I don't know what your shop is like, but I don't really have one of those
gigantic boubles-sided 4-foot wide belt sanders that he can just feed an
entire tabletop into and have it come out looking like it's ready for the
finishing room within a matter of seconds.

I think Norm's speed is attributed to quite a few things:
1. He has very fast, accurate, and large machinery that makes jobs a lot
easier
2. He has jigs for just about anything you would ever want to make (I
couldn't even store all of those jigs)
3. He does have good skill
4. He pre-builds most of his projects "... and here's our version of the
antique cabinet"
5. I'm sure he gets help from the production crew
6. He has premium selection of lumber and tools (I just spent a good part of
the day just trying to figure out how I needed to cut a bunch of walnut
planks for all of the parts for my project so that the visible parts
wouldn't have holes from the rotted knots in the wood)
7. There is a lot of video editing and I'm sure a lot of mistakes (ever
notice how it always fits perfectly on the first try? Or is that really the
4th try, but the other 3 were editied out?)

Most of the projects I build take up anywhere from 40 to 90 hours. I
recently build a coffee table, a side table, and a TV table out of maple
with inlaid mahogany and custom rosettes. That took 90 hours. Now I'm
building a walnut dining room table (I gave up on the wenge, for those of
you who remember me asking about wenge). I estimate that it will take me
about 40-50 hours total to build this table. But one key thing to remember
is that this is hobby for me -- it doesn't pay the rent, so I can take my
time.

X_HOBBES


"loutent" wrote in message
...

Hi all,

Today was a great day here in the north-east for
retired woodworkers in the spring - a real rainy
dismal day where you could justify being in the shop
instead of outside in the garden transplanting, dividing
or just generally at SWMBO's beck and call.

"Yeah - it's a wash out honey - can't even do our 3+ mile
walk in this kind of weather" g.

10:00 AM: "I'll be down in the shop 'putzin' around' with the
entertainment center project."

"OK"

--------

I can really build boxes good. A month or so ago, I made a couple
of 44 (w) by 27 (h) x 26 (deep) cabinets out of oak ply -
no problem - couple of hours in the shop at the end of a day.

In the meantime, we are deciding how to arrange the shelving
in said boxes. Finally "we" agree that they should each have
a "half" shelf about 12" deep with a bottom support (since I have
about 1000+ LP's from the 70's on that I refuse to get rid of and
that I will rip to digital when I get time).

So there I am - starting at 10:AM - measuring, marking, testing,
re-testing - cutting, trimming, dado-ing (sp?). Routing a stopped
dado in opposte ends of a cabinet with a dado for a middle support
in said shelf and cabinet bottom.

6 Hours later - success - for 1 cabinet!

Jeez! And I have all the freakin' tools!

Is it just me? I am slow, so slow.... and Norm does so much
in 25 minutes...

I need support....

Lou