Everyday Woodworking

Hey, I'm in Georgia too. The first episode of your podcast that I listened to was about CNC's. I'm not sure why -what you do with your podcast- has to be done in such a short amount of time, but in that time I feel like you spent more actual time disclaiming than about the topic. You disclaimed that the 'cast was short, that you didn't know much, and on and on...more time disclaiming than you spent putting forth info on CNC's! Living near Atlanta I've been to IWF (pre-Covid) since, what, the 90's? They put giant, dual 5-axis, 5'x10' machines with robots loading and unloading them. Cool. Won't fit my basement shop or budget, but WHAT DO THEY DO? What are the 5 axes? What is the router doing? Are they carving 3-d statues or making cheezy cabinet doors? How do you make them do that? Why, in the most basic sense, do I want to spend or spend more? I just feel like you didn't get your hook into the meat...let's see if you can explain all facets of small, commercial shops...in 8 minutes. Disclaimer, "I'm not a podcast expert, I just listen to some pods in the shower and in the shop, and I only use my left ear!"

Benchtop Planers episode was way more verbose than it needed to be...with lots of asides and, eventually, an admission (i.e., disclosure) that Mr. Tennessee had used only one planer: the DW734 (which I owned years ago after buying it brand new and dealing with noise and snipe then gave away). Did I not stay around long enough in this episode to hear about Byrd Tool’s Shelix (not “helix”) carbide and quiet cutterhead ? Or was it completely absent from Mr. T’s ramblings ? Want to appear to be professional? Then Write A Script and read it (no TelePrompTer required!) Shoddy attempt even with a Patreon-located spreadsheet. [See Fine Woodworking Magazine for an actual usage-based comparison.]

So first - The sound is too bass balanced hard to hear the words. But now to the heart of the matter. I listened to the episode on benchtop planers. Basically a comparison of the stats of the routers in question. Ricky seemed confused on the matter of Rotations Per Minute (RPM) and Cuts per Minute (CPM), and seemed not to be clear which stat he was being offered for any given machine. He understood that there was a relationship, but couldn't articulate what that relationship was. So let's make this simple: Where N is the number of blades, CPM=N*RPM and RPM=CPM/N. Just like Ohm's Law, but for planers. Ricky cites the Bauer as running at 18,800RPM, but Harbor Freight's data sheet reports 18,800 CPM for 2 blades, leaving us with an RPM of 9400. The DeWalt, on the other hand reports 10,000 RPM at the cutter head, which, with 3 blades gives us 30,000 CPM. If you're going to be comparing multiple tools in this manner, it's important to note which manufacturer is reporting which stat, and convert to the stat you are using for your benchmark, which would be CPM here. That Ricky did not take this into consideration betrays a carelessness that calls into question the reliability of his research and the trustworthiness of the information delivered.

A woodworking podcast that manages to add value to a very visual hobby. Each episode so far (about a dozen) is bite sized and targeted at someone like me with a bit of experience but far short of being a professional.