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...

No Comment #2 - Clue #2

This week had many unexpected fires... none of them mine, but people I know like to share their fires :)  What's the quote?  "Your lack of planning doesn't constitute an emergency on my part"?  Something like that!

Anyway, someone made an interesting guess as to what No Comment #2 is based on the first clue: something to do with the TV sci-fi "Stargate".  Guess it looks like the chevrons from the show.  Hey, I'd probably like that show; I may see if it is available on download.

It reminded me that I took a clue photo earlier this week (pre-fires...), but I needed to wait to post it in case it wouldn't get used in the project.  No need for red herrings!

It's getting used and it looks fantastic.  If you guess the material (not too difficult), the obvious use isn't how it is getting used.  The piece was actually a lucky find and changed the design of the project.  The commentary videos after the initial build video will describe the other options; the build video will only include this piece.  I learned a lot working with it, too.

At this point, everything is ready for stain and finish before final assembly.  Spraying some of the components outside wouldn't have been possible the past two weeks as our highs were just 47ºF.  Hard to believe that today the high was 74ºF... I guess the past two weeks were our winter.  -groan- need more winter... (send some! please!)

Clue #2:

I'm eager to release this video!  I hit a major road block on it: I ran out of royalty-free music!  Yes, the same instrumentals you've heard in other episodes except with the video at 40 minutes currently, that's a lot of music to find.  Found a nice source tonight; not cheap, but not too expensive either.  Will post details with No Comment #2 if it works out that I use it.

WIA'12-Pasadena: Pilgrimage to Eagle Tools

This is a bit late... while looking for free space on my video drive, I found some footage I took of Eagle Tools I hadn't edited! D'oh!

To a power-tool woodworker, this video could be considered "NSFW"; you've been warned!

My friend Roger introduced me to Eagle Tools about a year ago on a trip out to LA.  You saw a bit of them when I toured the WIA'12-Pasadena marketplace floor.

This clip is basically Chris and I wandering the store with a few stories from Jesse re-told; Jesse is the owner of Eagle Tools.  He's a great guy with a lot of knowledge of his product line.  Though Chris and I were just there to browse, we got a lot of show-n-tell on the Agazzani bandsaws, Incas, a variety of bandsaw blade guides, and the Festool room.

I know Inca has a big fan-base and rightly so based on what I saw and learned.  Eagle's the place for Inca.  If I didn't have a scroll saw, I swear I'd have taken one of the smaller Inca bandsaws home to use as a scroll saw!

There's some camera motion I tried to compensate for in editing; I was either too close to things or just too excited to hold the camera properly :)



Here's the video link for my email subscribers.

No Comment #2 - Clue #1

Did a very interesting cut for No Comment #2 today; at the risk of completely giving away what it is I make in that video, here's a photo of the offcut:

How that cut is made and how you can easily alter it will definitely become part of future projects I've jotted down since this afternoon.  The accompanying video that explains the cut should give you ideas for your own project.

But not until the project is complete and No Comment #2 is released :)