Simple Resaw-Fence Dust Channel

I had a problem on my last cut while resawing some stock for the back column of Angle Madness. A simple modification to the fence would help to avoid it in the future.

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 :)

Sculpted Mahogany Vanity - Dimensioning Drawer Stock

I've been behind on this project for a couple weeks, but making progress.  In this episode, I demonstrate a quick way to remove your existing vanity!  :)  We'll prop up the top on the wall to take some measurements that will determine the sizes (depth) of the drawers taking in account the plumbing obstacles.  Plus it was motivating to see the top hanging off the wall!

We'll resaw and dimension the stock for the drawers and end with a discussion of the whole "wet the board and tent it" technique that I've been using throughout this series.  Some questions came up about it after the sculpting episode so I thought to better explain it here.

While this episode gets a few loose ends in order and prepares the drawer stock for joinery, the actual drawer joinery is the next episode.  That episode will be a set of smaller videos showing a number of ways to dovetail drawers.

Once the drawers are done, the rest should come together pretty quickly!  Well, I hope anyway... :)

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?!)