Matt Cremona (@MattCremona) is best known for his woodworking video channel on YouTube. Primarily self-taught, Matt challenges himself to build beautiful furniture, going so far as to cut and prepare the timber, documenting the forest-to-finished-piece process along the way.
Matt’s background is diverse, with previous work in software development, interface design, and economics. Together we discuss wood, carpentry and essential tools, and producing a weekly video show. Check out his videos and some of his work at MattCremona.com
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- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, Episode 61 (MP3, 51:37, 25.1 MB)
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, Episode 61 (OGG, 51:37, 42.5 MB)
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Show Notes & Links
- Woodworking with Matt Cremona on YouTube
- Matt calls himself a “furniture maker” because he doesn’t focus on pure design
- Matt, a former software designer, learned to build and maintain homes by working for his landlord
- Unlike most woodworkers, Matt will take a piece from forest to showroom.
- Adam Smith wrote about the input of labour into the cost of goods
- Matt studied Business Finance and Vertical Integration
“Everything I have that's useful in my day-to-day life ... I taught myself.”
—Matt Cremona
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- Autodidact
“Every time (timber) changes hands, the cost doubles.”
—Matt Cremona
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- Dovetail Joint & Half-blind Dovetail Joint
Dovetail Joint
Half-Blind Dovetail Joint
- Matt’s Shop Update — published every
MondayTuesday, after four hours of production - Matt learned video editing in the high school A/V club, and returned to the practice years later
- Lindsay Katt, quotable past guest on The Busy Creator Podcast
- Calculus
“Geometry plays an incredibly large part in what I do.”
—Matt Cremona
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- Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
- Is this a Rhombus or a Kite?
- Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and other electronics
- Modding XBOX to build a Linux web server, for example
- Prescott aspires to 3D model and print his own steampunk outlet covers
- Drywall anchors, tile spacers — can be 3D printed
Drywall anchors, will be 3D printed as needed in the future
- The original Metre was just a brass bar with two chinks in it (now it’s the oscillations of a Krypton ion)
The First Metre
- A Foot is actually defined by its proportion of a Metre — .3048m exactly
- Chroma keying (green screen)
- Slabbing up a 6000-lb red oak log
- Matt’s Cherry Cabinet project
- Selecting the panels for the doors
- Matt Cremona on Twitter
- Matt Cremona on Facebook
- Matt Cremona on Instagram
Tools
- Milling machines such as jointers, planers
- YouTube, for learning just about anything
- A second monitor (the best tool for a digital workflow)
- Display Fusion, and other Taskbar management apps for dual monitors
- Evernote
- Adobe Premiere
- Stabilization Plugins
- Saws - hand saw, circular saw, mitre saw
Techniques
- Examine your material costs and where you can save money by producing your own
- Hire a guy with a saw mill, rather than try to do that part yourself
- Look for trees that have already fallen or been damaged
- Publish a weekly update to force yourself to do something each week
- Fight to have everything square from the start
- Keep an old computer in your shop and look at your notes
- Shop for used equipment, build your workshop slowly
- Arrange your workshop around your workflow; place first-run tools closer to the door
- Pick a first project before you choose your first tools
- Bring a camera and record events … you never know when you’ll need the footage!
- Learn to use the grain of the wood
Habits
- Combine power tools with hand tools
- Find the time that’s most productive for your (midnight–3:00am for Matt)
- Prepare and eat pancakes every day
- Answer email and connect via social early in the morning, get it out of the way
- Map out “main goals” for each day
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Prescott Perez-Fox is a graphic designer, brand developer, and educator with 18+ years experience in branding, packaging, graphic design, and web design. He runs The Busy Creator.
