Rob Cosman Online Hand Tool Workshop

[John Padgett]

So I signed up for Rob's online workshop yesterday. It's pretty cool so far. I don't have a shop right now so I like watching other people do it. Anyone signed up? Thoughts?

[Jim Koepke]

Wait a second, do you mean people might pay to watch me in my shop?

jtk

[John Padgett]

Wait a second, do you mean people might pay to watch me in my shop?

jtk

I miss having a shop so much, I just might!!

[Frederick Skelly]

@John P. Didnt know about it. Will go look it up. Thanks for the tip.

@ Jim K. You know Jim, thats not necessarily a joke. Youve offered to guide me and many others more than once. I dont know how hard it is to setup such a thing on the net, but Id certainly pay for an online seminar given by you, George Wilson, Mr. Weaver and several others around here. Just a thought. ;

Fred

[Lloyd Robins]

I was signed up for 30 days after purchasing a Wood River plane. I thought that it was very interesting and informative.

[Bob Warfield]

I've been signed up for the hand tool videos since the first one. I find them very informative and really look forward to them. Bob

[Hilton Ralphs]

Can one watch any of the videos with the monthly subscription?

[David Weaver]

@John P. Didnt know about it. Will go look it up. Thanks for the tip.

@ Jim K. You know Jim, thats not necessarily a joke. Youve offered to guide me and many others more than once. I dont know how hard it is to setup such a thing on the net, but Id certainly pay for an online seminar given by you, George Wilson, Mr. Weaver and several others around here. Just a thought. ;

Fred

Nobody would learn much from me, other than where to not spend their money, but I guess that would be useful (I wouldn't have had the sense to pay attention to my own advice though, even though a lot of it would've been the same as the advice Warren Mickley has given and most have ignored). It's too bad there isn't more video of George around, though.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I would agree with David's comments about Warren & George. George will be speaking at an upcoming Patina meeting.

[Chris Griggs]

Nobody would learn much from me, other than where to not spend their money, but I guess that would be useful (I wouldn't have had the sense to pay attention to my own advice though, even though a lot of it would've been the same as the advice Warren Mickley has given and most have ignored). It's too bad there isn't more video of George around, though.

I've learned a lot from you!

How to use and hone a straight razor...

How to use a waterstone dry to work it to a finer polish...

How to set a chipbreaker...

How to best shop on Ebay...

How waist money by buying expensive equipment and then selling it at an unnecessarily large loss....

and last but not least, how to tick off forum moderators...

(okay the last two I'm joking...errr,sort of...but the first 4 are real things I've learned from you...the ebay shopping advice has gotten me some great tools for a steal!)

[Hilton Ralphs]

Chris, where's the scoop on Ebay shopping? Pm me some links please.

[Chris Griggs]

Chris, where's the scoop on Ebay shopping? Pm me some links please.

No links really and nothing that exciting just knowing how/when to bid on certain products, and what strategies to use.

For most things you either want to have searches set up to send you a notification when Buy it Now items are listed so that you can get the ones that are listed a a good price and will go fast.

Other times, you best bet is to watch for auctions that end at weird times. For example I got a type 11 No. 7 with a hock blade for like $50 once because I randomly ran across an auction that was about to end late on a Friday night.

For other things (MF planes in particular for some reason) you want to avoid the BIN listings...you just watch for no reserve auctions. I regularly see very nive MF 9s go for less than $20 in no reserve auctions, but never see them listed as BIN for less then $30. Most recently I one a somewhat rare MF 15 (5 1/2 equivalent) for about $45 on a regular auction that ended in the late afternoon on a weekday. You just kinda need to learn what works best with different products and watch the auctions, and hope for a little luck.

and oh yeah....esnipe.com should become your new best friend.

Of course, now that I've given away all the secrets they'll be no good anymore!

[Hilton Ralphs]

Thanks Chris. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I deleted the internet.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks Chris. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I deleted the internet.

HAHA! You crack me up Hilton!:D

[john davey]

I am a subscriber to Rob's hand tool online sessions. I do find them informative but at times I loose patience with them. It takes a half a year to finish a project. In comparison Paul Sellers does a project in about 10 weeks. Paul is once a week and Rob is twice so that is even faster really. Could Sellers add some? I guess so. But I do think I am ready for Cosman to cut more out or I will not be renewing. Basically I do not want to watch a 30 minute segment any more on him prepping a board. He has done that in other projects. Granted he doesn't prep all of the boards for a project any more but is still doing at least one. He is very meticulous and does spend an entire 30 minute session flattening the side of a board at times. It was great the first time but now I just fast forward through it. Just my 2 pennies :). John....

[Daniel Rode]

Funny, what's beginning to frustrate you is making me consider checking him out. I love Paul Seller's master classes but I'm so early in my development, that I get a lot out of watching someone spend 30 minutes flattening 1 side of board and I want to see it done several time on different boards. Paul does it once, maybe in a prior video and moves on. Good, but I could use the repetition. What I don't like, from the little I've seen, is that Rob is always selling. I really don't want to pay him to constantly tell me to buy his $400 saw and $100 apron.


I am a subscriber to Rob's hand tool online sessions. I do find them informative but at times I loose patience with them. It takes a half a year to finish a project. In comparison Paul Sellers does a project in about 10 weeks. Paul is once a week and Rob is twice so that is even faster really. Could Sellers add some? I guess so. But I do think I am ready for Cosman to cut more out or I will not be renewing. Basically I do not want to watch a 30 minute segment any more on him prepping a board. He has done that in other projects. Granted he doesn't prep all of the boards for a project any more but is still doing at least one. He is very meticulous and does spend an entire 30 minute session flattening the side of a board at times. It was great the first time but now I just fast forward through it. Just my 2 pennies :). John....

[john davey]

He doesn't sell that much and has joked that he has to stop doing it in that media. It is not enough to make me be bothered at all. Watch the first few projects. He does them start to finish without skipping anything. I enjoyed them the most but now prefere sellers pace. John.

[Jim Neeley]

Opinion: Rob Cosman’s Online Hand Tool Workshop

Rob's "Workshop" is actually two workshops.

The first one (two 30-minute episodes per week) is hand tools only. Hand saws, scrub planes, winding sticks and nary an electron touches the wood.

The second workshop is "Hand and Power Tool", has three 30-minute episodes per week, and utilizes both hand and power tools, with a bent towards hand tools where there is not a major sawings in time and where the quality of the product will not suffer (i.e. finishing from the plane rather than using sandpaper except where truly necessary). This one adds the table saw, jointer, planer, bandsaw, etc. to the hand saws, planes, etc., again where there are labor economies of scale.

An individual can choose to become a member or either or both workshops.

Rob’s Online Workshop is not for everyone but is powerful learning experience for some. In synopsis, some will prefer the "edited and condensed" version of a DVD or TV show while others will benefit from more detail, including instructor errors. In this posting I will provide some information on what the workshop is, and is not, and encourage each of you to decide if it is or is not right for you. There is no "correct" answer for all.

I hope this does not come through as a "sales brochure". I've been following this thread since its first post but held off posting because I was concerned it would appear to be just that. I finally figured that enough others had posted here that it was time to share my opinion, as some may find it of value along with the mix of others postings here.

First, I have been a subscriber to Rob’s Hand Tool Workshop since July of 2011, adding his Hand-and-Power Workshop when it was introduced around January 2012. If by this you imply that I am one who finds great value in this for myself, that is true and you will see my perspective in the flavor of this re-posting from Rob's forum, but I have also been around long enough to see that it’s not the best learning tool for all. I am trying to provide the information to assist in your analysis.

A prospective member posted the following on questions on Rob's forum:

“Are the plans, material list and tools needed listed somewhere once I start my paid subscription?”

My response to that poster (months ago) is below (someone should limit my word count!) :-)
================================================== ===============

The short answer to your three questions is: a few, sorta, and if you ask yes. Now let me tell you why I believe that is such a good thing.

Before I do, let me share that, I'm just a subscriber like yourself (except I've been a member of both forums since they started) and have no business affiliation with Rob.

What other instructors I've seen do (on DVDs) is to provide plans, material and cut lists and walk you through cutting them out and assembling them. It's purely the mechanics of building the item. They cut out the part where they are thinking, cut out the miss-starts and the mistakes. Ever notice everything goes together perfectly the first time, every time? Can you do that? Me either.. and neither can they without the miracle of editing. I also found the format disheartening, finding myself wondering why they can build it in 2 hours and after 40 hours I'm only part way done.

This makes it fit the DVD format but is akin to teaching how to assemble a jigsaw puzzle looking at the cover. Everyone gets the same box of pieces and assembles them identically. Learning how to match the shapes is a good thing as long as you can find a puzzle that is exactly the picture you want. What happens if you want the picture larger than the puzzle you find, want to change the backdrop or the colors used?

What Rob teaches is not only the mechanics but also the thought processes he goes through along the way. He starts out with something he is going to make and shows you why he makes it the way he does, not just how to make it. For example, on the cherry end table the inner two sides of each leg is tapered. He shows you he does this to make the table appear lighter. How does he decide how much to taper it? He tells you he's thinking 3/4" to 1" of taper along the leg will be right. Then he does it to 3/4 and talks about why he stops there or why he tapers it more. The end table has a drawer but Rob teaches you what you'd need to know if you wanted one with 2 drawers instead of 1.

When you watch Rob's episodes you are watching in real time, uncut woodworking. Thus you see not only the perfect cuts but also the mistakes and how he corrects for them. What I'm learning is that there's ways to recover from most mistakes if you think about it.

You asked about plans. Rob walks through the design on camera, writing the dimensions down as he goes. He shows you how he selects the wood he uses and why. He shows how much he over cuts the rough size of pieces each time and why this one is different than earlier ones. It is a powerful learning experience.

You ask about tools. What is taught is most things can be done with one of several tools. Some are easier or better at it but you don't need them all. You'll also see where the benefits are so you can decide when it's right for YOU to add a particular tool to your toolbox.

In synopsis, this is the closest thing I've seen to getting a woodworking apprenticeship short of actually becoming one. You learn not only the mechanics but are developing the skills to one day pass on to others.

If you decide to join our fraternal order of apprentices, be prepared to learn (with the right guidance) it's a lot more do-able than it looks. :-)

This is just my $0.02.. YMMV. :-)

Jim in Alaska

[David Weaver]

John, you're in a bit of a pickle because you have no shop, so my best suggestion doesn't fit well, but there's not much else that is as beneficial as time at the bench. The bench doesn't sell you things, either.