Video Room

Setting Up Your Ideal Small Shop

A fine walkthrough for setting up your own home woodworking shop. You'll find nearly everything to be as true today as it was when this was filmed.

To answer the one question that comes up more than any – whether this "entire series" will ever be on YouTube – well, no, but for good reason.

This was the first and only video in the series to be made. It was intended to be a whole library/series, as mentioned in the video, but for various reasons, that didn't come to be.

Here is an advertisement from about the same time, published in Fine Woodworking and other publications, that at least will give you a bit of insight into "the plan" for the series, etc…

Radial Arm Saw Live Demonstration (1990)

Aside from the lucky few who were in attendance, this is the first time anyone will get to see the original Mr. Sawdust – Wallace Kunkel – live in action on his tool of choice, the radial arm saw.

If this one interests you, take a look at…

The Showman

How Mr. Sawdust Got His Name

In the chapter titled "The Great Do-It-Yourself Era" of his book (Master the Radial Arm Saw), Wally Kunkel tells the story of just how he came to be known as "Mr. Sawdust". Though it was one of the earliest television broadcasts all the way back in 1948, we've simply never been able to find it (likely as it was purely a live broadcast). I'm sure I'm not alone in having imagined this moment when reading his recollection of it — so here's a little experiment in bringing it to life, even just a bit.

Read more about this over on its own blog post…