In this episode, Johnny, James and Zack answer more listener questions. The guys talk about identifying wood species, the best welder to get started with, and using YouTube to promote your business. This is a good one! 

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Check out our Patreon page here, we have tons of support levels, a weekly After Show, monthly hangouts, and more! Our top patron this week is Make Build Modify, and we'd like to welcome our new patrons: Boone Langston and Nathan Serviss. Thanks for your support!

What are we working on?

• Zack: Key Fobs, Chairs, T-shirts, Shoptruck.
• Johnny: Posting Roubo Part 1. Working on Oak dining chairs and bathroom vanities
• James: A bench in the woods, and Hand carving a sign.

Show Topic: Identifying Wood Species, Which Welder To Start With & YouTube For Business

Hey Johnny, I recently picked up a pile of unwanted wood. Do y'all have a easy way to help identify the wood type. Thought this would be an interesting segment for the show. It's very heavy and doesn't have that oak smell when cutting. My first guess was some type of maple.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being new to the big box store and 10 being 50 years of mastery) how would you rank yourself?

Matt A

Good afternoon,

I just read the step by step process for your reclaimed prison wood sliding doors. Absolutely fantastic, I love the reclaimed wood on a mideival frame, really want to do something like this myself. I have a fair background when it comes to wood working, but my experience with welding is slim to None! Do you have any recommendations with equipment or where I should start? I'd like to do my own frame and handle, not sure I could get away with my own nails though... so badass by the way.

I intend to watch all of the videos you posted this evening when I have some free time, but if you have any advice for a novice of the extreme I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thank you for your time and have an excellent evening.

Andrew Shafer

Hey man --

You and Johnny have sort of inspired/worn me down on the idea of building my own metal furniture components. Be it legs, or wholesale frames. I'm curious to get your input on buying a beginner priced machine (140a) vs. The Lincoln 210MP. I see a lot of benefit to going with the 210MP (particularly in the dummy proof set-up), but at double the premium, it's a hard pill to swallow if a 140amp machine will get me through most projects.

I don't do this full-time, but my commisions are fairly steady. The most immediate example is I had some logs milled up this fall. I will likely end up making some simple slab style tables with them, so some square or trapezoidal legs are probably in order.

I don't remember you talking about your machine on the podcast except saying that you bought it a year early because the 210MP came out the following year at near the same price point. If you've gone into more details and I've forgotten, I apologize. I know Johnny is firmly in the 210MP/buy once,cry once camp...I'm just curious to get your take on how much value the cpu set-up and higher amperage adds for light duty furniture fab.

I've been researching over the past month and am sort of blown away by the constant backtracking on where a 140amp machine is limited. There's a lot of great welding tutorial info out there. And a lot of great info as it relates to things like pipe fitting and auto work. But far less info when it comes to furniture fabrication.

Anyway, I appreciate all that you do/inspiration. I love your work and thoroughly enjoy the podcast!

"I’ve always been around metal fabrication but never got into it myself. If I were to start welding what would you suggest wire feed or tig? Why?"

@Evergladeswoodworks on Instagram

"I'm kind of trying to build a portfolio to start a business when I'm done with my military service, and my question is:

Has YouTube helped you in your business (of making and selling things) and would you encourage producing content for that reason?

Thx, Love your work!"

- Jed Hutt

After Show:

"If you had to choose just one platform (besides YT) to focus on to support your YouTube channel, what would it be?"

- Boone Langston

What’s new/what are we watching/reading?

• Johnny: Rogue Engineer on YouTube
• James: NO Bad Wood Fine woodworking Masters of the craft 
• Zack: Kevin Caron

Favorite tool/product this week?

• Zack: Dewalt Metal Chop Saw
• Johnny: Whiteside Ultimate Router Bit
• James: A cheap set of chisels from Harbor Freight

Want more episodes of the Crafted Podcast? Check out our Show Archives here.