Van Neistat fixes YOUR stuff now.
Published November 17, 2025 · 7:03 · 38,217 views
About This Video
Van is changing the focus of the channel from fixing his world to fixing yours. He made an appeal on Patreon: send me your broken things. Not the transmission of your Camaro. Something fixable in a day or two, within 20 miles of Woodland Hills.
The first job: Casey wants antlers mounted on a wall to hold a sword. Van's strategy is to let the antlers lie naturally and build a small rest to hold the sword laterally. He drills into heirloom antlers, which is like drilling into steel, and it kind of stinks. The indulgence: a foam washer behind the mount where no one will ever see it except Van and Casey. Tung oil to bring out the end grain. Seven minutes on the proposition that fixing someone else's broken thing is better therapy than fixing your own. I believe that.
Transcript
This episode is about connecting with people as I have a tendency to isolate in the shop or behind computers which
makes me cranky or worse. Sometimes I convince myself that I'm happier alone, but it ain't true. And it's been through
therapy that I've developed helpful habits that get me out there amongst y'all. When I'm feeling weird, call
someone, go out on date nights regularly, lunch with a friend at least once a week. And I find that when I
interact with people, especially if I can help them, it bolsters my spirit and basically my well-being. So, I'm sort of
changing the focus of the channel from fixing my world to fixing yours, albeit
in tiny little bits of yours. BetterHelp has been a great supporter of this channel and is the sponsor of this
episode. BetterHelp can easily connect you to a licensed therapist who is trained to listen and give you helpful, unbiased advice. Fill out a
questionnaire and BetterHelp matches you with a therapist in as little as a couple of days. And you can easily switch therapists anytime at no extra
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health. In 2024 alone, over 137,000 people use their HSA or FSA benefits for
therapy through BetterHelp. So, be sure to use yours before they expire. Click the link in the description or go to betterhelp.com/vanistat
and get 10% off your first month of therapy. Thank you, BetterHelp.
I want to spend my time doing something small and significant. This part of LA is called Chhatzsworth. Worst day of the
year weatherwise, thunderstorm warnings. That puddle in October. I made an appeal on my Patreon. So, what I want to do is I want to go to you and I want to fix something that is broken that you have.
All right. So my question is, can I drill through the antlers? Not like the roof of your house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, okay. Yeah, that's kind of how Not like the transmission of your Camaro.
I don't want to put any like constraints, but that's more or less what I was envisioning. Like the antlers is the shelf. Okay, good. I was hoping that. Yeah.
But something analogous to the things that I fix around here that can be fixed in like a day or two. like the things that people bring to the repair station.
We'll start with like around here, like within 20 m of Woodland Hills.
And Casey responded, "My my only concern is that I don't want it to look like a traditional army
plaque. Army plaques are all the exact same regardless of what they're about.
And they're like a laser etched piece of wood that's very generic. And so I'd prefer something that looks like you'd
find it in like some antique shop or like somebody's house.
So my strategy for the way they lie is that it should lie naturally as if it's on a shelf and then the sword should lie
naturally in the antlers. So I'm going to need to make a little rest. And this is about as thick as my thumb.
And so you get the idea. Just holds the sword laterally the way we want it to. So this is what I call an indulgence.
I'm going to do an indulgence. You see how you can see the white through there?
It sort of needs a washer. No one's gonna see this but me and Casey when he hangs his sword. But there's light
coming through there. I'm gonna make a washer out of this foam. Out of this foam rubber.
I use this stuff and uh kind of just made this look nice. It brings out the end grain. This is the part I'm most nervous about. Drilling into these
heirloom antlers. These are actual antlers. Oh my gosh. It's like drilling into steel.
Oh, it kind of stinks. Oh no, it's crooked. I drilled it in. Nice. Okay.
Using a Phillips so I don't can feel whether or not I'm doing damage.
Oh yeah. I love it. I love it. Now I'm just going to trim this. No gap. It's just sort of invisible.
There we go. But you see there's the gap between here and the wall.
I think I'm going to make I'm going to make some washers out of quarterinch plywood.
You know, it's like a spacer. The idea is that they're subtly visible or invisible, but there they are. And it's
so that there's no you don't see the screws that will hold it in. And then I've put these little postit so that my
drill can slide. And I sort of have like a poor man's drill press like this. It's not exactly centered, but I think it'll
be adequate. And I and it'll be square, which is important. This is so the drill bit can have some purchase.
Going to counter sync by hand. So, it'll be like this.
That like this. Just the entire thing was so well thought of. Appreciate it. So cool. Yeah, that looks awesome. You You nailed it.
The antlers Casey found in the woods of Romania. I think when he was on patrol and the saber was a gift from the army when he
retired. I was so excited I forgot to focus the camera. So, here's what it looks like photographed properly.
It's perfect. I need more repairs to keep this thing going. So, join the Patreon by clicking here on the Patreon.
Direct message me a link to a video or pictures of your repair and hopefully I'll pick you. Including Casey's. I've done four so far and they're on the Patreon now.
Products & Tools Mentioned
- BetterHelp mentions — sponsor
- Killspencer CW Morgan Bag uses — bag being repaired
- Phillips screwdriver uses — repair tool
- plumber's epoxy uses — repair material
People Referenced
Casey