Fine Woodworking

Welcome to Fine Woodworking Shop Talk Live episode 378, hosted by me, Brigid Gruber.

Today, I was joined by Mike Pekovic and Owen Madden to talk about how we can use wood science to inform our woodworking decisions.

In fine woodworking news, our annual issue of Tools in Shop should be reaching your mailboxes as we speak.

We hope you enjoy.

Also, we have a new e-learning course.

All right, let's get into the episode.

The podcast last week at Woodworking in America definitely sparked up a lot of discussion on YouTube and social media and especially Discord.

And I do want to say, if anyone is looking for a great place to discuss with other woodworkers, enthusiastic, smart woodworkers, check out the Fine Woodworking Discord because it's always bumping.

Anyways.

So years and years ago, I bought the plans from Fine Woodworking, and Phil Lowe had done a whole online course about how to build it.

And actually, a lot of it, I think, is available now on YouTube that you can watch.

And I wanted to take that bench and combine it with...

Stuart Mack, Stu Mack, they, about two or three years ago, in collaboration with Ben, and I'm sorry, I'm forgetting Ben's last name, but he was one of the hosts of, I think, Shop Sounds podcast, or Shop Talk podcast that Fine Woodworking did.

So, long story even longer, because that's how I feel today.

I'm just going to ramble on.

Um, but in doing, uh, getting ready for this talk, basically, I did a lot of research and reading of previously published articles.

Uh, some were written by professors, PhD students, and some were in, uh, magazines like Fine Woodworking.

And I did find a set of tests that, um, they compared regular mortise and tenon to pinned, to wedged, and, uh, they showed that they, the wedged and the pinned were actually about 20% weaker than the regular mortise and tenon, which, you know, at first glance, it doesn't seem like it should be that way.

But, uh, I think what's happening is anytime you have a hole in a part that's being stressed, that stress will, like, be attracted to that hole, and then it [laughs] ends up, ends up cracking around that area.

Shop Talk Live is hosted by me, Vic Teslin, and the amazing Bridget Gruber, lovingly known as Dinkle.

This episode was expertly mixed and edited by superstar Jeff Rosen.

Mike Pekovich is Fine Woodworking's editor and creative director, and Bridget, when she's not co-hosting, is our associate digital editor.

Show notes are up at ShopTalkLive.com.

So when I got back here, I read every woodworking book in the library, which was about five.

This was before Fine Woodworking Magazine or any of the current blooming of interest in the craft.

It was a real fallow period.

Yeah, th- there was kind of the big boom, I guess, in the, what, the maybe early '80s with all the, the TV shows, the, uh, the guy on t- on PBS who would do all the stuff with the hand tools, and all those other guys kinda-

Yeah.

Anyway, he, he, I was, uh, corresponding with him back and forth and he goes, "You know, your jig is real similar to one that was in the 1984 [laughs] Fine Woodworking thing with this guy making a set T."

[laughs] Oh.

[laughs]