If you’ve read our gift guide before, you can skip this preamble. There’s nothing new here.
The Anarchist’s Gift Guide is a small attempt to focus on the little things – mostly inexpensive – that make life in the workshop a little easier. It’s stuff your kids can afford to give you for Christmas and that you will be glad to receive.
Most gift guides are utter s&$e. A company pays some boob to squawk that he LOVES a bunch of silicone-covered tools (which the company ordered too many of from China). The company hopes to ensnare your spouse when he or she Googles “gifts for woodworkers.”
Next, your spouse watches a video of boob-boy offering up chisels with a silicone glue brush on one end. “It tickles!” And then you receive a full set of those lovely tools on Christmas morning.
Our gift guide doesn’t give a crap about selling anything. We bought these items for ourselves, and we used them. We didn’t contact the manufacturers to tell them “Ooooh – you’re in the gift guide!” We don’t have affiliate links or make money on this guide. None. I do it only because… damn, I’ve forgotten why I do it. Just inertia, I guess.
If you have complaints about the gift guide, let us know and we’ll offer you a full refund for your gift guide subscription (and you can keep the sanding sponge and drilling chart). So without further grumpiness, I offer you our 2021 Anarchist’s Gift Guide.
Day 1: Merterks Green Laser
We use a laser level for a lot of things related to both woodworking and home improvement. I’ve burned through a lot of laser levels in my career. Most of the reasonably priced ones are so dim they are three Smurfs short of a village.
Then one day a fellow chairmaker suggested I try a green laser level (instead of classic red). I did, and it made a huge difference.
Our workshop is filled with daylight, so lasers have a hard time competing against the sun coming in from the huge east- and south-facing windows. But even in full sun on a July day, the green laser is easy to see – even for an old man like myself.
The laser we use is a Merterks, which we bought from Amazon. I looked all over town for one locally, but couldn’t find a decent green laser for less than $100. So you win this one, Amazon. (Yes, you can find this tool via sketchy retailers.) Other similar laser levels include this one, this one and this one. (The message here is to spend less than $50, get a green one and make sure the self-leveling mechanism locks.)
This laser on the Merterks is bright. So bright. Even from 20 feet away the light is crisp.
The Merterks has far more features than you need for chairmaking. But I haven’t found a simpler laser for less money. All in all, it’s more durable than other lasers I’ve used, and it comes with a protective carrying case, which will slide onto any belt and complete any outfit. So it’s a sartorial win.
Most of all, go green. You’ll never go back.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries from The Anarchist’s Gift Guide here.
My wife had a green laser light for her sewing machine which she could not get on with. It works well with my band saw!
Wow. That was faster than I thought. The Merterks are already unavailable.
I have a Bosch with a green laser that I use for kitchens and built-ins. Way overkill for chairmaking. But the green is far, far easier to see than the red.
It looks like maybe the Merterk has been renamed Farway. I’ve never seen either in person, so no guarantees.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BQSGCCK?pf_rd_r=E8NMHG2MQGJ3NMGEG7SW&pf_rd_p=8fe9b1d0-f378-4356-8bb8-cada7525eadd&pd_rd_r=254e75cb-9be8-4e8c-b650-330d935efbfa&pd_rd_w=7ylc8&pd_rd_wg=GRooB&ref_=pd_gw_unk
Careful with that, you’ll burn your eye out, kid.
I am puzzled by this recommendation. I know that you use a modicum of power tools when it makes sense to do so, but after getting the hang of using a bevel square to align the drill for leg holes in a chair per the instructions found in TADB, I would think that you would not resort to this for furniture work, or for that matter, any other work. I guess I will know that things have really changed if I see a recommendation for a CNC machine.
Fairly certain that the best way to get written off by CS is to sniff that he’s apparently “no longer a purist”.
Can I submit a nomination for next year’s guide (since you won’t have time to decide if you like it this year)? https://www.eztension.com/
+1
Seems like Merterks has gone the way of so many other Chinese fly-by-night manufacturers with names created with a random name generator (see also the names of the three alternatives). I don’t know enough about manufacturing to know how this business model works. But it seems like they make a bunch of a thing, but it up for sale on Amazon (and maybe Alibaba, but I have no experience there) and disappear when they’re gone. And it’s not like they’re unloading crap. The quality seems fine. I first ran across this phenomenon buying third-party Apple Watch bands (you can get four for 25% the price of one from Apple).
Like Rod Stewart sings:
Merterks be free tonight
Time is on your side…
“You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that can’t be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for.? Honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?” – Dr. Evil
I prefer the Jedi light saber. Easy to see, good sounds effects, no tear out there and also clips right onto your belt. Also good for drilling holes.
I’ll give it a try, but wouldn’t you know it. Out of stock. But I put it on my list.
In my head, I keep saying, “Merterks grern lerser”…
in kind of a mumble, I guess? But like… the WHOLE time I read the article.
Ok, I’ve never used a laser, I wouldn’t know how to use one or where it could save me trouble. How would I make a chair with one? Maybe I could align my tomato plants in my garden and keep my green beans in a straight row?
I guess I’m hopelessly outdated and obsolete…..oh woe is me.
I’m curious as to how a laser level could be used for furniture and chair making. I suggest it would be a good topic for one of the Lost Art Press blog posts.
My guess would be your sight line when drilling compound angles for your leg holes, spindles, etc. Easier to see than a pencil line.
Hi Paul,
In making anything with a compound angle, a laser can easily join up two points to help guide your drilling or joinery.
I mostly use them for teaching. They are a great help with beginners who struggle with drilling compound angles. But I’ll also use them when I make a new chair design that has radical angles I am unaccustomed to drilling. They help me confirm if I am sighting things correctly.
Lots of chairmakers use them in classrooms and for work-a-day situations. I’ll do a blog entry in the near future that explains it.
Also, please indulge me with an off-topic suggestion. First, I love the Crucible scraper, and the one I made earlier from your Chris Williams pattern. The other day I was cleaning up a carved seat on a small stool, and was struggling with fitting the scraper curve to the profile I’d chosen, and, just for fun, I took a small square scraper I’d made from an old dull Japanese saw blade, and ground it to a similar, but smaller pattern (2″ x 4″ in this case). Worked a treat. I’d encourage you to consider offering the Crucible in about a 2/3 size- I think a lot of people would find them useful.
I”d second that. I’m on my second reading of the Stick Chair Book PDF, and while the use of a laser is mentioned, I can’t seem to get my head around the practicalities of it. I’m happy to give it a try, but struggling with how to actually DO that.