The BEST episodes of The New Yankee Workshop season 1
Every episode of The New Yankee Workshop season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The New Yankee Workshop season 1!
In this PBS series, craftsman Norm Abram demonstrates how to build quality furniture in one's own workshop using traditional carpentry techniques. Abram also gives pointers on restoring and caring for antique furniture, along with short history lessons regarding famous craftsmen of America's past.
#1 - Bookcase
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/25/1989
Norm 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.
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#2 - Workbench
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/1989
A good workshop starts with a well-equipped workbench. Norm uses one from his shop as a model for the affordable bench he builds during this episode. Norm builds a workshop workbench which features an oak edged hardwood top, a vice, a recessed tool storage space on the top, and a shelf below. The bench dimensions are 34" high x 64" wide x 25" deep.
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#3 - Medicine Cabinet
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/1989
Norm leads a tour of The New Yankee Workshop to preview the furniture he will build in the first season. He demonstrates how to build a medicine cabinet that is based on one seen in the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. Norm uses red oak and oak plywood with box-joint joinery to construct his version. The cabinet dimensions are 26" high x 22" wide x 7" deep.
#4 - Oak Bathroom Vanity
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/11/1989
Norm 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.
#5 - Writing Desk
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/25/1989
Norm 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.
#6 - Drop Leaf Table
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/21/1989
Norm 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.
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#7 - Chest of Drawers
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/4/1989
Norm 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.
#8 - Trestle Table
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/18/1989
After 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.
#9 - Blanket Chest
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/1989
Norm demonstrates how to built a blanket chest using pine lined with aromatic cedar. The chest dimensions are 22" high x 44" wide x 19" deep.
#10 - Bedside Table
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/1989
Norm 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).
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#11 - Candle Stand
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/11/1989
Norm 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.
#12 - Hutch
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/11/1989
Norm 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.
#13 - Corner Cupboard
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/1/1989
Norm 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.