Well, welcome back to the wagon shop here in
Joliet. You know, and I stand in amazement that it has been 42 years. I'm 67 now, so that
means I started when I was 25, in partnership with my brother-in-law Rick Bischoff, who has the
Luminary Shoppe, many of you watch his channel. I think back to those days and I am
amazed at the number of people that started to put their trust in a young guy
that really, literally, almost knew nothing. And you know, I have told a number of people,
when they asked me who my teachers were, and I have told many of you that the wagons
were my teachers, which is very true, but I've also used the number of people as my
teachers, those who are the old-timers that have been down the path long before I have,
and I pick up bits and pieces here and there. And I've always been amazed that they would
put their trust in me, as a wagon builder, wanting to be a wagon builder in those days. And
you know, the experience kind of came bit by bit, and knowledge kind of grew, and the abilities kind
of grew, and it's just what happens. You know, being young 25 years old, and brave enough
to take a chance, and daring enough to say I think I can do it, even though I've never done
it before. So I have used, in a good sense, people as guinea pigs, so to speak, to learn. I
have learned kind of old school of hard knocks. That's just the old school of learning.
There isn't really an apprenticeship trade out there that anyone can go to, so it's a
school of hard knocks, and that's been my school, and I don't know that I'm a graduate yet. So a
lot of people have put up with my stumblings and fumblings, and over the years I've actually had
a couple back in the shop, with vehicles that I had done 20, 30 years prior, and I've asked them
if I could please redo that coach, or that buggy, or carriage, because I know a lot more now
than I did then. Well, in that same regard, this video deal is kind of the same thing. You
know I kind of cut my teeth a little bit on a few instructional DVDs, and then when I was a little
more involved in YouTube, actually my start in YouTube was because of the borax wagons, and I
go back and I look at those videos now and go, uh, they could be a whole lot better.
But that's just the way it is. It's kind of like my carriage building. I go back far
enough, it could have been a whole lot better, but anyway, I am willing enough to take a
chance and try something new and try to learn. So this video is kind along that line. I have this
wagon that I mentioned last week, from the Spear O Ranch, that I need to rebuild. And you know,
as I drug it in off of the back lot, you know I kind of spread it out and explained some of the
history of the Spear O Ranch. Well, I had a chance to visit with Scott, from Essential Craftsman, he
stopped by several weeks ago, and we were visiting about cameras, and we were just around the shop,
you know just two shop guys kind of visiting, and he asked me if i ever if I had ever done
any time lapse video in the shop here. He had a GoPro Hero9, and he actually talked me into
buying one, (he doesn't know this yet) but, so I've been kind of playing with that a little
bit. But he asked me if I'd done any time lapse. So this week is kind of like a sanding project.
It's just a lot, ... you know many of you gonna go, "oh no! Not more sanding!" No, it's
not more sanding, but it's the disassembly and sandblasting of this wagon gear, getting it
ready to put together. So it's a long process, so I thought, I'm going to experiment, at your
expense, how time lapse works for this project. So to begin with, I'm going to tear it apart, and I
get some visitors that show up in the midst of it, and kind of go through the disassembly process
so I can begin the reassembly, eventually. Well, once I get it all disassembled
I like to reassemble it, just out on the floor as you can see, kind of help just
put it in my head where all the pieces go. But the next process is taking it, run
it all through this sandblaster here. I have put, oh I don't know how many hours
behind this glass, sandblasting iron, but it really is the only way to go. So that's what I get
to do now, and it takes takes all day to do this. With a benefit of time lapse we're going
to cut it down to maybe a couple minutes. Well this is all part of my learning
curve on how to do a better job videoing what I do here in the shop, so I
appreciate you putting up with my experimenting. Let me know what you think about this time lapse
deal. It's kind of like watching old silent movies, you know back in the day, way before my
time, but the deal about time lapse is, there is no audio. So anyway, I appreciate you
following along. Thanks for watching!
