Was The Lamello Zeta Worth It??? $1600 Tool & $300 In Connectors for This Detail!!! 

You produce some of the best carpentry content on RU-vid. You have a talent for teaching and doing, that’s a rare blessing. 👍🇺🇸

I’m a Millwork installer in Toronto. I have been doing different variations of this project for 30 years. Your method, Spencer, is the best I’ve seen! However, it is time consuming. It is great to have customers who want to pay for quality. But even when they do, there is often someone in the supply chain who want to go cheap on labour or materials and put the difference in their pocket. That plan almost always backfires, leaving it up to the installers to fix things. Someone always loses money at this point. Never pays off to quick and dirty. But they’ll try again! You’re providing a great service, Spencer!

Great project Spencer. NOT a criticism here but just a few suggestions On your first jig where you put your slots every 18 in the plywood, I suggest hot glue a stop every 18" on your jig for the Lamello tool. For the hickory strips, you can make a jig to locate off the first finished Lamello slot and then keep advancing the hickory strip until all the slots in each strip are finished. Keep up the GREAT channel. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

it's sooo exciting to see the channel grow and all these incredible projects and opportunities you have and get to put all your heart and experience into them to make the results shine like ONLY you can do. Hope you have a perfect weekend!

That was an absolutely beautiful build. Appreciated that quick peek at the laminated railing. What a beautiful house. Thanks for the insight on the Lamello!

I love watching your videos! Never was a very good student in woodshop, but I do appreciate handmade wood work.

Perfect execution of the custom look the designer created. Each aspect of this house displays the attention to detail required to achieve the stellar image this project demands. Thanks for breaking down the process and sharing the steps required to get it done.

First thought from the old guys seeing you squat: Use the rolling shop stool! Took a while, but you got it.

so cool, just ordered may zeta yesterday...great job!

I’m never going to do a project like this but I watched the whole video and as always got good info anyway. Keep up the good work Spencer. I like the fact that you alway have a reason for doing what you do. A well thought out process as usual!

Beautiful work, very technical and a interesting take on how to do a slat wall. Typically a cabinet shop will pre assemble, pre finish the whole thing and the cabinet guy will trim to fit, glue it in, and sneak screws and nails in strategic points to lock it into place

Great art work bud. Hope to see more of your handy work. Keep up the good work. 5 star rating

I regret that I don't know anyone around where I work who would have taken the time to build that wall the way you did. Most guys would have nailed those slats in place. Really cool execution sir. Man, I would love to work with you some day.

That's impressive Spencer. Respect

Nice work, as always. Thanks Spencer

The satisfaction of an Craftsman isn’t always measured in monetary value. When the skill aptitude is at this level when working on a designed piece by a peer and the build comes together flawless (termed loosely) the end results is where the satisfaction lyes… At least on the first run! Well done Spencer.

Interesting video. Love the tip with the speed square in the saw table! Will be using that one for sure.

This house is turning out gorgeous

excellent demonstration , very detailed , impressive. fine finish carpenter

I just love anything with the word Clam in it👍🇺🇸

Way more work than needed

Nice work, been at it over four decades, I usually get hired kind of freelance by builders and contractors to do similar projects, including elliptical handrails, as Spencer consistently shows it’s economy of motion. People are always surprised that it doesn’t look like you are working hard, until they attempt. Carpenters are lucky you show your methods and tricks.

Nice!!! I’m sure this one time becomes a moneymaker for you. Your an awesome carpenter.

Impressive projects!

That looks great! It’s cool to see how the cabinet vs trim trades are inverted in your area compared to mine, because anything like that unit, or even ceiling beams are almost entirely done by the cabinet/Millwork companies. With the exception of the big box cabinet shops that don’t do Millwork.

I’ve seen you splice plywood together on other projects to make it longer than 8’. Have you looked into getting 10’ plywood? Your work on this project is exceptional! Wouldn’t expect any less from you!

Thanks for providing the inside details in all your videos. Being able to see things with a different perspective stretches you. I might have added a stop block on one end of the straight edge and at each slot location to align the cuts without having to sight them in. The same straight edge could be used to cut the slots in the slats by adding a fence and cutting from the base of the lamello. In this scenario there’s no need to mark any of the slot locations. Anyhow thanks for concise content.

I just did something similar at a retirement home around the reception desk. Walls, columns, all faces of a soffit, all mitered. I didn’t make the panels but they were 2’x8’ 1/2” plywood painted black and had white oak screwed on from the back with proper spacing. Wish I could show a picture of how crazy it looked 😂. They had 4 panels left over and put them behind our bed. 1-1/4 square oak with 3/4” spacing so 2” centers. Each long end had rabbit also.

Great work 🤘

Kudos for thinking of the tape. I would have totally dropped the ball on that one. Gotta look I to that Limelo tool. ❤❤

Great video as usual. Trying to think how I'd do this without the Lamello. No matter what I think I'm splitting it into several verticals with the seam getting hidden behind a slat. Would put it up in 2 or 3 pieces I think joining 10' mdf 1x12s longways with biscuits, pocket holes or whatever. Slats installed ahead of time. Probably some horizontal blocking strapped to the wall either recessed by removing some drywall or just over the top. Shallow dados are my first thought but you need finished materials to get the fitment right on that. Craziest idea is to cut the black into strips using a thinner material and just alternate rows with the right grab adhesive. Make a story stick with drill holes and use dowels. Same jig for slats and backer board. Attaching to the wall is tough with the slats mounted ahead of time. You could go behind the coat hooks and baseboard or save a few slats until you run some screws. Maybe some adhesive and third hands (braced against what I'm not sure) keeping it pressed against the wall at the top where there's nowhere to hide while the glue cures.

You know I'm all for new wall structure sheetrock has had its day

Jiminy Cricket! Very nice work and what an interesting system, a very high end project. It must be comparably expensive but looking at the rest of the construction I see where your slat detail was just a drop in the bucket.

Thank you that was inspiring and you’re a great teacher!

Beautiful

Nice Job !!!

Very cool

You are very talented

Seems like you could CNC those vertical plunge cuts on a pattern.. Would save you tons of time and totally repeatable..

That's a great ethno-designed boom arm!

Looks good...

nice work! that ceiling definitely would have looked better stain grade, great vid

Need a way to justify this tool? Just install finish panels on your cabs with the tenso connectors. It’s pretty much game over for screws or glue and clamps at this point. I use tenso connectors for the bottom and sides and then clamex connectors on the top to ensure the panel isn’t going anywhere

Looks amazing! I make this type of walls pretty much on a daily basis. They're very popular in Miami. Luckily I own a CNC so my method is I cut grooves the thickness of the slats and insert them. Very easy and get a perfect installation every time.

Perfect job for a biscuit joiner. Make the slats … add the biscuits with touch of glue… get painted / stained face only then put tape on the adjoining wall where it is painted. Then remove tape and touch of glue and pop on slats. Cheap and easy. But permanent! Not sure how much you could charge for a slat wall but likely not $2000. That would be break even. Not worth the hassle. Keep it simple. But for break down cabinets just follow Ikeas lead. Use dowels Forget Festool. Overpriced and German tools tend to be higher maintenance and higher repair costs. Lamello designed a tool that only their products can be used so they’ve created a franchise system. You have to buy FOREVER from them

Super execution as per usual, would love to know how you would estimate/tender for such a bespoke piece.

After the 3rd row of slots, I was surprised that you didn't tack some stop-blocks on to your guide rail to turn it into a jig so that you didn't have to eyeball every slot

FYI, Lamello has come out with the S20 clamp. Works the same way, but using a "normal" biscuit cutter.

Nice

That looks awesome! Would you have lost your mind if they wanted horizontal slats as well? Like tiny blocking? 😅

Just installed similar feature wall made with black felt panel with walnut strips stapled thru the backs. It looks Way easier😂 nice job as always!

I have seen this available as a complete 4x8 panel. The firm offered a wide variety of shaping of the strips.

Great use of a new method !!! But pricey $$

This must be the most labor intensive wall ever built.

I love seeing new tools demonstrated and the Zeta looks like it could be a very useful unit. That said, I don't think it was the proper tool for this job. I'm sure there are many different ways to execute this design, as indicated in the top-rated comment. First off, the long grain glue surface offered by the long hickory slats and the thin width of the slats would seem to suggest a straight glue bond could work well. Secondly, the straight line orientation of the piece would lend itself very well to work done on a table saw or router table. (Actually, this job cries out for using a CNC, but not everyone has access to one of those) To me one of the quickest ways to accomplish this task (and I'm sure there are many others) would be to rout out long 1/4" to 1/3" grooves in the plywood along the vertical. Then, work from larger pieces of hickory and use a table saw or router to make a tongue on the back of each hickory slat to glue into the long grooves. Then, it's a simple glue up using the tongue and groove joint itself to aid in alignment. All long grain glue surface and you don't have to worry about wood movement because the slats are so narrow and you are gluing into plywood.Mind you, I'm not a professional, so maybe I'm missing something. I do see how the Zeta would be very useful for knock-down pieces and for tricky installs. Also, it looks like a great tool for making mechanical butt joints where you don't need the strength of a glue joint. Thanks for the content, Spencer.

At $1 a piece, and this required 180 of them, plus your time to use them, mask off for paint, etc. I’m thinking a router creating a shallow 1/8” dado and a jig to keep them evenly spaced would have been at least as fast without the cost of the tool and fasteners. Glue and pin nails to hold them in place.

Man i need your customers 😂

Inspirational! Its a work of art and a fascinating project but for me the investment in buying and using the Lamello could only be justified if the project needed to be broken down and re-deployed for things like stands for trade shows. LOL'd at your dry humor about the staircase guy!

Good money in custom home builds.

I doubt the owner will ever appreciate the amount of work that went into that piece. I’d never spend so much time , would probably glue and use cauls with spacers

The lamello looks awesome! You always do great work, man. Alternatively, if you wanted to be more economical, could you install the slats from the back with screws? So no exposed fasteners still. Start at one end with panel on edge using some blocks to hold in place vertically. Then, screw the first one in on either end. Use a spacer block and continue as you go up. Might need a friend/clamps to hold on one side while you screw from the other end. Might be a more affordable way to go, if you chose to do so. Cheers!

I'd be really cool to see the cabinet guy you keep on mentioning. I'd bet he does really good work just like you do. Great job Lewis.

cool

In another video you'd mentioned about how, early in your career you learned that you put more value than necessary into trim production relative to the peers of your market . . . into detail that really wouldn't be seen. The tools and investment of labor in this seem to be right down that same initial road and, you've admitted as much towards the end of this presentation. Snapped lines on your backer board with pins or dowels plus adhesive would have been far less intensive and expensive. Lower down in quality is putty filling finish nails. Fine Homebuilding magazine had an article years ago where a painter described his technique for filling with putty blends to match the tones of the wood. Most observers would have to be looking specifically for those fills in order to see them. Sub out to a competent painter this task and move on. I definitely will say your work is worthy of appearing in that journal and applaud you for your skills and patience . . . and the sharing of this work.

Well done sir, that's some top-drawer craftsmanship. I'm looking at getting a zeta p2 for a similar project-slatted white oak, but using matte finished black MDF with a coat of osmo polyx for the backer boards-so many thanks for the very helpful video. I currently have a DF 500-90% of its usage is joining panels, aligning boards for glue-ups and mitre joints on solid wood furniture. From what I can see the Zeta does this just as well if not better. I find no matter how careful I am with the domino, I can often get a tiny lip on the joint, granted its only 0.1-0.2mm (0.0039-0.078″), and with hardwood a rub of sandpaper fixes this but not really an option for veneered ply and the likes. Can I ask how do you find the usability and accuracy of the Zeta for this application compared to the domino? Did you go for the Carbide or Diamond Blade? I’m thinking of selling the domino and getting the zeta, and getting the DF700 down the road for larger frame joints, chairs etc. Thanks again. 👍

If you have no Lamello like me, I would have had to just use a scrap piece of 3/4 ply for a spacer block and a nail gun, If you taped off a 1/2" strip for bare wood behind the slats to glue to a flooring nailer may hide the nail holes pretty well.

The Mafell Duo Doweler has an indexed guide that could work for something like this. It may have been way faster and cheaper. The initial tool costs would have been more, but the overall costs would be similar. From then on the dowels would be far cheaper than those connectors. Maybe it's another tool to add in your "arsenal".

A question on the stop block, would it make sense to add stop blocks at each mortise location? That way you could just reference the tool to blocks and not have to mark out the piece?

I'm a specialist finish Carpenter in Australia, vertical slat walls from 3 meters to 10 meters long including going around curved walls have become a norm for me over the last 5 years, as much as I think your system is great and gives a nice finish, it's far too time consuming and expensive, there are a number of easier ways to do this that don't involve the need for a $1600 machine, and $300 of connectors, I would hate to think what it would cost to do some of the 10 meter walls I have installed, your work is always exceptional, but I get the feeling you used the lamello simply because you have it, not because it was the right tool for this job.

Cool tool for sure, but why not just use the table saw to make splines in the plywood and slats, then glue ‘em on on site? It would drive me nuts doing that many individual mortises

Great work. I hope you get payed by the hour. I’ve always screwed the slats from the back mounted on a 4 x8 sheet of cabinets grade plywood and installed each panel complete with panel adhesive and a few finish nails to hold it in place

Looks awesome! How would you have done this without the Lamello?

Amazing work! I would love to know what you charge to do this job, I feel I would easily under charge and end up building for free. My biggest problem as a residential carpenter is every job is so different and unique, it seems to be a crapshoot on what to estimate and how long the process will take.

I'm very curious of time and cost of this project excellent workmanship as always that has to be a five thousand dollar job

Nice vid, where did you get that flat fence on the miter saw?

I'm just wondering if the strips could be nailed or screwed from the back of the plywood first. I would have painted the black paint myself and test fitted the plywood. first. Then maybe the whole assembly could be finish nailed and glued to the wall? Maybe there's some reason you couldn't do it like that?

I could use those pre-load clips to make re-breakable boards for the Tae Kwon Do studios!

I do cabinet work and all kinds of woodwork similar to the stuff you are doing, have both the zata and Domino. The zata is the one for this project. My plywood supplier has 10' plywood material, depending on the finish you could use mdf

Anything they can dream... you build🙏

Nice! I’d love to have one…but wouldn’t dowels and some glue accomplish the same thing?

Would you mind tell us the info on your stool. Looks very stable. Thanks

Great project, however a bit overkill for me. In Poland you would use some glue to join them.

Hey Spencer, I’ve always been curious what headphones you are always using and how well you think they work in regards to acting as hearing protection?

Holy expensive for that panel batman .

I don't know what your requirements were here, but surely cutting dadoes for each one, drawing a line down the back middle of each dado, prefinishing, then just dropping them into the dados, and throwing some screw or nails into the back would have saved some time. Then just carry them to site and trim to fit with a track saw. Again no idea what the requirements were here. So would love to hear why you didn't go with that option since you are production minded.

a 3 axis CNC would've been great here.

Hi Spencer, Can you point me to where you purchased the festool plugit conversion for the lamello please? Any help is appreciated

Where can you get that cord for the Lamello? Looked like a Festool plug it. Are these available for adapting to any tool? Thanks Edit: gotta learn to wait to post question or comment until I finish the video. 😂

you should add a dust separator on a bucket before the vacuum works much better fill less bags

Good grief that was a lot of work for an accent wall. It looks great. Reminds me of 70's architecture.

Did you consider making a jig to guide the Lamello for the slats?

Where do you order the Festool Plug it Conversion kits? I cannot find them for the life of me.

Could you have left the connectors in the plywood back and allow the painter to paint over them? They should still work. Love to have seen how you hung the plywood back on the wall

I feel like i could have done this high end project faster than it took you with your lamello tool. Must have took you a week for that little space?

I have a lamello biscuit joiner. I don't feel like it does anything differently from my DeWalt

Were you wearing wear protection when you used the Mortiser? If not please do so in the future.

PITA job....lol came out nice but man what a PITA

Super cool. That must cost a fortune for all of those connectors. I'd just use screws from the backside. Nobody would see them any how.

Why was the drywall removed to install your slat assembly? It looks like the back of the tall cabinet meets the face of your black plywood. The cabinet could have been packed off the wall the thickness of the back panel and the drywall could stay. Some jurisdictions may consider that a fire code violation. Did the bench bury your base molding? Maybe the door casing was visually too close to the front of the bench or they wanted more floor space.

If the pieces won’t be locked in, is there really an advantage of using the Lamello connectors over, say, 300 dominos?