Beat Around The Bench Podcast

Colton, Jess and Ross
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This is a maker's Podcast about woodworking, good times and general Jack-Assery. The story of these three dates back to WorkBenchCon 2023 where they met and quickly became bestest friends. Since then, their trials and tribulations have been on display on this very Podcast. Jess hails from Tampa Bay, FL and has been a carpenter for over 15 years. (@Jess_BuildIt) Colton calls Houston, TX home. He makes custom cornhole boards (@ColtCrit) Ross comes from Chicago, IL. He makes custom furniture (@RandCDesigns) #woodworking #makers #furniture #carpentry #jackassery #goodtimes #woodwork

  1. 10 ABR

    Ep 140: Everybody Loves Redwood

    The episode kicks off with Ross revealing he is a devoted fan of Phil Rosenthal, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, who now hosts a food travel show on Netflix called Somebody Feed Phil. Ross has personally visited around 15 of the restaurants the show featured, which is either very impressive or the most expensive hobby a woodworking podcast host has ever admitted to on air. Jess loves the show too, mostly because she cannot figure out how the man stays thin eating like that. Ross explains Phil only takes a bite and hands the rest to the crew, which is the most polite thing anyone has ever done at a Michelin-starred restaurant and a taco truck back to back. From there the three of them do what any group of close friends does when the mics are hot and nobody has stopped them, which is spend a solid chunk of time ranking summer fruit. Jess is pushing enormous Walmart grapes nearly two inches across that basically look like plums. Colton is a mango guy who cuts them like an avocado and eats them off the grid. Ross wants dark plums all the way through, loves end-of-summer strawberries and Georgia peaches but peels them because the fuzz is a dealbreaker. Jess eats the entire kiwi including the skin. Ross does not like watermelon. This is treated as breaking news. The real meat of the episode is Colton's deck. He wants to build a 38-foot wide covered back deck on his 1945 farmhouse and came with some ideas, some of which were fine and some of which made Jess say the words "way too thin" with an energy suggesting Colton had proposed framing an aircraft carrier with toothpicks. Two-by-sixes for the floor joists are out. Minimum two-by-tens, go with twelves if spanning 16 feet, and nobody uses four-by-four posts to hold up a roof at 12-foot height unless they enjoy watching things bow slowly over time. Jess advocates hard for at least a 24-inch roof overhang to protect the deck from sun damage, which apparently kills wood faster than water does. The pressure-treated lumber debate gets thorough, covering ground contact versus outdoor rated, copper-based treatments, and whether you need to seal every cut end. Ross strongly recommends filming all of it because outdoor build content crushes every other category on YouTube and TikTok and Colton is leaving serious views on the table. The back half belongs to a trivia game Jess built from scratch where every country has a national tree and most of them are trees these three have never heard of. Countries like Bhutan, Laos, Guyana, Botswana, and Papua New Guinea get their trees identified one by one while Ross and Colton guess the Janka hardness rating and are wrong almost every single time. African Blackwood from Tanzania sinks in water and was historically used as bearings on boats. Mopane from Zambia rates around 3000 Janka and will destroy your planer blades. The Marula tree from Mozambique produces fruit that ferments on the ground and has been documented getting elephants genuinely drunk. Frangipani from Laos rates under 500, which Jess describes as one you could fart on and dent it. The national food trivia woven in is equally unhinged, including larb from Laos, blood sausage with lingonberry jam from Estonia, and a Uruguayan dish Colton identifies from personal West Texas experience as requiring a full week of recovery after eating. Ross closes with a nugget about threaded insert bolts for table bases, Colton finally committed to SketchUp and recommends the Sketchup Essentials YouTube channel, and Jess says use YouTube for every tool purchase decision you ever make and also just buy the good drill the first time. Legal complaints go to Barone Barone Barone Barone Barone and Barone Legal Partners. Motto available upon request. Beat Around the Bench is a woodworking, DIY, and general nonsense podcast hosted by Jess of Jess Build It, Colton of Cold Crit, and Ross of R&C Woodworking and Designs. Find them on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Patreon.

    1 h 21 min

  2. 3 ABR

    Ep 139: Two and a Half Maples

    Ross is back. Jess is missing in action. And it was almost the shortest episode in Beat Around the Bench history because a tornado showed up and tried to end the whole thing early. That is not an exaggeration. But before nature launched its attack, Ross dropped a full debrief from his trip to London and Edinburgh and it is everything you want it to be. The man walked through 800 year old doorways. He stood inside Edinburgh Castle where actual kings and queens watched woodwork get installed that is still standing six centuries later. He described Gothic white oak carvings so intricate and so clean that Scottish carvers were literally shipped across the Atlantic to build out the lobbies of major buildings in New York and Chicago during the roaring twenties and that work is still up today without a single seam coming apart. Ross looked at it as a woodworker and said it would take him 30 years to get to the skill level of someone who was only five years into their apprenticeship. Meanwhile Colton jumped on a coat rack he built to prove Jess wrong about whether it would hold and it snapped immediately. So that is where we are. The episode also hits hard on food. Ross broke down haggis poppers flash fried and dipped in jalapeño stone ground mustard at a bar in Edinburgh. He ate lamb shank at a Greek restaurant in London where they told him to put down his fork and just use his hands. He found beignets at a Paris based bakery called Paul that were so good he had to stop himself from eating a dozen. He also confirmed that the sandwich culture in London is basically non existent which was genuinely distressing for a man who would eat sandwiches at every meal if nobody stopped him. The Sensational Sandwiches meetup did not happen by the way because Frazier was in Paris running a marathon and forgot to check his phone. So that chapter stays open. Back in the shop Colton ran through SharkBite push connect plumbing fittings and how he added a water spigot to the front of his house in about an hour by crawling under a pier and beam foundation with 14 bucks worth of parts and zero special tools. Ross dropped a Harbor Freight shutoff quick connect that lets you swap air tools without losing pressure and without launching anything across your shop at dangerous velocity. Colton gave Ace Hardware its flowers for specialty hardware bolts plus the legendary old guy named Greg who has been doing plumbing and electrical for 45 years and just works there because he likes it. And then the tornado warning hit. Ross had to shelter in place and the episode ended faster than a bull rider getting thrown in the first two seconds. This is Beat Around the Bench. Episode 139. Two and a Half Maples. Follow the show everywhere and keep Jess and Colton honest while Ross digs out from under the weather. woodworking podcast, Beat Around the Bench, Edinburgh Scotland woodworking, Scottish carvers, Edinburgh Castle, haggis, London travel, SharkBite plumbing, push connect fittings, air compressor quick connect, Harbor Freight, Ace Hardware, CNC coat rack, wood carving history, Gothic carving, Sensational Sandwiches, BATB, custom woodworking podcast, Jess Build It, Cold Crit, RNC Woodworking

    48 min

  3. 20 MAR

    Ep 138: The Walking Deadwood

    One man is sick. Actually scratch that. One man is completely destroyed. Colton showed up to record this podcast after a week that included a Creed concert, a karaoke night, felling trees across his yard, and what he describes as looking, feeling, and sounding like hammer dog you-know-what. And yet here he is. A true hero of the craft. But before the sawdust flies, the crew does what they always do first and they talk food. Specifically sandwiches. Ross is heading to London and has a mission to personally visit the Sensational Sandwiches shop and hand deliver Beat Around the Bench stickers to the man himself. The debate over the greatest sandwich meat of all time gets heated. Colton goes Cajun turkey. Jess goes Reuben on marble rye pressed like a panini in a George Foreman. Ross drops the truth bomb that nobody asked for but everybody needed. Salami. Salami is the answer. Throw it on anything. It just works. Then the show pivots hard into the shop. Ross has a customer table in crisis and the breadboard ends are warping like a propeller because Chicago winters pull indoor humidity down to six percent and the wood is screaming for mercy. Jess and Colton walk him through his options. Cut it. Seal it. Rubio it. Ceramic coat it. Accept that wood moves because wood has always moved and wood will always move. This is woodworking. These are the stakes. Then things get really dangerous because Jess rolls out a 25 question lightning round trivia challenge and the rules are brutal. Eight seconds to answer. Five hundred BATB bucks if you are right. Minus five hundred if you are wrong. Questions fly faster than sawdust off a drum sander. Pine. Plumb bob. Dovetail. Bandsaw. Kiln dried. Ipe. The adze. And the final boss question that neither man could answer. The word is chatoyance. It is a French term for cat's eye and it describes that shimmering three dimensional figure you see in curly maple and sapele when the light hits it just right. Use it with your customers. They will never question your credibility again. The crew wraps it out with three heavy hitting nuggets. Jess swears by the framer rig suspender tool belt that changed his life on the jobsite. Colton puts the Woodworkers Companion app on the radar tipped off by patron Greg at Platte Valley Woodworks. It is free and does quoting, invoicing, wood movement calculations, and customer management all in one place. And Ross drops the truth about surviving slow seasons. Find the easy job. Clear coating guitars for an artist. Three hundred bucks. Done. Keep that tap running even when the big projects dry up. This is Beat Around the Bench. Episode 138. The Walking Deadwood. Go follow the podcast wherever you listen and if you need someone to keep Jess and Colton accountable while Ross is eating sandwiches in Scotland, that responsibility falls on you. woodworking podcast, Beat Around the Bench, woodworking trivia, breadboard table repair, wood movement, chatoyance, Woodworkers Companion app, framer rig tool belt, sandwich debate, London travel, kiln dried wood, dovetail joint, bandsaw, hand plane, salami sandwich, BATB, woodworking tips, furniture maker podcast, custom woodworking, Colton Cold Crit, JessBuildIt, RNC Woodworking

    1 h 7 min

  4. 13 MAR

    Ep 137: The Birch And The Beautiful

    Season four keeps rolling and the boys are back with another episode that somehow manages to cover hot dogs, diesel engine engineering, sharpening stone philosophy, wood trivia, and a legitimate debate about whether you should own a tow strap before they wrap things up just over an hour. The episode opens with everyone sharing their go-to hot dog order. Ross goes full Chicago style — poppy seed bun, Vienna beef, mustard, celery salt, neon green relish, tomato, pickle spear, and sport peppers — and just mustard when life gets busy. Colton is firmly in the bratwurst with kraut and dark mustard camp. Jess goes jalapeño cheddar brat with mayo, chili, cheese, and sauerkraut all at once, which Ross politely refuses to be in a truck with afterwards. Honorable mention goes to the Costco hot dog at a dollar fifty. Jess then lays out a full diesel engine situation with his new truck — specifically the known CP4 high pressure fuel pump issue on 6.7 liter Power Stroke engines that can fail and send metal flakes through the entire fuel injection system, turning a pump replacement into a fifteen thousand dollar problem. He walks through the disaster prevention kit option and the upgraded SS Diesel pump solution. Ross and Colton weigh in on Harbor Freight's shifting tool strategy, including why the Pittsburgh line selection is shrinking while the Icon tools get pricier and whether Amazon is quietly eating their single-item sales. The sharpening stone conversation that follows is genuinely useful — diamond plates versus water stones, why stones are actually less aggressive and let you skip grits more easily, and how a simple triangular knife sharpening kit from Harbor Freight can live in your packout kit for onsite honing without taking up any real space. Trivia picks up where episode 136 left off, covering quarter sawing and why it matters for zebra wood and quilted maple, what tool the chainsaw replaced, what kerf means, dovetail and mortise and tenon joints, why white oak was used in shipbuilding, the South American hardwood Ipe that sinks in water, what the pith of a tree is and why it cracks, and the wood lathe as the machine that transformed furniture production. The sudden death finale comes down to a self lubricating wood used in submarine propeller shaft bearings whose name literally means wood of life. Ross correctly answers Lignum Vitae, doubles his wager, and takes a commanding season lead. The snugits close things out strong. Jess recommends putting a quality diesel fuel additive in every tank fill rather than waiting for problems, and mentions that some additive companies will also test your oil or fuel sample for metal content if you want a real read on engine health. Ross makes the case for always keeping a 90 degree drill offset in your go bag after learning the hard way when picking up an old table build at a customer's house. Colton echoes the advice and adds that this is one tool you should not go cheap on — the Milwaukee version being the one that finally held up after a string of broken budget ones. Colton also wraps with a tow strap recommendation after watching a fully loaded diesel generator truck get stuck at a rodeo job site and needing a forty ton tractor to pull it out. Find more at BeatAroundTheBench.com Tags: woodworking podcast, Beat Around the Bench, season four, diesel truck maintenance, CP4 fuel pump, Harbor Freight tools, sharpening stones versus diamond plates, wood trivia, quarter sawn lumber, Ipe decking, Lignum Vitae, woodworking packout kit, 90 degree drill offset, tow strap truck kit, woodworking podcast 2025, JessBuildIt, ColdCrit, RNC Woodworking

    1 h 8 min

  5. 6 MAR

    Ep 136: Desperate Hardwoods

    Season four is officially here and the guys are kicking things off in the best way they know how — a little food talk, a lot of woodworking problem solving, a full round of rapid fire trivia, and some genuinely useful shop and business tips sprinkled in for good measure. The guys open with the new season four title theme, which is TV show names, and they could not have picked a better opener than Desperate Hardwoods. Things get comfortable fast with a crockpot recipe conversation that includes Ross pulling up his bourbon bacon baked beans recipe live on the podcast, Colton reminiscing about bachelor cooking survival mode, and Jess drawing a hard line in the sand against baked beans entirely. The white chicken chili and buffalo chicken dip crowd will feel very seen. The real meat of the episode is a full woodworking consult where Jess walks Ross and Colton through a seriously complex ten foot soft maple table build with serpentine ends, tapered angled legs that kick out one degree in both directions, and the question of how to get the aprons to land cleanly against a conical leg. Ross comes in with the key insight of scribing and notching into the back of the leg rather than trying to shape the apron to meet it, which Jess admits he never would have thought of on his own. There is also a solid conversation about internal cross bracing strategy for a table that long, and why notching and interlocking beats pocket screws every single time. After the build talk the guys cover the Graco Ultra QuickShot airless sprayer. It runs on a standard Dewalt battery, barely drinks power on a full day of spraying cabinet enamel, and the low pressure tips mean almost no overspray. Ross also explains the grounding wire mystery, which has everything to do with static discharge. Then it is trivia time covering questions from previous episodes including what hardwood baseball bats are traditionally made from, what MDF stands for, the Japanese wood charring technique Shou Sugi Ban, and what Lignin actually is and why it matters for steam bending. Colton takes the season win at 25,902 to Ross at 23,099. The circular saw inventor Tabitha Babbitt gets her moment, invasive buckthorn turns out to be workable hardwood, and the African wood Iroko somehow leads to a Woody Allen detour nobody was ready for. The snugits at the end are worth sticking around for. Jess breaks down BannerBuzz.com for vehicle decals, sharing how he wrapped his dumpsters for around twelve hundred dollars with full color outdoor graphics that would have run six thousand through a traditional sign shop. Colton makes the case for carrying two mechanical pencils with different lead widths in your apron. Ross rounds it out with the FastCap Pro Carpenter tape measure, which has a built in pencil sharpener and a dry erase side panel for writing measurements before you lose them walking back to the saw. Season four is off to a strong start. New episodes, shorter run times, and the same three guys who clearly enjoy giving each other a hard time while actually knowing what they are talking about. Find more at BeatAroundTheBench.com and follow Jess, Colton, and Ross on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Tags: woodworking podcast, Beat Around the Bench, season four, serpentine table build, tapered table legs, soft maple table, @Graco QuickShot sprayer, Shou Sugi Ban, Janka hardness rating, woodworking trivia, BannerBuzz decals, FastCap tape measure, woodworking tips, furniture building, woodworking podcast 2025, JessBuildIt, ColtCrit, R&C Woodworking

    1 h 9 min

  6. 27 FEB

    Ep 135: Holly N' Oates

    Season 3 Finale - Ross and Colton hold it down while Jess recovers Stadium Food Debate Ross kicks things off asking what you have to eat every time you walk into an arena - sparked by the legendary Costco hot dog at a buck fiftyColton goes giant beer first, then a thick hot dog with relish and the brownest spicy mustard he can findRoss makes the case for the Chicago dog - Vienna beef, poppy seed bun, neon green relish, tomato, dill pickle spear, sport peppers, and celery salt - never ketchupThe guys plan to attempt the 9-9-9 challenge together at a Cubs vs Astros game - nine hot dogs, nine 16-ounce beers, nine inningsColton won a spicy wings challenge at a sports bar, turned down the milk at the end and called for a tequila shot instead, paid for it the next dayRoss failed a 4-pound burger challenge at his brothers rehearsal dinner after eating two full baskets of appetizers beforehandRandom Jackassery Questions Worst nicknames - Colton got Hagler in middle school, Ross got Ross the Bus and Buddha at sports camp as a kidMost useless talent - Colton eats entire apples core and all, Ross fires off random facts nobody asked for including the tapirs three-headed anatomyPersonal chef vs chauffeur - both pick the chef, Colton wants to watch the knife work and learn the seasoning combinationsColtons Year in Review Since last WorkbenchCon Colton left his job, had daughter Charlie, moved to two acres outside Houston, and is now a full-time stay-at-home dadComing up on a year sober - went to four weddings without drinking and almost nobody noticedCold Crate is on pause while the shop gets built but a big commission quote is close to going out the doorThe Honest State of Custom Making in 2025 Middle tier custom furniture is nearly impossible to compete in when your raw material cost alone exceeds what the overseas finished product sells forThe clients worth targeting are the ones who want something that does not exist on Wayfair and already understand they are paying a premium for itRoss pivoted to real estate agents and interior designers during the housing boom but that pipeline has slowed down hardRepair and restoration is picking up as people choose to extend what they have rather than replace itAI tools like Riverside are making production quality content easier to produce and both guys believe maker content creation is still worth the grind if you have something real to sayYard Chaos and a Useful Discovery Colton used a tractor as a giant leaf wheelbarrow which went fine until the ground started feeling like quicksand under their feetStabbed the soft spots with a pickaxe expecting a busted line, nothing came out, likely just ground compression from repeated tractor passesRoss recommends a sod roller - fills with water, hooks to any riding mower, flattens ruts and soft spots - cheap to rent at Home DepotHousekeeping and Season Four This is the official end of Season 3 - wrapping up since WorkbenchCon is not happening this year for the first time since the show launchedAll deep cut segments are now on beataroundthebench.com in their own sectionWelcome to new Patreon member Tony from Tonys Woodworkx in HoustonUse code BATB at mullettools.com for 5 percent off dust collection gearSeason 4 kicks off in March - send in your suggestions for the new episode naming theme

    1 h 17 min

  7. 20 FEB

    Ep 134: Florida Georgia Pine

    The Boys bring the usual chaos and somehow still manage to drop serious value along the way. The guys kick things off debating which foods deserve to be wiped off the planet forever. Colton goes after applesauce for texture crimes, Ross makes a passionate case against cottage cheese calling it lumpy almost-spoiled milk, and Jess wants yellow squash gone for good. Ross also throws shade at mushrooms and beets noting they both taste like dirt no matter what you do with them, even while acknowledging that mushrooms literally run the communication network of forests. The whole thing is exactly as ridiculous and fun as it sounds. On the project side Jess is launching Dills Dumpsters, a new side business he is standing up alongside his trim carpentry work. He walks through the logistics of running two trucks, getting his father-in-law set up as a subcontractor through a company they named D&D Exploration and Cattle Corp after a Landman episode, and why your Google business page matters more than almost anything when you are starting a local service company. Colton has a new woodworking commission coming in from a rodeo connection designing a custom house. He is cutting decorative alder corbels for two-story exposed beams and adding custom cabinet doors with a relief cut of his clients personal tattoo design. The guys get into real detail on how to attach corbels to plaster walls, the right grain direction for corbels, and why one big long screw plus a plugged hole is often the cleanest solution. The deep cut this episode is the history of tattoos and piercings as a skilled trade. Jess makes the case that tattooing and piercing are the oldest human crafts in existence, predating written language and trade guilds, showing up independently across ancient Egypt, Asia, South America, and Europe. They cover the evolution of tattoo styles from Polynesian influence on American traditional sailor tattoos to Japanese Irazumi to trash polka, touch on why implant grade titanium is the industry standard for piercing jewelry, and drop the wild fact that New York City banned tattoos all the way until 1997. Ross shares his nugget on how he scored an $8500 Samsung smart fridge for $3150 by negotiating the floor model price, a scratch and dent discount, and a free delivery fee. The fridge has a built-in camera that lets you check your groceries from the store, suggests recipes based on whats inside, and even tracks expiration dates. The guys also break down why Guitar Center during the week is one of the best places to haggle. Jess rounds things out with a practical stair building nugget on how to accurately measure and cut newel post heights using the stair rake method, flipping your post upside down and running a board across the nose of each step to get a consistent reference line regardless of uneven step heights. Season four kicks off the first week of March and the guys still need listener submissions for the new episode naming theme. Hit like and subscribe wherever you listen and send those ideas in.

    2 h y 3 min

  8. 6 FEB

    Ep 133: Elm Class Heroes

    In this episode Ross does a Deep Dive into all things AI Related for makers and content creators.       In this week’s episode we Dive deep into AI Colton adds lime to his fajitasJess asks where does all of the time go?Ross takes us on a wild AI adventure.

    1 h 22 min
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This is a maker's Podcast about woodworking, good times and general Jack-Assery. The story of these three dates back to WorkBenchCon 2023 where they met and quickly became bestest friends. Since then, their trials and tribulations have been on display on this very Podcast. Jess hails from Tampa Bay, FL and has been a carpenter for over 15 years. (@Jess_BuildIt) Colton calls Houston, TX home. He makes custom cornhole boards (@ColtCrit) Ross comes from Chicago, IL. He makes custom furniture (@RandCDesigns) #woodworking #makers #furniture #carpentry #jackassery #goodtimes #woodwork

Información

  • Creador
    Colton, Jess and Ross
  • Años de actividad
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodios
    142
  • Clasificación
    Explícito
  • Copyright
    © Colton, Jess and Ross
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Beat Around The Bench Podcast