We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
There are few things I dislike more than seeing myself in video. I’m one of those guys who has a face for radio. And when I talk, I move my hands in a way that looks like I am giving myself an erotic chest massage.
But readers have asked , insisted even , that we provide video instruction for things that are difficult to show with words and still photos. So I’ve swallowed my discomfort , hard.
For more than three months, Glen D. Huey and Drew DePenning filmed me as I was building the workbench shown on the cover of the August 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Nothing was faked or set up for the cameras. It was just me working, Glen filming, me sweating and Glen chuckling.
In all, we recorded more than 40 hours of video, which Drew has been distilling into a compact narrative that explains in the most succinct terms possible how to build this bench using hand tools. We were able to greatly condense the story of building the bench by almost eliminating the “talking head” part of woodworking videos (a crime of which I am guilty on occasion).
Instead, most of the video is of me working with narration layered over the video. In film, narration is a “cheap plot device,” according to one of my favorite film professors. But I think it works here.
In addition to the video, the DVD has some extras that you will find useful.
– There is the complete story from the August 2010 issue with the cutting list and construction drawings, plus two additional views of the leg joinery.
– An extensive slideshow that contains more than 80 images , many of them unpublished. This shows you nitty-gritty details in high resolution so you can study them.
– SketchUp files of the bench, plus two variants I worked on and a SketchUp file that shows you how I took Roubo’s image of the leg and transformed it into a real working joint.
I am very not displeased with this DVD , my highest praise for my own video work.
As of today, the DVD is now in stock in our warehouse and is shipping. The DVD is $24.99.
If you are considering buying it, would you do me a favor and use this link? They track this stuff, and thanks to you guys, I won $100 in beer money, which I plan to share with the entire staff.
And speaking of beer, I think my chest massage thing could perhaps become a drinking game for you and your woodworking buddies. You have to drink anytime I’m treating my chest like an old-fashioned radio. Or anytime I say the word “unit.”
As always, thanks for your support. It’s why I still get to work here and am not the “detail sander” editor.
– Christopher Schwarz
