What happened to the sawstop?

[Jerry Cappeller]

We just started getting Rough Cut's third season here on Comcast in Fredericksburg, VA. First thing I noticed was that Tommy's SawStop is gone and has been replaced by a Powmatic table saw. Anybody know the reasoning?? He has said in the past that he went with the SawStop because of a close call that got him some stiches. Just wondering, probably just a sponsor forcing the change.

[Matt Meiser]

Scroll all the way to the bottom of his site and look at who's logos are there. ;)

http://www.thomasjmacdonald.com/rough-cut-woodworking/

[David Kumm]

Norm always demo'd machines that were sponsors too. Some projects were designed just to use them. Performax, Timesavers, anything that Delta didn't make one of. Dave

[John McClanahan]

Is that even his shop, or is just using it? It looks like a converted classroom and the credits include a school.

John

[Matt Day]

Sponsorship money keeps the show on the air. I wonder who sponsors the show?

[Mike Heidrick]

I kind of think that is worse than Gass trying to force him to use it. WMH money and his production co force him not too. CRAZY.

[Jim Matthews]

Sponsorship money keeps the show on the air. I wonder who sponsors the show?

I suspect sponsorship IS the reason for the show.
The whole project seems half-cocked, to me.

[Kevin Bourque]

One of the biggest criticisms of the New Yankee Workshop was how the tool labeling was prominently displayed in every shot. I suspect sponsorship is to blame here too.

[Jim Tabor]

Looks like Rikon is no longer a sponsor and the band saw has been replaced with a 14" powermatic.

[John Piwaron]

Filthy lucre. ;)

It takes money to put a show on the air. I'm just pleased that there's something on. If I felt a need to complain, it'd be about the projects if I thought they weren't very good or to my liking.

[Bill White]

I have no prob with sponsorship.
Just wish I had one. Of course, with all the green machines in my stable, I'd expect a bear to show up at my door any day. :)
Bill

[Mike Heidrick]

At least give him a PM1800 bandsaw. But they want tool speople might actually buy I guess.

Norm blacked out a lot of his vendor (Delta) labels on his tools. Silly because most any WW can guess who makes about every common tool.

[John Piwaron]

At least give him a PM1800 bandsaw. But they want tool speople might actually buy I guess.

Norm blacked out a lot of his vendor (Delta) labels on his tools. Silly because most any WW can guess who makes about every common tool.

I used to see a Makita 3601B router on his program. With duct tape over the name. :) It was and still is funny.

[Denny Rice]

I bet sponsors will not be happy if Tommy has an accident and loses a finger. When he USE to have a machine that could stop that from happening. I noticed there seemed to be a lot of that mustard color in his shop this season too.

[Ole Anderson]

I would be glad to see more WW shows on cable and don't care about sponsorship. With out it the shows would never happen.

[Mike Goetzke]

I bet sponsors will not be happy if Tommy has an accident and loses a finger. When he USE to have a machine that could stop that from happening. I noticed there seemed to be a lot of that mustard color in his shop this season too.

Here we go again. Where's the popcorn?

[George Gyulatyan]

Powermatic seems to be pretty big on sponsoring WWing shows. The Wood Whisperer, Woodsmith are just a couple I can think of.

[Denny Rice]

Here we go again. Where's the popcorn? Popping popcorn right now! LOL

[Ron Kellison]

Equipment aside, I just wish he would undertake more projects that aren't butt ugly. I've only saved one episode over the entire 3rd season...the toolbox, and even that one makes me grind my teeth.

Ron

[Harry Hagan]

I guarantee if I had a woodworking show, there wouldn’t be any free advertising. Any non-promotional equipment would be camouflaged better than a Detroit prototype!



252642 2014 corvette

[Harry Hagan]

Are we outta popcorn already?

[Mark Bolton]

Or you could go the wood whisperer route and get a dream hobby shop out of any willing sponsor. I would never criticize successful flagrant capitalization of a situation. Money in ones pocket is never a bad thing.

Tommy is a true, trained, woodworker. I have a hard time banging him when I see all the pbs hosts (Dean Johnson, Scott Phillips, etc) getting paid to do shows about building their own grandiose homes with flagrant sponsor dollars. Scott Phillips is the biggest most flagrant sponsor sellout I've ever seen on television, period.

[John Gustafson]

I think that public television has again moved further away fron it's original "no advertisement" policies. Norm was marching to the corporate posture back when. As Federal and State support continues to erode sponsorships need to be made more attractive as well as the ever more donation campaigns. I'm sure for Public Tv it was a loosening of the rules brought on by a money pinch. Frankly, I always thought that the sponsorship credits kind of made a mockery of the no ad position anyway. Once thy started that with Corporate Sponsorships the camels nose was under the tent.

[Cody Colston]

Okay, everyone that is offended because Tommy Mac is using a sponsor's tool instead of one built by a lawyer, send $10,000 to the show. Maybe enough of you will donate enough money to underwrite the show and then they can bring back your beloved Sawstop. Evidently Gass is too cheap to pay for the advertising his saw was getting.

The above was a sarcastic joke but here's a dose of reality for the naive and the ignorant...It's always about money! Without sponsors and advertising, no money. Without money, no woodworking show.

[Joe Angrisani]

Is that even his shop, or is just using it? It looks like a converted classroom and the credits include a school.

I remember reading about this somewhere. It is an old manufacturing building refurbished to make the TV set that is the shop. In various shots during a show, you can see black stains on the wood floors where machines used to sit.

And yes, Norm's shop was also created as a TV set - the New Yankee Workshop shop is in the TV show's producer's back yard.

[Curt Harms]

Okay, everyone that is offended because Tommy Mac is using a sponsor's tool instead of one built by a lawyer, send $10,000 to the show. Maybe enough of you will donate enough money to underwrite the show and then they can bring back your beloved Sawstop. Evidently Gass is too cheap to pay for the advertising his saw was getting.

The above was a sarcastic joke but here's a dose of reality for the naive and the ignorant...It's always about money! Without sponsors and advertising, no money. Without money, no woodworking show.

But I thought the whole idea behind PBS was to have programming 'untainted' by advertising $$. Hence the pledge drives and government subsidies.

[David Weaver]

I bet sponsors will not be happy if Tommy has an accident and loses a finger. When he USE to have a machine that could stop that from happening. I noticed there seemed to be a lot of that mustard color in his shop this season too.

That would be a huge opportunity for gass if that happened. Huge.

[David Weaver]

But I thought the whole idea behind PBS was to have programming 'untainted' by advertising $$. Hence the pledge drives and government subsidies.

That's behind the stations, but not behind the shows. The shows can do whatever they need to do to pay for production.

One thing is straight up, and that's Tommy a long time ago said his dream was to have a show. The rough cut episodes, presumably, were the way he pitched his cause (maybe he said that outright). Doing that original rough cut stuff on the cheap, and probably on his dime, I'm sure he understands the issue of figuring out how to pay for a show.

I just wish there was a switch you could flip on woodcraft's stuff where you chose "I never view programs or advertising, I'd like to buy the items in your catalog without those costs", because they are consistently the highest cost catalog I get. They're one of the few catalogs left that isn't entirely the prototypical plastic junk + festool and fein, but they are soundly whipped by LV when there is any item common or comparable between the two. I'd like to be more of a patron, but you have to be a skeptic instead.

Anyway, it makes you wish when you're watching the show and one of the "stars" is talking up a product that they'd just come out and say "we use the tools our sponsors provide, and we thank them for them" without trying to add a pitch to it. It would seem a lot more genuine, and I think there's more value in that to viewers.

[Joe Angrisani]

.....that they'd just come out and say "we use the tools our sponsors provide, and we thank them for them" without trying to add a pitch to it.....

Or you can do like Scott Phillips on his hack show. The last sponsor in the opening credits has been Gorilla Glue. Right up there with the big Delta and Woodcraft promos. Yet in every episode I've seen, the Gorilla product bottle has the ol' black tape on the label.

"Here....sponsor me and I'll still hide your product when it's on camera"

[Ole Anderson]

Ah, the black tape and fuzzed out image thing. I always wonder about that. I presume if some one's tee shirt logo for Bass Pro Shop wasn't fuzzed out, the show was paid for prominent product placement. But I wonder how that works for reruns, maybe that is why they fuzz out the logos. Very annoying. And if the actors (or reality folks like deckhands on the fishing shows like Deadliest Catch or or Wicked Tuna) know they are being filmed why aren't the producers insisting on non-ad shirts so they don't have to fuzz them out? Kind of like not allowing concert tees in school.

[David Weaver]

Not that it's on topic, but the worst for product placement has to be NBC now. I can hardly watch their shows because they do such a bad job with it, but still attempt to pass it off. Someone on the biggest loser is sitting around at a table talking to someone else, and then all of the sudden a box of cheerios pops up and one person spits out 30 seconds of what sounds like word for word ad copy to another one, as if people talk the same way advertisements are written.

As someone said elsewhere, though, it gets a little easier to ignore TV every year, and we are to the point that we almost go without (thus, I've never seen the tommy mac show other than clips online). For some reason, PBS in this city makes it really hard to catch woodworking shows, anyway, but the advent of digital has loosened up their schedule a little.

[Harry Hagan]

I liked Tommy’s old Rough Cut podcasts a lot better than his current show. They were funny, entertaining and informative—especially when Al was involved. Much more time was devoted to explaining the why and how of the process. We even sent him a few bucks to help him buy a HD camera so we could actually see those lines he referenced.

[Keith Hankins]

Like others have said its about the money. Go back and look at early Norm shows on youtube. You will see all kinds of brands of tools Makita, Milwaukee, and others. Look at the end. It was all one brand. I don't blame him. They pay the check, I'd user their tools too.

[John McClanahan]

I like the old episodes of The New Yankee Workshop. The mix of well used tools looks like my shop. Current woodworking shows look like they get a new set of tools for each episode. I gave up on thinking that my tools are the problem with my quality of work.

John

[Mel Fulks]

Not saying this happened .Cant help but wonder if maybe a helper was cleaning sawdust out of the bottom of the saw while the star was ripping something ,got his finger too close to the blade,and when the blade came down it cut his (the helper) finger off.Getting cut with a dull guillotine can really hurt! IF that is what happened ,Im against it!

[Phil Thien]

I'm convinced they used the black tape at the encouragement of the sponsor. You see that tape, you recognize the bottle, and you think, "I wonder why he is hiding the label." Now you've thought about it for 10-15 seconds, and the sponsor has won.

Not that there is any problem with that.

[Keith Hankins]

I like the old episodes of The New Yankee Workshop. The mix of well used tools looks like my shop. Current woodworking shows look like they get a new set of tools for each episode. I gave up on thinking that my tools are the problem with my quality of work.

John

Heck I watched one not too long ago and the guy was using a shopsmith! and in another a contractor saw. Ahhh back in the day.

[Michael W. Clark]

I like the old episodes of The New Yankee Workshop. The mix of well used tools looks like my shop. Current woodworking shows look like they get a new set of tools for each episode. I gave up on thinking that my tools are the problem with my quality of work.

John
I tend to agree. Seeing older tools, well used, and still doing the job actually tends to sell me on them or the brand.

On Rough Cut, I think the Kapex was also replaced with a Dewalt slider and wasn't there a General Planer instead of the Powermatic?

[James White]

Filthy lucre. ;)

It takes money to put a show on the air. I'm just pleased that there's something on. If I felt a need to complain, it'd be about the projects if I thought they weren't very good or to my liking.

Sponsored product placement does not even come up on my radar for complaining. My complaint would be... Why do they feel they need to zip through every project in a 30 min episode?

James

[Peter Kelly]

http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop

Product placement free since 1979.

[Joe Angrisani]

Sponsored product placement does not even come up on my radar for complaining. My complaint would be... Why do they feel they need to zip through every project in a 30 min episode?

Because the attention span of the average American is about 20 minutes (30 minus commercial lead-in/lead-out).

[Curt Harms]

Not that it's on topic, but the worst for product placement has to be NBC now. I can hardly watch their shows because they do such a bad job with it, but still attempt to pass it off. Someone on the biggest loser is sitting around at a table talking to someone else, and then all of the sudden a box of cheerios pops up and one person spits out 30 seconds of what sounds like word for word ad copy to another one, as if people talk the same way advertisements are written.

As someone said elsewhere, though, it gets a little easier to ignore TV every year, and we are to the point that we almost go without (thus, I've never seen the tommy mac show other than clips online). For some reason, PBS in this city makes it really hard to catch woodworking shows, anyway, but the advent of digital has loosened up their schedule a little.

I recall a quote from Russell Morash, the producer/director of This Old House (before it was sold) and New Yankee Workshop. He felt the future of programming such as NYW in particular was web casting, not broadcasting. And yeah, except for local news, well, and football :p they could pull the plug and ABC, CBS and NBC and it'd take me quite some time to notice.

[Denny Rice]

Product placement in a woodworking show really doesn't bother me. What really bothers me is they think we are stupid enough that we cannot tell what product and name is under that piece of tape. I see nothing wrong with showing the name of the tools, if they did maybe more beginner woodworkers wouldn't make the mistake of buying junk tools when they start out and have to replace them after a couple of years of moderate use. If they allowed more product placement maybe more tool manufactuers would be willing to help with the cost of producing these shows.

[Jerry Cappeller]

Here's a vidio of his explanation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL8Bn5akXjU

[Rick McQuay]

Is that even his shop, or is just using it? It looks like a converted classroom and the credits include a school.

John

I participated in a web chat with Tommy and we asked him this, he says it is and has been his shop for (10?) years but a few modifications were made (bigger windows and more lighting) to accommodate the cameras. They also teach woodworking classes. He has at least one partner in the deal, I believe it's the young guy who is frequently on the show. Over web chat he is very much like you experience on television... somewhat hyper, very enthusiastic, and fun. The first two seasons were mediocre but season 3 is excellent and I'm glad he's taken on more complex projects.