Season 1
13 episodes · Jan 7, 1989
First Season of the Series. Series host, Norm Abram, builds an oak medicine cabinet, an ash drop-leaf table, a pine blanket chest, a pine bedside table, an oak bathroom vanity, a cherry trestle table, a painted bookcase, a pine chest of drawers, a candle stand, a pine hutch, a maple slant-top writing desk, and a pine corner cupboard. For "shop tools and techniques", he builds a workbench.
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- S1E1
Medicine Cabinet
Jan 7, 198930mAfter a tour of The New Yankee Workshop to preview the collection of furniture he will build in the first season, Norm visits a "retiring room" at the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts to find a model for a handcrafted medicine cabinet. Drawing inspiration from a looking glass and cabinet, Norm uses durable red oak and oak plywood to construct a medicine chest of his own design featuring box-joint joinery
- S1E2
Workbench
Jan 14, 198930mA good workshop begins with a well-equipped workbench, and master woodworker Norm uses one from his own shop as a model for the conveniently-sized and affordable workbench he builds in this episode. After a look at a workbench used 100 years ago by the craftsmen at Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts, Norm builds a workbench featuring an oak-edged hardwood top, a bench vice, a recessed tool storage area on top and a shelf beneath.
- S1E3
Drop Leaf Table
Jan 21, 198930mNorm uses ash, a durable hardwood, to fashion a drop-leaf table featuring turned legs, a top and leaves made from glued up stock. Norm shows how to turn the table legs on a duplicating lathe and reveals a few tricks for making mortise and tenons joints. Using a router and two special bits, he shows how the drop-leaf joint is made.
- S1E4
Blanket Chest
Jan 28, 198930mNorm travels to the island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts coast to look at a handmade blanket chest in a sea captain's house dating from 1790. Incorporating elements of this antique in his own design, Norm builds a blanket chest of pine, lined with aromatic cedar panels.
- S1E5
Bedside Table
Feb 4, 198930mNorm constructs a bedside table inspired by one found at the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts. Norm's design, made from pine, features a shallow drawer, table legs tapered on the inner sides and a table top with a breadboard design (glued boards edged with wood on two ends).
- S1E6
Oak Bathroom Vanity
Feb 11, 198930mNorm demonstrates how to build a bathroom vanity with dovetailed joints. He uses oak and a laminate top with double doors and a flat panel outside and raised panel inside mimicking the Shaker style. The vanity dimensions are 34" high x 38" wide x 23" deep. Inspired by a dry sink he found at a 1790 Shaker house in Harvard, Norm's oak unit features dovetailed joints and a high-pressure laminate top.
- S1E7
Trestle Table
Feb 18, 198930mAfter a look at a pine trestle table in a Shaker house on the island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts coast, Norm constructs his own easily-disassembled trestle table of cherry, a hardwood which, if kiln-dried, resists twisting or shrinking over time. Norm shows how to glue up the boards that comprise the expansive table top and demonstrates how to make the two trestles and the stretcher which connects them.
- S1E8
Bookcase
Feb 25, 198930mNorm builds a free standing bookcase with a cornice detail, adjustable shelves, and a removable base. He uses pine for the base and birch plywood for the rest. The bookcase dimensions are 80" high x 36" wide x 12 1/2" deep.
- S1E9
Chest of Drawers
Mar 4, 198930mNorm demonstrates how to build a chest of drawers using Ponderosa pine. He cuts and planes the wood, glues the boards fro the top and sides. He also illustrates how to build the drawers including the drawer case, the frames, and the base. The chest measures 42" high x 41 1/2" wide x 19" deep. Norm makes his own design from Ponderosa pine, showing how to cut and plane the wood, glue the boards and build the drawers, frame and base.
- S1E10
Candle Stand
Mar 11, 198930mNorm travels to the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts to gather ideas for his own design for a candle stand. Returning to his workshop, Norm shows home woodworkers how to build an exact replica using power tools, including a lathe, router and band saw.
- S1E11
Hutch
Mar 11, 198930mNorm demonstrates how to build a hutch using knotty pine. The hutch consists of a base cabinet that has raised panel doors and an open shelf section. It measures 81 1/2" high x 56" wide x 18" deep. In the kitchen of the Fitch house at Old Stourbridge, Norm shows us an early American `hutch' then builds his own pine version back at the workshop.
- S1E12
Writing Desk
Mar 25, 198930mNorm builds a writing desk with a slanted top that is constructed mostly of maple. The desk features a shallow drawer, a nest of small drawers, and a open bins in the top. The dimensions are 42" high x 36" wide x 20" deep. Made mostly of maple, this desk is one of the more complicated projects ever tackled by Norm.
- S1E13
Corner Cupboard
Apr 1, 198930mNorm constructs a corner cupboard of pine and plywood. His design employees a top section that is enclosed by glass paned doors and a base cabinet with raised panel doors. The cupboard dimensions are 86 1/2" high x 42" wide x 30" deep. Norm makes his own corner cupboard from pine and plywood, incorporating a top section with glass doors and a base cabinet with raised panel doors.