No Comment #2 - Bandsawing the Tapered Octagon

Cutting the assembled tapered octagon was a lot of fun during this build because I got to use the bandsaw in a way I hadn't before.  Certainly a technique I'll be exploring more in future builds!

Basically, we built a sacrificial jig to hold the tapered octagon "spatially" in the correct orientation for the bandsaw blade to remove planes.  While we could have computed the compound cut at the top of each triangle for the octagon to get a level top, to do two more cuts on each triangle to then remove the part for the table top would have been a lot of error-prone work... any deviation in length would have to be sanded out later (end grain!).  Then add the work of triple the glue-up.  Cutting the plane on the bandsaw, especially with a smooth-cutting Laguna Resaw King, left nothing to sand (sure there were tool marks, but those surfaces were perfect for gluing in this project).

Ah, the mysterious holes in the jig are explained, too.  Had some questions about those :)

Do remember the design episode where I explained how the top part of the octagon changed.  Originally, I wanted the octagon to continue through the table so the top piece needed to be exactly positioned so Dominos could go through the octagon top, the table, and into the octagon bottom.  In the video flashback, I explain that cut that ultimately we didn't keep (but did use).

However, properly cutting off that top piece does have an importance that we'll see in a future episode on the assembly.  As a spoiler, I'll tell you :)  That top piece was used as a template for where the Domino holes in the table top were needed in order to get them to go smoothly into the octagon bottom.  Without that template, it would have been long and messy to position those Dominos; with that template, it was as simple as tracing the revealed mortises.  But you'll see that in more close-up detail in the assembly episode.

I think the next episode will be another bandsaw episode; editing all this old footage with some new narration mixed in has me busy in the video editor, not in the shop.  Not a good thing.  The next planned episode will at least have me running a tool or two!



Here's a link to the video for my email subscribers: http://youtu.be/-6ID7hQwCHE

No Comment #2 - The Full Build

Finally!  There, thought I'd say it for you since I've been saying it all week :)

I had a lot of fun with No Comment #1.  Enough that I'd thought to continue the series with a small but fun build aptly named No Comment #2 (clever, no?).  Like No Comment #1, I won't tell you what I'm building.  This video is a full project build from start to finish in high-speed sections and multi-cams to keep you busy watching instead of snoozing!  Guess as you watch it what I'm making.  Some clues have appeared on this blog to, you know, build intrigue.  My version of foreshadowing!

Unlike No Comment #1, I'll be following up this initial build video with videos detailing different aspects of the build.  There were some interesting techniques used in this build that can be applied to many of your projects.

If you write a comment on this video here or on YouTube (which I'd appreciate!), please don't put a spoiler in there as to what the project was.  Latest comments appear on the homepage so someone not trying to see the comments may see "hey, nice grain elevator!" and it'll just ruin the effect :)

The video is an hour long although my test victims who previewed many early versions never thought it too long; hopefully it'll be as interesting for you.  Maybe go pee before you hit play!


There are two versions of the video!  It wasn't enough to drive myself batty with all this video editing that I mixed two soundtracks.  One uses the songs you've heard many times on previous podcasts.  The second uses new music!  It's all progressive guitar and rock instrumentals.  It is very much what you'd hear in my shop, especially the newly-found favorite Daniel Bautista.

Since the video is all music between a short introduction and final conclusion, you could always hit mute and play your favorite hair bands if you prefer.

I shook the dust off the walls listening to the guitar edition after rendering it tonight; the middle three songs might be a bit much if you're not into the guitar as much but fear not as the songs after those three are very melodic; modulate with the volume control!

Here's the version with the sounds you've often heard on this podcast:



Here's the guitar version: version 11.0!




While sometimes the scene is messy in the video, what's behind the camera is usually piles of whatever I wanted out of the scene.  Here's a panorama of the shop during some of the shooting (the project was in the house so no spoiler here):

A secondary goal of this video was to get better at video editing, lighting, etc.  The biggest thing I learned is that for the total time of this project, easily 9/10th (or more!) of it was video work, whether it was setting up cameras, correcting clips, editing clips, or figuring out some silly thing I wanted in the video for no other reason than I didn't know how (at the time!) to do it!  This really wasn't that long of a build if you don't have red record lights pointing at you :)

For the curious, here's the info for my dedicated video drives:

Crazy that two 4Tb drives are full of the raw and optimized footage for this thing.  As I render the build videos to follow this one, I'll get to delete some footage.  At one point, I found myself drooling over an 18Tb raid stack.  Someday... (no, Friday! :)

Angle Madness, my other project in process, will continue, too, while I put out detail videos for No Comment #2, as I've recorded a lot of the content for those videos already.  The slow pace of Angle Madness needed an intervention for myself and for you.  Now you know why I was in the dark for so long :)

Laguna Ceramic Guides and Blade Wear

In a YouTube comment on the video about the Laguna ceramic guides for the Italian LT-18, someone asked if the ceramic guides abrade the blade.  The blade does show scuffs and scratches where the ceramic guides touch, but don't really dig in or anything.  For example, the rear "thrust bearing" equivalent is a ceramic rod pressed up against the blade.  You should rotate it more often than I do or you get a groove in it suggesting that though the ceramic is hard, the blade still wears the ceramic.  I have a pronounced groove now, but you simply rotate it to a new flat spot.

With some of the goofy resawing I did for No Comment #2, my blade finally needed to be changed after 22 months.  I'm not a pro so I don't use it daily, but I do use it a lot especially resawing wide stock so 22 months is a heck of a long time!  Before shipping the blade for sharpening today, I took closeup photos of the blade to show the wear after 22 months (it was a new blade):

This is a 1.25" Resaw King and should get 5-6 resharpenings before it's dead.  That's 6-7 "between sharpening" times you get to use it so the cost starts going down.  When I got the Italian LT-18, I bought 2 Resaw King blades as they had a special for new bandsaw buyers so at least I can finish this project while the blade is out.

The crud in the kerfs is indeed MDF.  Evil that stuff...

Review of the Laguna Italian-Made LT-18 Bandsaw

I recently upgraded to a Laguna Tools Italian-Made LT-18 bandsaw.  I've used it a lot since recording this multi-part review and like it even more now.  At the time of the recording, I had used it for a couple weeks.

Part 1 is a tour of the saw itself.  The "Italian-Made" is important as this saw is completely different from the LT-18 3000 series also from Laguna Tools.  This tour isn't a point-by-point comparison though a couple key points are compared to show just how different they are.

The tour also covers the DriftMaster fence.

Part 2 gives a tour of the Laguna Tools Ceramic Guides and shows an easy way to calibrate them.  On various forums I've seen people say they like the guides but find them finicky to adjust.  This method is very fast for me and I'll explain a couple key things to watch out for.  The Laguna Ceramic Guides were a key feature for me in a bandsaw.  That meant buying a Laguna bandsaw or one where the Laguna guides could be retrofitted.

Part 3 shows how to set the drift angle on the DriftMaster fence then does a number of resawing demos to show how consistently thin you can rip stock.  You'll get to see how clean and consistent the Resaw King blade and Laguna Guides can make a cut.


A woodworking friend Chris Wong is simultaneously posting a review of his new Laguna LT-16 3000 series bandsaw.  What's cool about Chris, among other things, is that he's from Port Moody, British Columbia.  This means you can easily find his site FlairWoodworks.com by Googling "Chris Wong the moody woodworker from Canada" :)  (Seriously! try it!)

Grab the Alder, er, popcorn!  (is it just me or does Alder smell like popcorn when cut?!)