10 Forbidden Practices in the Workshop
Published September 09, 2022 · 9:04 · 226,467 views
About This Video
Ten rules for the workshop, delivered as commandments with consequences. No bare feet: Van's son refuses to follow this rule, so Van warns him and then lets him get hurt. When making straight razor cuts, never use a straight edge as a guide. Freehand along a drawn line, because the edge always shifts. No fixing garbage, meaning manufactured garbage that wasn't built to last.
The list is the channel's repair philosophy codified into prohibitions. Each forbidden practice exists because Van violated it himself at some point and paid the price. The real story here is not the list. The workshop is a moral space: not because the rules are arbitrary, but because breaking them wastes material, wastes time, or injures someone. The video treats craft discipline with the seriousness of safety regulations, because in a workshop they are the same thing.
Transcript
good to vote is a campaign that one of my Kickstarter backers works with and his reward for backing my Kickstarter
campaign was an ad in an episode and he wants to advertise headcount.org which helps people to register to vote so here
it goes so if you're not registered or unsure if you're registered or you just moved you go to headcount.org and they
have a button there that you push that allows you to sign up to be registered to vote and as a bonus headcount.org has
a bunch of little contest you can enter while you're registering to vote there's a trip to the NHL Winter Classic a tour
of the vau studio a trip to Austin City Limits fun stuff add a line why you think it's important to vote or register
to vote and don't make it political I vote out of anger and rage when I go into the voting booth I'm just yes this
guy this guy not you no this gal this gal no and uh it's a cathartic experience so you can register to vote and maybe get
some rage out what's that sign say no bare feet number 10 no bare feet pretty obvious forbidden practice but my son refuses to
follow it and when he does I warn him and then I let him get get [Music] hurt number nine when making straight
razor cuts we do not use a straight edge as a guide for the razor we first use a straight edge to draw a perfectly
straight line then we cut along the drawn line freehand [Music] if you use a straight edge it's almost
always going to shift a little bit while you're cutting and then you're off by the end of your cut you're off by a wide
margin if you freehand you're just off by a little bit and the line is sort of is basically straight and then your
gluing or your sanding will straighten it out good enough [Music] number eight no fixing garbage and by garbage I don't mean
something that you found in the trash and fixed I mean manufactured garbage I did the repair station in public this
kid brought a $1 Ikea picture frame and had me cut it down and shape it from a rectangle into a square and I felt kind
of insulted because it's a $1 piece of garbage and my time is worth a lot more than that bring me something some
precious thing that you found or some interesting beautiful thing that you found you know cheap things don't fix
them throw them in the garbage and don't buy them ever again this is basically your worst nightmare Garden variety trip wire
number seven no trip wires it's connected to a sledgehammer goes around the leg of a tripod when you're setting
up your electrical things all the cords have to be on the ground because if someone trips over your trip wire and
knocks over your camera and breaks it that's your fault number six no robbing Peter to pay Paul tools belong where they live don't
take the vice grips from the workshop kit and migrate them down to the Land Cruiser kit the Land Cruiser has its own vice
grips [Music] same is true for all your tools no Flathead screws number five no Flathead screws ever this was almost number one but it's
not significant enough some things have Flathead screws old typewriters tripod shoes but when we we are fixing things
and let's say we're replacing a hinge on an old toy box throw the Flathead screws away and install with Phillips head
screws some technologies are just meant to die out even Torx head screws are superior to Flathead screws number four do not clean me out
do not use the last of anything the last of anything is for emergencies only when you get down to the last set of hinges
you got to go to Home Depot and restock on hinges I can't exactly articulate what constitutes an emergency but you'll
know it when you're there and in that case okay you can clean it out but man be careful number three no hoarding materials I've
always had small workshops with not enough room and that's how I developed this forbidden practice we all love the
neat little interesting things that people throw away on the side of the road but unless it's for the next
project or the current project that you're working on do not take it do not take it and save it for later you're
going to have enough scraps from previous projects to use your imagination and build something terrific
out of the scraps and what happens is it becomes this addiction and all of a sudden you're a hoarder and you don't
have enough space to make the things you want to make Salvage materials only for the project at hand [Music]
[Music] number two neither lender nor borrower be but especially don't be a lendor good luck cutting a steel screw when
you've loaned out your angle grinder if someone asks you to borrow a tool offer yourself with the tool oh
I'll bring it over and I'll help you or buy them the tool as a surprise but people even people of High character
they don't return it when you need it number one do not switch horses Midstream you must finish a project of
its kind before you start another project of its kind if you start a building project you have to finish that
building project before you do another building project however if you start a building project you can get 50% of the
way through and then start a new video project but in order to to do the second of either of those you got to finish
them this forbidden practice was almost called no messes between projects about resetting your workstation every time
you finish a project so that you don't just accumulate mess and tools everywhere in your life and being able
to clean and organize your work station is just a reward for finishing your project and it also encourages you to
finish your project one project at a time encourages you to finish your project and rewards you with the right
to move on to the next [Music] project no flad screws ever this week on the patreon a live stream answering your questions the link is right there
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Headcount.org mentions — Kickstarter backer ad for voter registration
- Ikea mentions — $1 picture frame - example of garbage not worth fixing
- Phillips head screws recommends — always replace flathead with Phillips
- flathead screws mentions — forbidden - some technologies meant to die
- Torx head screws recommends — superior to flathead
- vice grips uses — workshop tool
- angle grinder uses — needed when you've lent it out