Tenoning Jig

I contacted Tamar from 3×3 Custom about coming to our club one night to do a presentation but unfortunately she can’t do weeknights as she has lots of things to do with her children during the week. If we can get her to come on a weekend it could be possible. What do we all think about a weekend?

That’s great that she got back to you! We’ve had mixed results with weekend workshops, especially if it costs $$. Did you discuss at all what kind of thing she’d be willing to do? Some sort of how-to or all about making youtube videos or something?

I just looked up her website, and it’s really interesting. We do weekends pretty well, and if there is a way to have her do a day or so, demoing how to make more than just one jig, it might be successful. Even better, but I don’t see how since everyone would need access to the power equipment, or come with some precut pieces, a shooting board and/or tenon jig seminar, or something like that.

Tamara is an interesting woodworker. She seems to have a gift for reverse-engineering or deconstructing items into more manageable components. And look at how she bundles up to work in an unheated shop. Who has not done that? It does seem she principally uses power tools. Perhaps Harry or Corey could provide space for a Saturday. Since Tamara is a parent of younger children, a two-day gig could prove difficult.

Sorry about the misspelling of Tamar’s name; it is Tamar, not Tamara.

We are long overdue for a one day Saturday (or Sunday) workshop. She would be great.

I wonder if maybe her going into detail about what it takes to make a good youtube video could be interesting. I bet she has to plan the steps of a project more deliberately knowing it’ll be filmed.

I wouldn’t mind hosting a event at the shop for a limited amount of people. I got enough benches(7) in the shop and the tools to make a jig or do a live demonstration.

What topics should I ask her if she can do a presentation/seminar/workshop on a Saturday or Sunday?

Tamara has a particularly strong suit in deconstructing or reverse-engineering processes and objects into their elementary parts and then developing her own approaches to construction. A walk-through (demonstration) would be interesting. In turn, this could be a project that participants could try onsite or in their own shops.

Another possiblity: Field Trip! We haven’t had one in a while, surely there are good places to eat nearby. (for those who don’t know, the LIW travels on its stomach)

If it was a meeting in the barn it might be interesting to see what goes into making a youtube video. Cameras, other gear, editing, etc. Not sure how interesting everyone would find that but hey!

Also Corey’s shop is 7 minutes from me so that works too 🙂

Now that we got the ideas flowing I will contact her again about maybe doing a saturday or sunday workshop making jigs (like a shooting board). We haven’t had a workshop in a while and I think we would have quite a few members interested. I also agree that a demo on doing video recording properly would be great too. It could benefit her and our group as we also have a YouTube page but nothing much on that has happened recently.

Just saw this video Tamar did on this really cool joint.
Maybe a great joint to do a demo on?

Good video..Thanks

Asking Tamar to offer a “How to” class on videos is an interesting idea, but it does pose a couple of questions:
1. Assuming Tamar’s YouTube presence is important to her and recognizing the highly competitive nature for viewership, are we putting her in an uncomfortable position by essentially asking for instruction to chase the same audience?
2. Does the LIW currently own all necessary equipment to make videos reflecting solid production values or will we end up having to buy other paraphernalia and then have to grapple with ongoing questions of storage and access?

Individual members may be interested in what equipment and techniques will enable them to produce good videos in their own shops for posting on Youtube or Facebook. A demo on video production doesn’t have to be done by a woodworker.

I watched a few of Tamar’s videos and she is really great. I think she is an excellent teacher, and she knows how to break down a long project into a watchable video. I wouldn’t say she is a professional videographer though, and the entire video is overdubbed with her voice. Like I said, the end product is really terrific, but I would rather see her teach/talk about a woodworking project than video/YouTube. She would be a great club member too, I love her enthusiasm! If the club wants to make YouTube videos again, I can help with video training. You can actually make some money on YouTube, maybe we can offset the rent? LOL

I think we could attract more younger people if we had a working up to date YouTube page and even Instagram (both we do have already). I wouldn’t mind taking care of the Instagram page as I do my own for CT woodwork successfully. We have a decent video camera and stand and Mike Daum did the video recording at Jeff Millers workshop.

I contacted Tamar again if she would be interested in a Saturday or Sunday workshop on making jigs such as the ones in her YouTube videos. Maybe she can show the shooting boards with attachments, tablesaw jig for dovetails, crosscut sled, etc. She seems to make it very easy to do by breaking it down in multiple steps.

Solid ideas, Corey; sign me up. How did Tamar respond? And thank you, Steve, for your generous offer.

A few notes on my youtube suggestion;

I was definitely thinking more for us armchair experts who think we can be the next YouTube sensation, maybe her perspective will either motivate or snap back to reality those aspiring folks.

I hadn’t considered the club making videos, maybe a presentation/discussion on that at the big club would be good (Steve?). We might find some volunteers. Videoing some of our meetings/workshops would definitely be a good thing.

I have one or two ancient YouTube clips up. The quality is waaaay worse than it was going up! I think stuff gets shrunken after a while to save server space or something!

Also, maybe she would be interested in getting her presentation to us on video (with our help) for her own channel! Just a thought…

I like the jigs/shooting boards etc idea. If she gave us a list of things, maybe 2 or 3 projects, people could bring supplies for whichever one they want to do and we could work on whichever one concurrently* in the barn.

*Concurrently may not be the right word…