Dear friends and fellow woodworkers,

Here at the Workshop, like most woodworkers, we tend to measure our time a little differently. Our year is defined not in terms of days or months, but by our projects.

The start of the year is especially important for us at The New Yankee Workshop. After months of drafting plans, building prototypes and producing the projects for air, we finally get to showcase what we've been up to. We premiere our 18th season on Saturday, January 7 at 1pm on PBS with the Colonial Mantle.

Because the New Year is still a few months away, we wanted to give you a sneak peak at what we have in store. The mantle project will be followed by 12 other episodes including Router 101 (a two-part program on some of my special tips for getting the most out of your router), Workshop Helpers (a collection of three projects for the shop), and an ingenious method of building your own Plantation Shutters. We're also working on our first-ever The New Yankee Workshop-branded project, the Shop Clock. Finally, for all those gamblers out there, wait 'till you see our New Yankee Poker Table.

As always, we pick each project with the goal of inspiring you to build one or more in your own shop. Perhaps when you see a neighborhood poker game being played out on a disreputable table, you'll be as inspired as I was to build your own. A Nantucket pool house became the model for a nifty storage shed, and we believe that once you see how useful and attractive it is you'll be building one too. And just wait 'till you see what we do with a pile of nasty salvaged timbers once used in a dam off the mighty Rappahannock River in Virginia. The elegant historic replica of a Corner Table we create might have appealed to George Washington himself (who lived nearby).

We'll be finishing out 2005 in the shop by completing our remaining projects for the new season - an antique Corner Chair reproduction and some examples of wall paneling that are inspired by a grand room that I worked on for This Old House. You can visit the New Yankee Web Cam throughout the month of November to see how these projects come together.

Norm Abram
Host, The New Yankee Workshop

Colonial Style Mantel
Program #1801

After tackling more pressing projects, Norm is finally getting around to building a mantelpiece for the master bedroom in his home. Though his home is filled with the beautiful furniture he has made over the years at The New Yankee Workshop, somehow he never took the time to complete the most defining architectural element in his bedroom - the fireplace mantel. Now, instead of waking up to an unfinished brick and plaster wall, he looks at a beautiful Colonial mantelpiece that frames the master bedroom's fireplace. The project involves using the router table to produce the frames to receive the m.d.o. plywood panels and make a molding, some precise work with the mitre saw, and installation of the completed mantelpiece. As always, Norm makes this project seem within reach of most average woodworkers. The dimensions are 72" w x 61" h.

Plantation Shutters
Program #1802

If you've priced plantation shutters lately, you know how expensive they can be, costing several hundred dollars per opening. Not surprisingly, Yankee ingenuity and thrift get the better of Norm and he creates some stunning shutters in the workshop. As his admirers have come to expect, he first builds a collection of jigs, which are necessary to drill holes, set staples, and mortise hinges. Then he shapes the individual bass wood slats, mounts them on a control rod, and positions the whole assembly into a frame of poplar that then gets spray-painted. You'll be impressed at how well these interior shutters look and operate when he installs them in a room he's been working on for some time.

Workshop Helpers
Program #1803

Everybody knows Norm likes to work alone. Although he does get some help finishing the projects, Norm does the wood working all by himself. Sometimes that's not easy, so Norm finally decided to enlist the help of some workers who never show up for work late, never get tired, and are willing to work until the job is done. Meet them.

Roller Stand: a sturdy, height adjustable, rugged stand for use as an out feed appliance for the table saw, the band saw, or the drill press. It even comes to work ready with its own homemade, self-storing crank.

Stock Cart: a lightweight, very strong, wheeled wagon that comes with five shelves to organize the parts needed to complete a project and travels from machine to machine, carrying the parts as needed.

Mobile Tool Stand: a shop-built table to support bench top tools like planers, small saws, and jointers that, when combined

Poker Table
Program #1804

Poker is the game to be playing right now and Norm has a special project in mind for its legions of fans when he sets out to find and build the ideal table. He starts with the Internet and finds plenty of commercial variations and lots of information and inspiration that will help him create his table.

To find out what the locals are using, Norm interrupts a neighborhood poker game for a look at their table and comes away unimpressed. Although the one he finds supports eight players, their chips, their drinks, and the cards, it is profoundly ugly and shaky. Norm decides to build an improved version.

Norm creates his eight-sided table of mahogany and mahogany veneer plywood and places it on a sturdy pedestal. Rethinking the traditional felt covering typically used on these tables, Norm chooses a state-of-the-art synthetic fabric that offers a much-improved covering. He even finds brass cup holders, which are recessed into the top for holding beverages. The finished table is a winner. The dimensions are 30" h x 50" w.

New Yankee Shop Clock
Program #1805

Over the years, Norm has created several clocks for The New Yankee Workshop, most notably the tall case oak clock with an imported eight day movement (Item #0405) he built a couple of years ago. Now his interest turns to a shorter cased clock with a key wind spring movement that is housed in a walnut case. But the big difference is the painted glass panel that adorns the clock face and the clockworks below. Norm asks his project partner, the Klockit Company of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to come up with a facsimile of the famous New Yankee logo, which will be painted on the glass and through which the clock pendulum can be seen. The results are stunning and just the finishing touch for a workshop or any room in the house. Everybody who has seen it wants one. The dimensions are 28" h x 14" w x 7" d.

Router 101 (2-Part)
Programs #1806 and #1807

Is there a woodworker anywhere who doesn't own a router? Ever since these ubiquitous power tools were invented many years ago, craftsmen like Norm have been devising ways to use them for a wide variety of tasks.

Norm begins this special two-part program with a demonstration of both the standard base and the plunge type router and declares his preference. He also shows some of his favorite bits for creating both simple and complex edges on his projects.

Then, Norm turns to the task of making perfect mortises for hinges by creating a jig that allows even a novice to achieve perfect results every time.

Next, Norm uses the router and builds another home-built jig to form precise dadoes in shelf standards, elements he might build for a bookcase project.

In part two of this router special, Norm begins with a demonstration of commercial router tables and moves on to show his version of a router station that so many of his fans have copied for their own workshops. With it, Norm shows the step-by-step procedure of making raised panel cabinet doors. Next, Norm uses a homemade circle-cutting jig to form perfect circles of various diameters with a router. Also included are instructions and a demonstration on how to make inlays using a router.

Measured drawings are not available for this project.

Corner Table
Program #1808

This project involves some considerable effort. At the suggestion of a friend who, with his colleagues, is trying to restore a historic river, Norm agrees to paddle a canoe over some rapids in search of some unusual white oak that's been submerged there for nearly 150 years. The oak Norm wants was used as a dam on Virginia's mighty Rappahannock River. Today it sits as a pile of salvage on the river's edge just hoping a woodworker floats by to rescue some of it for furniture projects.

Norm engages Bill Jewell, a local sawyer of historical trees, to prepare this timber for the purpose of making a drop-leaved corner table, which Norm finds at nearby Kenmore House, a noted Fredericksburg mansion that was once owned by George Washington's sister.

After Norm gets the wood to his shop, he spends considerable effort turning it into suitable pieces to make a copy of the original table - including the challenging turned legs that add so much style to this particular piece. The dimensions are 30" sq x 29" h.

Greek Revival Bookcase
Program #1809

While prowling a designer show house, Norm discovers a handsome collection of bookcases built in the Greek Revival tradition. Although they are made of plywood, every detail gives the appearance of solid tablets of white stone. The shelves resemble slabs of marble and the cornice on the tall case might have been carved from stone in the manner of a Greek temple. Glass doors enclose the lower bookcase element and swing on concealed European hinges. No mere bookcases here; they are worthy of your finest volumes and your most valued treasures. The dimensions of the tall bookcase are 8' h x 42" l x 12" d (42" l reflects the cornice molding; the actual case is 36" wide). The dimensions of the lower bookcase are 60" h x 57" 1 x 12" d.

Storage Shed
Program #1810

Taking his cue from a pool house he finds on Nantucket, Norm creates a relatively simple, multipurpose structure so coveted by today's homeowners. It could be a garden shed, a place to store the outdoor furniture for the winter, a pool house, or a home for the family bicycles and yard machines. This 96-square foot building is the perfect size for many backyards and features low-maintenance materials that are expected to hold paint and resist weather. Best of all, it is attractive to look at and relatively easy to build. The dimensions are 8' w x 12' h x 12' l.

Wall Hung Console
Program #1811

We first found this item in a decorator show house and were impressed with its functionality and beauty. No more than a shelf really, it is fastened to the wall with massive decorative brackets. It is a perfect solution for displaying vases, candles, lamps, and other objects in a narrow space. Norm builds his out of mahogany. The dimensions are 14" x 60".

Corner Chair
Program #1812

Corner chairs go way back in the history of furniture. Some say their early popularity had to do with the convenience of those wearing swords who could sit on such a chair comfortably. During a visit to Historic New England, a preservation society, Norm is shown a number of variations on this classic form. Norm decides to build his chair out of cherry. The dimensions are 33" back x 19" square.

Wall Paneling
Program #1813

In this program, Norm demonstrates how easy it can be to panel a wall. Norm begins by showing some wonderful examples of wall paneling techniques in a home restored several years ago by This Old House. At one end of the spectrum, Norm shows how simple molding applied to a plain wall can create a paneled effect. Then, he moves back to the Workshop to show classic bead board paneling, raised panel systems and, finally, elegant mahogany paneling using veneer hardwood plywood and solid custom moldings and trim.