Fun video of things I'll never try. You are backwards on ground. You don't want to be grounded, you want to be insulated from ground because you don't want to be part of the path to ground. The rubber mat is insulating you from ground.

For all the talk of not being a Safety Sally you're the only person on the internet I've ever seen unplug a power tool before putting their hand on the blade. No one has accidents intentionally and I think it's really good that you kept the practical, doesn't cost you nothing, safety steps in so that people can see what it looks like and how effortless it is.

14:30 For anyone wondering, the woman’s name is Anne Reardon. She’s an Australian content creator and owner of the channel How to Cook That. The warning video itself was actually taken down by KZfaq because it advocated harmful activity.

“Me and the team researched this for a couple of hours” Cut to clip of John “you were supposed to research this shit!”

As someone who works with electricity and has made videos doing this with a microwave transformer, your terminology was way off. That doesn't really matter because the message of the video was still well recieved; if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it.

You want the tool/device to be grounded, you want yourself to be insulated. If the tool isn't grounded, YOU become the grounding wire. Insulating yourself helps make sure ALL the electricity goes through the grounding and neutral wires, and doesn't branch off in go through you, too. An important thing to do us take off metal jewelry, it can act like a "lightning rod" and encourage it to branch to you. A tattoo or silicone wedding band is all around a better/safer option for any kind of work.

There's a youtuber named styropyro that builds super lasers and messes with huge homemade capacitor banks for fun. He seems incredibly knowledgeable on electricity and its dangers. Dude's nuts. He's also spoken about the homemade fractal woodburning devices that have killed people. He says you touch the wrong spot and you're a corpse before you hit the floor.

It's my understanding that Dado stacks are banned in Europe because power tools must come to a stop in under 10 seconds, and the additional mass of the stack makes that harder on the motor.

John, you kept saying "grounded" when you went to step on your rubber mat. Actually you are "insulated" when you are standing on the mat. You never want to be grounded when you are dealing with electricity. That's probably why those 35 people met their maker.

After Stumpy Nubs tried carving with that chainsaw disk he almost had stumpy nubs. It took him months to recover from that. He also did a very good video on what should be in a first aid kit and how it should be stored because of it, especially for us single-man shops.

You selling hotdogs John? Fly was down half of the video 😂

I've been doing fractal burning for the better part of 5 years now... although I refer to it by it's technical name; a Lichtenburg figure. Yes, it's dangerous... yes, people have been killed doing it... and EVERY single case that I've investigated has been for the same reason; handheld probes... very much like the one you featured here. My rig, which is 100% homemade with transformers salvaged from old microwaves, puts out over 4,000V at 60mA, and is completely no-touch... and I researched it for several months in every aspect before I even attempted it the first time. I have VERY strict safety protocols when I'm working and I've demonstrated the process to countless guests in my shop without any issues. Excellent video and I agree with you 100% in one category; safety. :) Respect what the tool is capable of and it can't hurt you.

In 1979 my dad and I went in together and bought a new Craftsman tables saw, radial arm saw, and lathe. These are all still in my shop. We also got some accessories, one of which was this exact Craftsman wobble dado. Over the years I have built probably a dozen different cabinets and bookshelves as well as other projects using the wobble dado. I still have it in my shop. I used it mostly on the radial arm saw to rabbet half-laps for face frames. I've also used it to cut dadoes for inserting the metal strips for adjustable shelves on bookcases using the table saw. The scariest part of it is when using the radial arm saw is the guard won't fit. You have to use it without any guard at all, so you have this spinning wheel of death very near hands and face. The other disadvantage of the wobble dado, it doesn't cut a square bottom dado. The wider the groove, the less square it is. Another funny thing...years ago I bought a set of stackable angles washers that let you turn a regular saw blade into a wobble dado! Also scary and won't cut square bottom dados. A few years ago I did finally spring for an actual stacking dado. Much nicer!

Why the chainsaw disc is so dangerous is because it mimics the tip of a chainsaw bar….which is the part that causes chainsaws to kickback into you. Being circular, no matter which direction you use it from, you are courting a kickback. When a chainsaw kicks at least the length of the bar provides some inertia and the longer the bar the less it can get to your face. The chain disc has zero length and if it grabs the wood it will spin the tool right around on you. It will be sudden, a snatch too quick to react to. It might spin around onto your hand, or groin or into your clothing and run up into your neck, chewing you exactly how you’d expect the tip of a chainsaw to do. If the idea of a running chain saw being thrust into your neck sounds horrific…it is because it is, and using this chain disc is just asking for serious injury or death, no exaggeration!

Just something to keep in mind regarding the fractal woodburning: Two of the people that died attempting this were trained electricians. You can be wearing insulating gloves and have them melted onto your hands. Just don't do it, a lightning pattern on wood is not worth your life.

John; ' This is so dangerous, no one should try this! Let's give it a shot."

That chainsaw disk says "1400 Max RPM" on it. Angle grinders spin at 10,000+ RPM... Scary!

You have grounded and insulated backwards. The rubber mat insulates you from being grounded. The More You Know.

For someone who allegedly researched for hours about fractal burning, you got every electrical term wrong lol

I love the fractal burn patterns. Looks like lightning. But that's just me.

. Gf was watching the video with me. And goes “someone’s flying low”. My grandpa always said what can’t get up can’t get out. Great channel. Have a good sir.

As someone who has used the adjustable dado blade from craftsman since I was in my 20's......I'm 62 now, the only problem with the adjustable dado is it takes trial and error to get the width of the dado just right. Once you get the width right, it cuts just fine and is no more dangerous to use than any other blade. I will admit that I prefer a dado stack. Just follow one simple rule to avoid injuring yourself while working with tools.......Don't be a dumbass.

At 8:29 literally telling us to avoid dangling things while wearing a hoodie with dangling cords 😂

The problem with some dado stacks is that due to the weight they will keep on turning for longer than desired. They're not really banned in Europe though, it's more that table saw manufacturers can't sell their saws with them installed or state that they're compatible with them if they don't add heftier brakes on them, which is expensive. You can and has always been allowed to buy them yourself both from any decent store in Europe or import it from e.g. the US.

There seems to be a myth about dado stacks beeing banned in germany - they are not. As long as your table saw is build to support the use of dado stacks. More specific if the shaft is long enough to let you use the dado stacks and still has enough thread fasten to the nut. If the manufacturer of your table saw say. that a saw doesn't support a dado, than you will use them on your own risk. If something happens, it will be your fault. If something happens during work hours at your job, than you might get in trouble with the insurance, for missusing your table saw. So it is a liability thing and not the fact, that germany think dado's are dangerous.

Don't blame the tool, blame the operator. when I was 15, I put a ten- or twelve-inch table saw rip blade on a nine-inch Milwaukee angle grinder without any type of blade guard foolishly thinking that I could cut a large timber much faster than using a hand saw. You think a chainsaw disc on a four-inch grinder is dangerous, you ain't seen nothing yet! I'm 66 and still have everything that I originally came with and everything works. Lucky for me when I pulled the trigger and spun it up to operating speed and started the cut, the blade grabbed and ripped the grinder from me and that was that. A fantastic learning experience with a lucky outcome that taught me to think about how things are going to act befor doing something stupid.

Fractal wood burning…. Yes, it’s super dangerous! But you’re crazy John! It looks FREAKIN AWESOME!!!

Quickly becoming one of my favourite channels. Recommending it to all of my friends/family. I have done woodworking for 10 years now. Still lots to learn!

I'm soooo glad you brought up James Hamilton from Stumpy Nubs. That’s honestly the first thing I thought of the second you mentioned that disc. I personally only use my grinder for metal and masonry and have no plans to try power carving with it, but if I did, I would run as fast as I could away from that disc

3:06 your fly is down, and questionable saw blades. What can go wrong.. or did it?!?!😂

This whole video reminds me of weather people standing out in hurricanes telling us don't go out in the hurricane.

That kutzall disk is the same one that I dropped on my foot at 11000 rpm! I was wearing my safety sandals, but there was still many stitches, a full month on crutches and almost lost a toe. Wear your safety gear folks, even at home. 😂

How about a wobble dado blade on your radial arm saw? I have a friend with this set-up. I encourage him on the regular to get rid of the whole mess.

the number of activated Saw Stop cartridges you have is kind of concerning. I hope that they went off due to the blade hitting something in the wood, and not hitting you or your guys. . . :-) Also, I do know a guy who does the fractal burning; I do think that in some cases it looks interesting, but i'm not going to do it. I freely admit that I do have a tendency to get complacent with my tools, and I've been lucky enough to not get hurt yet. That one however, yeah no. I don't play with electricity.

Thank you, John, for the information in this video. This needs to be spread far & wide at how freaking dangerous fractal burning is.

This is hilarious~!! I remember first seeing the wobble dado cutter years ago when they came out and thought "what a janky idea~!! Someone's gonna get maimed, killed, or worse~!!" LOLOL Thanks for this one, John~!

I really wish content creators would stop perpetuating the idea that dado stacks are illegal in Europe. It's just not true, and it's an easy thing to debunk. And understanding the details of why they're rare in the EU is a really good way to understand the dangers of dado stacks so you can use them safely.

I don't think dado stacks are actually banned in europe, they're just not common because saws need to be able to brake and stop fast. So manufacturers don't bother making longer arbors. Also, small shapers (sometimes integrated into a single sliding table saw/shaper/thicknesser/etc) are a lot more common in Europe than they are in NA, that's what people traditionally use. Which kind of shows that the issue with dado stacks is not really safety (because a shaper is pretty damn good at removing stuff that isn't wood), just different habits/traditions. Definitely agree about fractal burning, it looks cheesy as fuck and the fact that someone would risk their life for this shit boggles the mind.

"I thought you researched this" "me and the team researched this for hours"

I remember playing with a fractal burner my dad made 30 years ago. No safety or precautions at all. I remember holding the tool almost drawing with it. Looking back probably not so smart. Thanks Dad.

Dado stacks aren't banned. The issue is only in commercial settings and is you can't use them without a blade gaurd at least in the uk

I bought one of those chainsaw wheels for a project, then I saw Stumpy Nubs video, I have never used it; when it comes to the project I got it for, I'll use my actual chainsaw or a power carving disc.

One of the first major woodworking tools I bought was a 10 inch Radial arm saw from Sears some 35 years ago and I loved it. This is the tool I use the exact same Wobble Dado blade on that you were demonstrating. It is easy to adjust to the exact width that you want, and by making multiple passes when it's set at the widest cut of 3/4 of an inch you can make grooves as wide and deep as you want. The only thing I have found when I use it is to push the blade into the wood, because if you try to draw it across the wood and it bits, it has a tendency to tear across the wood.I like the radial saw because you can see where the blade is cutting as apposed to a table saw where the blade is hidden by the wood. My cousin Is a cabinet maker in Holland and he told me that he has never seen a Radial saw before. I have noticed in all the wood working shows that I have watched on KZfaq, I've never seen anyone use a radial arm saw. Why is that?

You have my anxiety at 100 watching this! 😂 I’m literally yelling at my screen, “DONT DO IT, JOHN!!!!”

You're confusing grounded with insulated.

You're using the lichtenburg machine, or fractal burner wrong. Like the technique or not, don't discredit it by not testing properly.i enjoy watching your videos but you should do a little more research.

About a year ago my grandpa passed away, while going through his woodworking tools I found one of those wobble dado blades.

Fractal woodburning is easy when you follow one rule. DON'T TOUCH IT WHEN IT IS ON!

So I have done Fractal burning myself with the same kit you bought. It's much slower than some other peoples because it's lower voltage. The ones that go really fast are absolutely dangerous. Like you I bought a dead mans switch and I back away when doing this. I have gotten shocked through the gloves a couple of times but I have gotten a decent burn out of it on one of my projects. I think it's just a mater of taste for if you like the burn effect or not.

I think John gets scared of his own shadow

"If you are considering doing this... DON'T" 🤣🤣

On fractal burning: it's not just that it can stop your heart, it's that it can flash-boil whatever part(s) of you that end up touching it, so if you DO survive, you will almost certainly not do so unaltered

This video annoys me SOOO much. It's full of a bunch of misinformation. The wobble dado: It's putting a lot of forces on your table saw that they're just not built for. It's a whole lot of mass off center with high momentum. Sure, the idea seems convenient. It's less messing around with lots of parts. But it's a whole lot of mass that's being used in a relatively uncontrolled way. Okay, comments about the power carver are fair... The fractal stuff... Hoo boy! You state in the video that you and your team did hours of research... and you keep talking about how dangerous it is BUT you immediately undermine that with misinformation! Like you respect it so much you're not going to talk about it any sort of an accurate or helpful way. The rubber mat for example: It doesn't make you more grounded. More grounded would be standing there barefooted with nothing between you and the earth. The point is to make it more difficult for your body to become part of the circuit. i.e. NOT GROUNDED. So if someone is watching that and they take your words seriously, they'll know that to become more grounded they should be essentially planted in the ground - which is a whole lot less safe. You plant so much of your dissuasion in the aesthetic of the technique when tastes are subjective. If people didn't like the result, they wouldn't be trying to make it. It's just a terribly argument to make when the argument you should be making is "It's freakin' unsafe. To get better results, it gets less and less safe". You keep throwing out terms, which again, you said had been researched, without regard to what they actually mean. Compressing frequencies etc. when you can't even be bothered to learn about the relationship between wattage, current and voltage and what any of it means. Putting this information out there in this way, where you're blatantly not giving the dangerous subject matter the respect it deserves, is irresponsible at best. You can do better.

Remember kids a microwave transformer and a potentiometer is a poor man’s buzz box

"If your doing it, fk you" proceeds to do it...

Dude I’m calling it. This channel is gonna be huge. I definitely predict a mill subscribers by 2025

Ladies and gentleman, the kit he has, I personally own. It works fantastically, and I get orders for fractal burnt pieces regularly. One of my top 3 requests on orders so his opinion aside, a lot of people like it. The one we have is from a neon sign. And instead of painting the entire board with water, ur only supposed to just paint the water brush width up to, I do about 6 to 7 inches. Takes a lot less time when u direct the current where to go with the water. If u want to do it, buy the kit. It's not expensive, and it's a lot of fun

When I first saw those chain saw grinder blade... I thought "that thing will kill you and it's going to hurt the whole time!"

Skydiving without a chute is safer than the chainsaw angle grinder

I used one of those wobble dado blades for five years making cabinets and bookcases. Worked great for us, I didn't even know they were banned, haha.

John, you have now, in detail, explained 3 things that I have zero desire to ever to try. Great reenforcement!! However, I am old enough that I do remember that my father had a wobble dado from Sears. I threw it away decades ago.

As if the wobble blade isn’t dangerous enough, you’re using it with your fly undone 😂😂

I got a pucker when he was touching the fractal burner without the gloves, I don't know if they are absent in the fractal setup but microwaves often have high power capacitors as part of the power circuitry that is being DIY rigged and the internet kits are often just doing that DIY for you so there is still a risk of getting a nasty shock when it is not actively operating.

There is a guy that does displays of the fractal burning near me. Just posts up at a festival and gets to burning, then hangs out with the glass blowers.

I reckon you should have linked the Ann Reardon video explaining how and why it's dangerous, it includes how safety gear was ineffective and how electricians have been victims. Because "it looks dumb" is only going to convince people who value your opinion on aesthetics

Never laughed so hard, his fly was down the for a long time hahahahahahahahahaha lol almost the whole beginning till he went to the sawstop

11:59 Lethal voltage starts at 50V. You don’t need a massive amount of amperage to kill you either. Be safe out there.

Lol Mans fly is down hahah 2:50 i love you dude hahaha

Licensed Journeyman Electrician here, who's also an avid woodworker; fractal can be done safely, but unless you're basically a clone of me (being a sparky and a woodworker), you probably won't do it safely or even know how. Do NOT do this shit. This is more dangerous that what Stuntmen do, because the risk of death is so much higher. Just don't fuck with it. It isn't worth it.

I was gonna say, basically I’ll use any tool unless it involves putting a wood cutting blade on an ANGLE GRINDER!!! LMAO

i use the wobble dado for the last 40 years even had it sharpened once. Works great on large cabinet panels. had one table saw that it was dedicated to for 15 years.

I have a wobble Dado and the Lichtenberg word burning setup (Homemade with microwave transformer). The few times I use it I am standing about 15 feet away when I plug it in and then initiate the burning. I have a few clients that love this look as a natural art type item. The wobble is interesting, but mine has a set screw to "keep" the setting.

on the fractal burning, i have seen something similar done on epoxy but for that ppl shoot one large arc through the epoxy to get the lightning effect but that needs way more power since u shoot the lightning bolt through the epoxy the way that works is u have positive and negative points on the work piece "negative being the ground" and then u build a large charge that u pass on the work piece by tapping on the positive point on the work piece and the bolt jumps on the negative point. its neat but hella dangerous

ok, here is some basic safety for using an angle grinder: use 2 hands, 1 on the body and one on the removable handle while it is properly attached. always use the blade guard on the angle grinder, they come with them for a reason. only use attachments that are rated for the maximum rpm of that angle grinder, if they aren't rated for it they can break and harm you (injury or death). when changing disc attachments always cut power to the grinder whether it is unplugged or the switch is physically prevented from turning back on.

That mugshot of Tim "the toolman" Taylor @ 0:08 from his cocaine bust cracked me up.

I like your approach, well done I subscribed.

Your next video, you should buy, unwrap, eat and build a Kinder Surprise egg. 😂

I haven't had as much fun watching videos as I did this time. I strongly agree that many unusual tools people have come up with are extremely dangerous to use, and the fractal wood burning is one of the worst. One I've come across is a weighed cable in place of the line on a weed Wacker, and even worse, a table saw blade on the same .😮I personally wouldn't try either one, but I've seen both advertised in various places.

I have and use the chainsaw blade on the grinder… it works and can do cool stuff, but I bought it at HARBOR FREIGHT! IT is the only tool I have that scares me… I always have the image of it whipping around and 10,000 rpms of dis-embowlment! Geeeeze… ok, I haven’t used it for a few years… the microwave transformer has nothing to do with microwaves. It’s just a cheap transformer you can make the tool on the cheap from parts at the dump. It’s low voltage, but it’s serious current. It’s just ELECTRICITY! no microwaves!! Haha! Great video!

in my high school electrical class we made one of those wood burning microwave things

I've used the wobble dado on my unisaw for 50 years without issue...I don't use it often but the results have always been satisfactory

I used a wobble dato for years before I got the stack dato set. I never had an issue with it but the big problem was that the bottom of the dato was rounded because of the offset. I have put my old wobble to rest and will stick with the stack.

I used to have one of those wobble blades. It works ok but leaves a curved bottom on the dado. I also bought one of those chain wheels and once I got it I was too scared to even try it. It's still in package on a shelf after 8 years.

I have a few wobble stacks and used to use them all the time. I was very surprised on how accurate they are like when making bottom slots drawers or backs in cabinets

8:07 He's with 80 bpm while he's scared, and i'm 94 bpm while chilling on my bed

I’ve never been happier being only hand tool woodworking

We have a wall of shame for those saw stops. We have a guy that had a problem with trying to make his measurement with a tape measure while the saw was running. He would barely touch the blade and cost the shop another saw stop.

I think I’d rather watch paint dry than put electricity through wood. You really can’t fix stupid. Thanks for taking one for the team I think

Dado stacks are only banned in a commercial workshop. Because they don't come to a stop within 10 seconds. You can still use them at home all you want.

Remember, John, it's the amps, not the volts! Lol

You had me until 9:37 when you appear to grab the blade of a plugged in death trap … 😂

I own that dado blade by craftsman, bought it in the late 90's. Works great, especially on smaller saws! Is difficult to set the size exactly, but with a little time you can get good cuts. Just used mine last December to make new kitchen drawers and shaker cabinet doors and drawer fronts. I will accept a new stack set if you got one laying around, lol.

The thing with fractal burning is it's not that hard and can be done safely by a 12yo kid. But if you have a mishap you are likely going to die because of electrical current required to burn through the wood, so don't do it on your own. There are ppl who do it professionally, let them handle it. Also remember, don't mess with electricity alone (especially when doing sketchy stuff like that), without someone capable of safely turning the power off if something happens. It might be the difference between life and death for you

There are two popular experimenter high voltage sources, for short, the NST and the MOT The Neon Sign Transformer puts out many kV, but is current limited, not recommended getting too close to that as it would definitely hurt, but the current limiting means it probably won't kill you. The Microwave Oven Transformer puts out only a couple of kV, but with significant current available... as they say, it's volts that jolts and mils that kills. Ordinary mains voltage is enough to kill, but a 30mA RCD is low enough and fast enough that you barely know you've had a shock (I know, I got a RCD cutoff shock once from being careless, the thing I though was unplugged wasn't). NB. A RCD cannot protect you from shocks from a transformer output, so it WILL NOT save you from inept wood burning. The only "safe" way to do wood burning is with a "dead man's handle" switch which must be held to maintain power, positioned outside the danger zone

Subscribed just foe your saw. Thanks for your brain stuff in your videos. Alot of stuff I could learn, hopefully it sticks 😅

I subscribed for this. Thank you

You should have used that wobble dado blade on the Shopsmith. Too bad you got rid of a great tool. Scott even made a special trip to teach you how to use it.

Someone looked at an angle grinder and thought: "Hmm.. now how can I make this MORE dangerous and terrifying than it already it?"

11:36 Unfortunately I had the misfortune of having to work an EMS call for someone who had been electrocuted by a homemade fractal woodburner. They used parts from a microwave oven, jumper cables, and nails like John described. The electricity traveled through their hand and exited out the heel of their foot. We worked on them for 30 mins but couldn't revive them. So anyone who does this technique needs to be VERY cautious. I do like the look of the wood but I just don't trust the method enough to try something like it myself.

That video you referenced was from Ann Reardon. She made a very well researched and educational video basically imploring people not to do fractal burning. Originally, KZfaq took it down because their AI labeled is as if it were promoting unsafe activity. She had to fight with them to get it put back up. I highly recommend every curious maker to watch it. It's just not worth the risk.