Videos | Farbulous Creations

Ductwork Installation Tips & Tricks

In this video, I’ll show you how I installed my Snap-Lock dust collection ductwork from Oneida-Air and show you the tips and tricks I learned during my own install to make yours go even easier!
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Start to Finish: Oneida’s Dust Collection Design Service

Oneida-Air Systems is one of the premiere makers of dust collection systems on the market. They also, thankfully, provide a ductwork design service when you purchase one of their collectors. I recently worked with a member of the ductwork design team on my own shop's ducting and documented the process. In this post, I break down what the entire process looks like, from start to finish.
Buying Tools I Never Intended to Buy: A Lathe, a Jointer, and a Standing Drill Press

I just added a jointer, lathe, and standing drill press to my shop after getting some insanely good deals from a guy selling his entire shop on Craigslist.
Laser Cut Yard Tool Hooks and Hangers

It's tempting to think in strictly two dimensional terms when designing laser-cut parts, but if you flip your thinking – and your laser cut parts – on their end, you can get some unique shapes way faster than from a 3D printer.
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CO2 Laser Etching on Metal Using Dry Moly Lube

Using a can of commonly available dry molybdenum industrial lubricant, you can laser etch on metal with a CO2 laser cutter!
Power-Carved Bandsaw Bunny

Inspired by a wooden Easter bunny I found in the home decor aisle, I tried my hand at making my very own out of walnut using my bandsaw and a power carving bit – not to mention a lot of sanding.
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Making Tru-Tone’s Tin Can Christmas Tree

I’ve always been a Christmas light fanatic, so I was over the moon to discover Tru-Tone's vintage-style LED Christmas bulbs last year. This is my take on the tin can tree from their decoration guide, and is a super easy project for beginners and pros alike!
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Making a Laser Etched Hocus Pocus Photo Mirror

Today I’ll show how I used a bit of Hocus Pocus to laser engrave a photo of the Sanderson sisters onto the back of a mirror using my Thunder Laser Nova 35-80 and the HR Lens. Making the project “pop” is a custom-built light-box to illuminate the photo from behind! A black flame candle would also work, but not recommended.
Making Mini Spotlights for Halloween Yard Decor

If you're trying to illuminate Halloween yard decor at night, you might run into the problem of typical spotlights casting way more light than you need. This was my hacked together solution for that very problem, so that I could illuminate a pair of Halloween tombstones with just enough light without spilling light to the area behind them.
Side Yard Firewood Shed

Today I’ll show how I built a shed and attached it to my fence in the side yard area of our house in an otherwise wasted space. With it, we now have a place to keep firewood dry for year-round bonfires in our fire pit.
Laser Cut Featherboard for Table Saw or Router

In this video, I’ll be using my Thunder Laser Nova 35-80 laser cutter to make a featherboard for my new table saw, to make cutting long boards safer and more precise. For the uninitiated, a featherboard holds your workpiece safely up against the fence of the table saw or router so that it doesn’t bind in the blade or kick back. My laser cut version simplifies the process of making one from scratch, assuming you have a laser cutter at your disposal, making one out of 3/4” pine board in just 12 minutes.
Setting Up Your Laser Webcam to Work Wirelessly

Today I’ll show how I converted Thunder Laser’s ThunderCam camera system to wireless with the help of a Raspberry Pi 3, Cam2IP, and Open Broadcast Software. The benefits are obvious – no need to be hardwired to your laser cutter in order to reap the benefits of using a camera to place your artwork and guide your cuts and etchings!
Lens Options for Thunder Lasers – Better Photos, Deeper Cuts

In this video, I’ll go over the two additional lenses that Thunder Laser sells for their Nova Series line of lasers. Those lenses include the 4 inch lens, meant for cutting through thicker materials, and the HR lens, meant for etching finer details into photographs. I’ll also be comparing the cutting and etching capabilities of both lenses to the standard 2 inch lens that comes with the Thunder Nova Series lasers.
Making Jay Bate’s Miter Saw Station

I've been wanting to build a version of Jay Bate's Ultimate Miter Saw Station for almost three years now, so I'm super excited to finally have it done, giving my garage shop some much needed organization.
Making Papel Picado with a Laser Cutter

My family started celebrating Dia de Muertos a few years ago to honor my husband's Mexican heritage. After watching and falling in love with the movie "Coco", I decided I wanted to add "papel picado" to our "ofrenda" and build on our celebration of the holiday by using my laser cutter to cut various custom papel picado designs out of colored paper.
Making Line Art Magnets on a Laser Cutter

A few years ago, I had a business idea for canning-themed products that ultimately failed. I was left with some nice line art I had developed that I realized was prime for laser etching. Deciding to make lemonade out of my lemon, I put the artwork to good use by making some nice laser-etched magnets for our refrigerator.
Making a Knock-Off Hermès Apple AirTag Case

I’ve wanted to find a leather-working project where I could use my laser cutter to cut precise leather parts for awhile now. When Apple released the AirTag, and subsequently, Hermès released their $349 leather AirTag case, I couldn’t help but find myself inspired to try my hand at making a knock-off version for a fraction of the price by developing a template, which I'm providing here for free!
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How to Laser Etch a Coir Welcome Mat

I decided to revisit one of the very first projects I did on my YouTube channel, where I made a template and painted my design directly on a coir welcome mat / rug. I discovered that technique hasn't held up the best over time, and wanted to revisit the project with a direct-to-rug laser etched approach that is somewhat popular with laser enthusiasts, and I was sold on the technique!
How to Install Roof Ventilation for Laser Cutter Exhaust

In this video I'll show you how I installed ventilation in my garage roof in order to ventilate smoke from my laser cutter. A proper ventilation system for a laser cutter is key to proper fume extraction and by extension, the longevity of your laser mirrors, lens and other internals, so hopefully you find this video helpful if you’re planning an exhaust system for your own laser.
Why I Bought a Thunder Laser (or Why I Didn’t Buy a Glowforge)

After 5 years of doing laser cutting as a hobby at my local maker space, I was finally ready to buy my very one laser cutter! But which one? So many options on the market, from super hobbyist options to the ultra-pro machines, and lots of options right in the middle.
Making a Modern 3D Reindeer on the Bandsaw

Inspired by some holiday decor on our friends' mantle last Christmas, I set out to create a modern bandsaw reindeer that looks a little bit more like a reindeer, at least to me. After tracing the profiles of my inspiration sculpture, I created a new template that produced a viable reindeer on the bandsaw in short order, and I'm making it available for free!
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Shop Buildout: Part 4 – Wall and Attic Insulation

In this fourth video in my shop buildout series, we'll go over not only how I did the wall and attic insulation in my garage workshop, but what considerations I made before starting to make sure I insulated it properly for my climate in central Minnesota.
Laser Cut Jack-o’-lantern Luminaries for Halloween

I love making homemade decorations when I can, so this year I wanted to experiment with making some luminary boxes on the laser cutter. What are luminaries? You've probably seen them before! They're those paper bags set along a walkway and illuminated from the inside with tea light candles – they're comon at weddings and other outdoor events, and they give off the most charming glow!
Shop Buildout: Part 3 – Wiring the Shop Outlets

After the getting electrical service installed in the garage via a trench to give it it's own subpanel, it was time to wire all the outlets I could possibly ever need for my dream workshop: general purpose outlets, lights, and dedicated outlets for things like my future laser cutter and a ceiling drop for my table saw.
Building Cedar Grape Trellises

My husband loves gardening and working outdoors, but because we don’t have a huge yard, we always try to find ways to optimize the space that we do have out there. One space that was being underutilized was the area on the sides of our front porch, so we decided it would be nice to put grapes in those spaces! But grapevines need a trellis to climb, right? And so, two grape trellises – one for each side of the porch – were promptly added to my honey-do-list.
Laser Cut Wedding Sign for Taylor & Brad

My good friends Taylor and Brad got married a few years ago, back in August of 2017, and I recorded the footage to eventually, just maybe, one day make a video out of. Their wedding name sign was the first one I ever made with the laser cutter and while it may have had a few imperfections, I still loved how it turned out!
Making Homemade Nutter Butters with Laser Etched Stamp

My friend Ryan and I are huge fans of Claire Saffitz over at Bon Appétit and her YouTube series, Gourmet Makes. Feeling a little inspired by all of her creative problem solving, I decided to make a laser etched peanut cookie stamp and a custom peanut-shaped cookie cutter for us to play in our own “test kitchen” and make our own gourmet version of Nutter Butters.
Making a Custom Leather Patch for a Trucker Hat

I’ll be attending WorkbenchCon 2020 this year, and after years of watching some of my favorite YouTube makers don personalized trucker hats in their videos, I got inspired to make one of my own to wear to the conference!
Laser Etching a Wooden Oar for Drip

When I'm not making custom wedding signs and the like, I spend my weekdays as web developer at a company called Drip. As last year came to a close, our leadership team asked me if I could help to make some awards for our year-end celebration by laser etching some wooden oars. I was glad to help, and excited to show the process in this video!
Shop Buildout: Part 2 – Electrical Subpanel Installation

After the initial planning and layout for my dream garage shop was figured out in the last video, it was time to get the proper electrical service installed in our detached garage.
Shop Buildout: Part 1 – Layout and Planning

Now that I have the space, it's time to finally start converting our two car garage into the functional all-season workshop I've dreamed of for years. But not before some proper planning!
Making Billy Butcherson’s Tombstone from Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus is one of my all-time favorite Halloween movies, so when it came time to make some decorations for our house this year, this was at the top of the list!
Making Custom Laser Etched Baby Blocks

It’s apparently baby-having time in my circle of friends. Not one, not two, but three of my friends and their spouses had a baby earlier this summer, all within a month and a half of each other. I decided to make each friend a little something to celebrate their new bundle of joy!
Making a Laser Etched Electronic Quiz Board with Mason

My cousin's seven year old son Mason has recently shown interest in various things like crafts and electronics (things that I was also interested in as a kid), so I came up with the perfect project for us to do together: an electronic quiz board.
Rustic Laser Cut Wedding Sign for Alex & Emily

Looking through an old hard drive of miscellaneous footage, I found what was the entirety of me making a custom wedding name sign for my cousin Emily and her now-husband Alex, way back in September of 2017, and decided it would make a great video. These are my favorite types of projects so you'll definitely see a lot more like this in the future!
Making a Custom Coir Welcome Mat

In my first build video for my new channel, I go over how I made a custom coir welcome mat for our front porch with a laser-cut template, a blank outdoor rug, and some black paint. It's super simple to do and adds a great personal touch to your front door to welcome guests.
Channel Introduction – Farbulous Creations

After years of watching all the amazing woodworkers on YouTube with no space of my own to create, I finally have that space and will soon be converting my garage into a workshop.