference surface on the sawn material. My tablesaw was a hand held circular mounted upside down under some conti-board and a clamp on batten for a fence, or used hand held against a tacked on batten on the timber itself, (cut from both sides, as it was not powerful enough). The bench is still used now, as it is good enough (not perfect) to find it hard to justify building another. I did have the common sense to brace up an old kitchen cabinet as a temporary work station to do the work. I could do the work calmly and precisely; my planing did not look like I was beating the timber to death, I needed to make no excuse as to why everything looked like a boat in a heavy storm, things were solid and rigid. There is no need to make beginners and hobyists feel like things should be tough, because they aren't if they are given relevent and useful advice.

Why did Mr. Sellers not put the saw horses on level ground and tack on a couple of stretchers to the underframe, to make them solid. If he is as practcal as people seem to think, this would not be beyond the realms of a sensible person. Incidentally, where did those saw horses come from? Made with no tools and no bench at all, presumably. If beginners see planing looking like this, at what point will they find out that it is nothing of the sort! It is calm and precise and much, much less effort. It is patronising to those who genuinely want to learn, to show hem something that is not what is really done, and excuse it with statements like 'beginners don't have many tools to start with', as if this is what they should expect. No it is not, at all.

That is the proper, careful use of hand tools, and he is positioning the work for the camera. I find no error in his methodology. Perhaps you are unaware of Paul Sellers.

Toby

I am quite aware of Mr Sellers, and I detest almost everything he teaches. That is not to say that he might not do good work, but just that he does not do it like he shows others. His so called no nonsense sharpening uses one of the most expensive sharpening mediums available (diamond plate) and still he manages not to go to a fine enough grit to make his tools truly sharp. This is nonsense for a beginner. The video where he completely FUBAR's the soles of his planes is mind blowing, and I shudder to think of the number of unknowing hobbyists who have junked there perfectly good planes by following his nonsense advice here. Anyone who beats the hell out of a shoulder vice when chopping mortices, instead of clamping the work to a bench, it truly stupid, cast iron has very poor resistance to shock, and will crack. Don't beginners deserve to know this? If his videos are some sort of primer for beginner woodworkers, then god help craftsmanship of the future.

Mike.

I'm not winding you up Mike or having a go but why watch his videos then?
Personally he seems to be a good fella and I usually learn something or at least what he does gains my interest.

 

[Blister]

The second you put a tutorial on Youtube you make yourself a open target for alternative methods and criticism

In my opinion any method that will produce the required end result is far better than sitting back and doing nothing

So well done Mr Sellers =D> for putting yourself and your ways in the firing line , After all Mr sellers is only trying to help not hinder anyone with his videos

 

[Jacob]

Mike you are just wrong. You need to watch the series to get what he's on about. I guess you will just find that intolerable!
His book is very good too, the best I have seen for beginners, although it's a bit glossy and over produced, but with no product placement at all!!!!