I've loved the simple blast gate remote control system I developed last year for my workshop dust collection setup, however it's been nagging at me for some time that we have only been scratching the surface of what's possible. So many of you have been asking about expanding the project, adding more gates, improving reliability, and more importantly adding some real smarts to the system so the gates and dust collector can operate automatically. So for the past few months that's exactly what...

In this video, I revisit my overhead table saw dust shroud, a project I originally built years ago, to address some long-standing pain points that have bothered me in real-world use. Using a combination of 3D printing and the Monport Reno 65w CO₂ laser, I work through multiple design iterations to reduce the shroud’s footprint, improve usability, and explore ways to better capture dust, especially during edge cuts where dust is typically thrown forward and out of reach. This isn’t a polished...

I get a lot of requests to review lasers, and most of the time my answer is a polite “no.” Not because I don’t love lasers, I do. They’re one of the most useful tools in my shop, but let’s be honest…laser review videos are usually pretty boring. So when Monport reached out and said, “Hey, want to try our largest desktop laser?”, I was ready to pass. But then I realised it was a CO₂ laser, not another diode, and suddenly my interest was piqued. There are projects I’ve wanted to tackle for...