As Shipped: Shavings to Starboard, Plugs to Port

October 6, 2018 12:42 PM

Tool-manufacturer Ryobi noted that boat builder Louis Sauzedde wields one of their electric planes (albeit well-used) from time to time on his "Tips from a Shipwright" YouTube channel. Unprompted, they sent him a new one, requesting he "unbox" it in a video. I wonder what they think of the segment?

Lou's YouTube channel "Tips from a Shipwright" has been mentioned on MeFi in the past.

• Spoiler: Lou likes the plane, but definitely not as it comes out of the box.
• Eye Candy: The beautiful and slightly unconventional dory he just completed is shown at the start of the video.

posted by maxwelton (39 comments total)

The electric hand plane (in my opinion) is one of the hardest tools to use well, and one of the easiest ways to make an absolute pig's breakfast out of your project if you're not careful--the latter is especially disheartening since you often use the plane after doing a bunch of other work first. His nonchalant use of them, and the great results he gets, is (sigh) another of those "10,000 hours" things.

I should note that I am totally sympathetic to YouTube creators who do more "conventional" endorsements of the swag they receive, if they get any at all. Especially since YouTube seems to be on a tear to make it as difficult as possible to make money on the platform. It's a lot of work to consistently make and post videos. But I wish more of the "product placement" was like this--it's often very minor mods which can turn a seemingly useless tool into something indispensable, and it's awesome when an expert's "secrets" are shared.
posted by maxwelton at 1:04 PM on October 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

one of the easiest ways to make an absolute pig's breakfast out of your project if you're not careful

A woodworker friend calls his the Project Fucker.
posted by a halcyon day at 1:16 PM on October 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

I wonder what they think of the segment?

If they're smart, they're giving it to their engineers to make changes to the next model. Their lawyers would probably have fits if they removed all the "safety" features but things like redesigning the air flow from the fan or slightly shortening the width of the blades seem pretty easy.

Besides, at least he was nice enough to use a Ryobi drill to take it apart!
posted by mstokes650 at 1:53 PM on October 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

I wonder what they think of the segment?

If they're smart, they're giving it to their engineers to make changes to the next model.

Yes - he’s delightful, and seems to be dragging every planer on the market, not just the Ryobi, which he seems to be consistently emphasizing is the one for him.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:57 PM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

My electric plane sits in a box on a shelf and will probably remain there. I've found great satisfaction in picking up old rusty hand planes for next to nothing and restoring them to razor-sharp working order. I'm in the middle of fixing up a nice long jack plane (£2!) at the moment. Having said that, boat building involves chipping away a heck of a lot of wood, so I can imagine it'd be worth learning to wrangle a power plane for that.
posted by pipeski at 1:58 PM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

As much tinkering and set-up as he's doing, he's doing it because he really likes the brand and the amount of leeway it lets him have in modifying it to suit his purpose. Pretty solid endorsement with good takeaways for Ryobi engineering and QA.
posted by Slap*Happy at 2:00 PM on October 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

With woodworking videos in particular I've seen a number of these sponsored reviews be less than glowing. I think it's great given that anything resembling objectivity is difficult financially in traditional media. Seems like marketing departments have mostly become smart enough to roll with it.
posted by MillMan at 2:01 PM on October 6, 2018

I wonder what they think of the segment?

I hope they've learned to ask questions of their users before sending them a new item to be publicly unboxed. He could have given Ryobi all of that feedback without the embarrassing video.

Incorporate feedback before the design process. Before the engineering process. Before QA. Before shipment. Before an entirely lovable public persona rips your product apart. Not after.
posted by Revvy at 2:54 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

> the embarrassing video

Oh, I dunno, Ryobi gets credit as far as I'm concerned for demonstrating listening to public comments exemplified by this video.
If, of course, the Mark 2 version gets sent to him and he approves it.
posted by hank at 3:07 PM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

That was great, I really enjoyed the original series when it was linked here, and forgot to keep up with the channel. I think they'd be very happy with the video, he made it pretty clear that the Ryobi did everything better than the competitors, just not perfectly for him.
posted by lucidium at 3:13 PM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yep what amazing discussion, learned way more than expected, utterly terrifies me and I deeply madly want one and if I do it'll be a Ryobi. A "scarf" is a very long shallow angled cut along a board to join two boards together, the long angle is the strongest join. Both boards need even reciprocal cuts. Visualize a big boat just out of the water and needs a section replaced. Not much room to work and if it's done wrong or the blade digs in unexpectedly a really hard job tripled in frustration. His early comment about cutting down the edges is worth gold, bags of gold.
posted by sammyo at 3:32 PM on October 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Wow, this was soothing outside of the extremely loud power tool noises. He has such a great voice.

I definitely agree that this isn’t “embarrassing” by any means — he makes it clear a number of times that it’s the best one he’s used by any company, and hopefully Ryobi (“Roy-obi”) will take the suggestions to heart. If anything, it’s a sign that he likes their stuff that he gladly uses it even if it requires a bit of initial tweaking (and adjustment, in the case of the blades’ positions).

There are definitely recognizability advantages to using neon yellow plastic for the bodies of your power tools, heh.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:48 PM on October 6, 2018

He took the finger guard off. For all he says your hands should never be down there, there will be one day he's distracted and he ends up in ER. Every guard's saved an injury. The woodshop at my makerspace has a faint brown line running up one of the benches to the ceiling. That's the pulverized fingertips of an experienced woodworker who took the guard off an angle grinder so they'd have more clearance on a Lancelot woodcarver …
posted by scruss at 5:33 PM on October 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

If you missed the earlier post on Louis Sauzedde, go watch his other videos (eg the 38 part series in which he builds a small wooden work boat). It's a very good use of your video-viewing time.
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:31 PM on October 6, 2018

YouTube is this century's version of the oral tradition. If modern Infrastructure is sustainable, of course
posted by Redhush at 7:23 PM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I think Ryobi knew what they were getting into. They saw a respected expert consistently using their tool, and took advantage. The lawyers are just fine; he voided the warranty almost immediately.
posted by Brocktoon at 7:27 PM on October 6, 2018

And some of the modifications he made to his old plane aren't exactly subtle - I can't imagine anyone familiar with the product wouldn't have noticed he'd at least completely removed the outlet toggle assembly. They knew what they were going to get when they sent it to him.
posted by russm at 7:34 PM on October 6, 2018

This extremely irrelevant to my interests, but absolutely fascinating. Thanks!

(Though, I kinda hope the next marketing donation is a box of safety glasses and hearing protection.)
posted by eotvos at 7:50 PM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

I wanted to see the utterly dangerous one he talked about at the end.
posted by procrastination at 7:51 PM on October 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

If I were Ryobi, I'd be tickled, but you never know with marketing departments. I thought it was a high compliment. (I did like the complete lack of reverence for the "unboxing" itself.)

I think good engineers are fascinated by how their products are adapted in the real world. I also think good engineers make it easy to adapt their product, which seems to be the case here...as opposed to the Bosch planer row of shame, as seen in the video.

If you like this channel, I highly recommend another, mentioned in my Mule Team Borax FPP: Engel's Coach Shop. Dave Engel has a peaceful voice, calm manner, and his work on horse-drawn vehicles is both skilled and fascinating.
posted by maxwelton at 8:08 PM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

The mod he casually throws in towards the end, that a piece of drain pipe fits the exhaust ports on the Ryobi perfectly is also worth gold. Being able to have a handle a foot or more outside the narrow plane -- on either side! -- to control the side-to-side angle of the tool is huge.
posted by maxwelton at 8:16 PM on October 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Family (aside from me) is all New Englanders. I grew up New England adjacent. I went to college in Boston. I honestly miss the quiet competence that I associate with that NE accent. Is it just years of my grandparents and this Old House? I dunno. But I edited a podcast last week with a New Englander in the mix and it just had me feeling nostalgic for a place I haven't lived in 22 years.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:18 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

The mod he casually throws in towards the end, that a piece of drain pipe fits the exhaust ports on the Ryobi perfectly is also worth gold

And not only is it an extended handle, it’s also an extended chute. But I love that he appears to have replaced the troublesome flap assembly with a cork.
posted by a halcyon day at 11:35 PM on October 6, 2018

He's in Bristol, and that is about as perfect an East Bay Rhode Island accent as you will ever hear, unless you listen to my daughter going on and on and on about JKR's "Harry Potter" or Pilkey's "Dog Man"...

"OH. MAH. GAWD!"

"Language!"

"SAHWEEE! 'OH MAH GAWSH' zwat I meant."
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:57 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

As long as I'm mentioning "relaxing" woodworkers' channels, you might be interested in Thomas Johnson Antique Furniture Restoration, located in Gorham, Maine. While his channel doesn't have a regular schedule, his videos are very good when they appear, and mostly ten to fifteen minutes, so easy to slip into a busy day.

Tom always opens his videos with a short shot of farm critters (or wild birds), and ends them by saying, as we're looking at the finished piece, "I think it looks pretty good." And it does!
posted by maxwelton at 5:01 AM on October 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

> And some of the modifications he made to his old plane aren't exactly subtle - I can't imagine anyone familiar with the product wouldn't have noticed he'd at least completely removed the outlet toggle assembly. They knew what they were going to get when they sent it to him.

I wouldn't presume the marketing department to have the same technical acuity as the engineering department.
posted by ardgedee at 5:36 AM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh man, yes, I am so looking forward to a future video on that “most dangerous power tool ever made” that he mentioned casually offhand.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:09 AM on October 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh man, yes, I am so looking forward to a future video on that “most dangerous power tool ever made” that he mentioned casually offhand.

I'll admit that I spent more time than I should have on googling various combinations of "Porter Cable" and "Most dangerous", but turned up empty.
posted by mikelieman at 6:36 AM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

If I had to guess it would be the Porter Cable siding sander, an open face hand held device with the power of an angle grinder but having an exposed flat 7” disc you put 20 grit sandpaper on to strip paint off wood siding. Of course you use it while on a ladder. One false move or mishap and it flays you.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:19 AM on October 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

"He took the finger guard off. For all he says your hands should never be down there, there will be one day he's distracted and he ends up in ER. Every guard's saved an injury. The woodshop at my makerspace has a faint brown line running up one of the benches to the ceiling. That's the pulverized fingertips of an experienced woodworker who took the guard off an angle grinder so they'd have more clearance on a Lancelot woodcarver …"

I know it is a pleasure to scold but I think you are making a false equivalence here.

If you want something to give you the willies take alook at Lou's "Mr. Friendly", which is an 8" angle grinder with a skilsaw blade and no guard. He says its very dangerous and doesn't let anyone else use it. He uses it to clean out the caulk between planks.
posted by Pembquist at 10:48 AM on October 7, 2018

I don't know why Ryobi would be at all upset with this—for the (negligible) amount of money spent, he spends a good 20 minutes with their tool, showing how to tune it up. I'd be a lot more likely to buy one after watching the video than before; it's not like he pans the tool as being worse than the competition—quite the opposite. Most of his complaints are phrased as "every planer on the market comes like this, and here's how to fix it on this model", and in a few cases he even throws some shade at competing brands, Makita in particular, which is generally considered a more upmarket brand than Ryobi. And towards the end he even remarks on how much safer the modern ones are than old ones, which is interestingly in contrast to the "old tools are the best, everything today is Chinese garbage" attitude that you get from a lot of tool blogs and the like.

If Ryobi is smart, they'll include his mods out-of-the-box on a "Pro" model in the future. But in the meantime, why would they care if someone buys their tool in order to do a bunch of warranty-voiding modifications to it? I mean, a sale's a sale. Lots of products have done very well by embracing aftermarket/modder communities.

And because he's not obviously shilling the tool, I'm more likely to take him at his word when he says it's one of the most useful tools he owns, than somebody who relentlessly talks about how awesome some 'sponsored' item is. It shows he has some degree of integrity and objectivity.

So not only did they get some good targeted advertising, they also got a list of changes to make for an upmarket version, for those who don't want to tune-up the regular one.

FWIW, there are some other YouTubers who also do a good job with sponsored/freebie items. E.g. This Old Tony, who is an incredible machinist and metalworker (with impressively high production values and a good sense of humor—if you like Regular Car Reviews, but with more machine tools, you're probably the target audience). In one video, he gets gifted a free TIG torch water cooler, which is a fairly expensive piece of kit. He proceeds to then disassemble the thing, void the warranty, and make a bunch of slightly-bonkers modifications that the manufacturer probably wouldn't countenance. But it's probably still a net win for the manufacturer, who most people would likely never run across otherwise.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:17 PM on October 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

The episode of This Old Tony where he works on a part for Wintergarten's next marble machine is honestly one of the funniest videos I've seen in any genre in some time. His production values are insane for a "home machinist" YouTuber, and he's clearly a very smart and funny dude. He also has been including cameos from other YouTube machinists, namely in that video Abom79 (Adam Booth, a gentle giant of a machinist with a great channel, known for "old school" machining and working with big tools on big items) and Stefan Gotteswinter (who is known for his high precision work on relatively small items).
posted by maxwelton at 2:29 PM on October 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

“He took the finger guard off. For all he says your hands should never be down there, there will be one day he's distracted and he ends up in ER”.

Yeah I don’t think so. There are certain “safety” elements that for some users are more dangerous than if they weren’t there. I’ve disabled some safety features on my tools that engaged when I didn’t want them to. They were things that I didn’t expect and didn’t depend on and so had a tendency to surprise or distract (or annoy) me, which is kind of a negative safety feature. A safe tool is one that works the way you want and expect it to work.
posted by kingv at 4:39 PM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't list woodworking as an interest, but I am very interested in guitars. Youtube recommended this series to me and I ended up binge-watching the whole thing and learning a whole lot about guitar making. This guy starts making a guitar and he has some wacky ideas and he just begins experimenting. As he continues he becomes more and more nervous about taking risks, potentially ruining days of work. It becomes rather nail-biting as the work becomes more finely detailed.

At the beginning, he says he'll give the guitar away as part of a promotion. It's clear by the end, while he'll honor the deal, he really regrets saying he would give it away.

Also a lesson not to judge people by appearances because this guy has a really bold tattoo on his head, but he contradicts all the stereotypes. He's a great guy!
posted by adept256 at 6:06 PM on October 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm in awe of people willing to commit to head (face, neck) tattoos. That's an amount of self confidence and willingness to say, "fuck you," to polite society that I aspire to posses.
posted by eotvos at 7:14 PM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is great. Loved seeing him take the design to task and fix it as well as point out what works and makes it salvageable. I felt like I was watching some kind of spin-off program of "Sawing for Teens".

By comparison, AvE takes apart various power hand tools and steps through his opinion of how and where the manufacturers skimped and designed them to fail. He irreverently tears apart the boxes and rips apart the tools before even trying them, stepping through the materials used in the casting, the quality of the electronics, motors, and will also measure the output power to see if it matches the specs on the box.
I'm torn about the channel. On one hand, it's fascinating to get a decent in-depth picture of what went on to make a tool and how they're put together. On the other hand, he plays a character (I assume he's playing) that is rude and sexist. In the words of my wife, a one-time plastics engineer, this is exactly the kind of man who shoved women out of engineering.
posted by plinth at 8:27 AM on October 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

I agree about AvE. The content is interesting but as a presenter he's hot garbage in a human suit. I don't need that poison in my life, and no one else does either.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:34 PM on October 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oof. Wow. After watching a bunch of This Old Tony videos, AvE is like Mr Hyde to Tony's Jekyll. I do like his method of "unboxing" though.

Now I want one of those tiny battery-powered chainsaws, just to keep around on my desk. I bet I'd find things to do with it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:14 PM on October 8, 2018

(Just noting that Tips from a Shipwright just published the final episode of the dory project. It's a beautiful little boat--he takes it out on a beautiful evening in a beautiful bay and he's obviously having a blast. Great camera work, too. Highly recommended if you need to salvage an otherwise ho-hum evening.)
posted by maxwelton at 1:14 AM on October 14, 2018 [1 favorite]