OT who is your favorite content creator and why?

[nickel-city-fab]

sorta like the other thread, just opposite: who is your favorite and why?
I'll start it off:
Clickspring, bar none. I can't get enough of that stuff. Just the right balance of explanation vs action shots, the video overlays showing the CAD models, etc. The right "information density", how much is packed into x minutes. Superb video production quality, you are immersed in the work and not the video. Soft transitions that aren't too slow. etc etc etc. You can tell that he's a professional teacher (and indeed he does lecture in Mech Eng at one of their Universities)

OK, your turn: who's your favorite and why?

[Stu]

Cutting Edge Engineering - metal work
Sampson Boat -wooden boat building
Twoodfrd -string instrument repair.

don't know why exactly, just interesting stuff.

Stu

[RB211]

Clough42, without a doubt.

His interests line up with mine very well, does all the same things I like.

Excellent video and audio quality
Very upfront about product reviews, what was given, what was bought. No stealth product placements like Abom does, I've lost all respect for Abom.

He shows his mistakes, makes an effort to do things correctly.

Doesn't have a giant ego and treats his viewers well.

My other favorite is Stefan Gotteswinter

Strives always for top quality, no compromises

Good enough video and audio

Is humble, will gladly talk to his viewers, doesn't have a giant ego

Constantly learn from him

Shows things new to me that I wouldn't have thought about otherwise like treating carbide in the home shop like it is HSS.

Does a really good job of destroying "Old Machinist Tales" like the use of Carbide in the home shop.

[tom_d]

I have several favorites, but the machining content one I find most interesting is Clickspring.

[ChazzC]

Joe Pie, Clough42 & Quinn:

Joe Pie, for his amazing capabilities and clear technical explanations.

James (Clough42) for the wide range of topics and presentation style (he also inspired me to lose 90 lbs).

Quinn (Blondiehacks) for her down-to-earth style and that she uses smaller machines.

[JRouche]

I think our own Doc has some great content. As do others here.

To be honest all the "content suppliers" are all good. Brian is one of my most watched and learned from. That man has skills that I get to pick up on. See, its a learning thing for me. Keep it coming.

Hey now, its free info for you. I take it freely and happily. Thank you very much! JR

[Jammer Six]

CEE, of course.

But the one who got me to buy a lathe is Blondiehacks.

[true temper]

Engels coach shop, I have absolutely no interest in building wooden wagon wheel, but Dave is the definition of a true craftsman. He is there to teach the old school ways sometimes using modern equipment. Never sponsored that I know of and never try’s to sell you stuff you don’t need.

For welding, “IC weld” Isaac is a real world rig welder without the attitude. He always says “this is not how to do it but how I do it”

[Doc Nickel]

I think our own Doc has some great content.

-Our own Doc also only has maybe half a dozen moderately okay videos, most of which are only a few minutes long.

Favorites? There's a ton where I like or liked the person for a time, but that changed- usually when they started adding tons of sponsored content. The upshot is there's a bunch where I like that particular video, but not necessarily the person's whole channel.

It's also worth noting that I tend to have little free time, and a poor connection, so extensive YouTubin' is more or less out of the question.

That said, there's three that I'll drop everything to catch the latest of: The aforementioned Clickspring as his workmanship and videography both are absolutely top notch. His playing-card press video is very likely my all-time favorite 'Tube. (With the possible exception of O Fortuna Misheard Lyrics. )

I'm still a fan of This Old Tony, despite the fact he.... kinda seems to be just sorta phoning it in these days. He's had some brilliant gags though, and I really want to do a shop-tricks spoof like his April Fools one a couple years back.

And Project Binky. For those that don't know, two guys in England jammed the entire AWD drivetrain out of an '84 Toyota Celica GT4... into an Austin Mini. One of the original Minis, not the recent BMW things, which are an easy 50% bigger. The trick is, they show you everything. Damn near every cut, practically every bead, their thought processes about how and why this or that mod was done, etc. But it's not dry and boring like a Fenner video- it's well shot, well paced and well-edited. The guys have a great dry British sense of humor, and the work is top notch.

Like, a removable electric flip front, operated off a key fob, and yet still has a functioning hood, due to space constraints, they had to remote-mount and cable-drive the alternator and AC pump- and speaking of AC, they made their own, entire, full-featured heater and AC system, in part by cutting down and modifying custom heater cores.

One of the latest bits is their original clutch linkage design turned out to be unworkable- not enough throw and something like an 80Kg pedal pressure. The body was already painted, so further firewall mods were impossible- so they had to design and built a compound linkage that fit into their already incredibly tight space, to bolt extend the throw and reduce the pedal pressure. That was no easy feat.

The machinists among us will periodically cringe a bit at their badly worn Myford and poorly-ground cutters, but will likely be surprised at what they're able to accomplish with a Taig CNC mill.

Others I'll occasionally check in on include My Mechanics (largely dialogue-free reconstruction of some old rusty piece of equipment, or turning a solid stainless steel 8-ball) and DiResta (who started out doing quick restorations of tools and simple machines, but has since "sold out" similar to Abom and Alec Steele.

Doc.

[alanganes]

I usually look up youtube videos when I want to learn some specific thing that I need to either do myself or for some reason got curious about. Most of the relevant content producers will at times have something that I find helpful. As for particular creators:

I watch a lot of the Welding tips & tricks videos because they are usually pretty short and to the point, and I am not a particularly experienced welder, so I pick up a lot of tidbits watching them.

I watch most all of This Old Tony because I like his style and even if the subject of the video is not explicitly of interest to me, I find his videos very entertaining.

Stefan Gotteswinter is a favorite. I don't pretend that I can do much work at his level of precision, but there is much to learn from the techniques he shows. He manages to show some real craftsmanship but seems a genuinely nice guy that never takes himself too seriously. The quality of the video and audio is always good enough that it is easy to watch his stuff.

Robin Renzetti for all the same reasons as Stefan G.

I could never really get into ABOM or Jimmy Diresta, not quite sure why. Alec Steele always felt too much like a TV show to me.

Joe Pie and Suburban Tools are great resources for learning how to do some particular thing I want or need to try.

As for non-shop stuff, I pretty much watch everything that Tech Ingredients and Ben Krasnow of Applied Science post. Much of it is well out of my areas of expertise, but the videos are very well made and pretty wide ranging but well explained. Always interesting.

When I hurt my back a while back and could not do much beyond lie around, I spent a lot of time watching Forgotten Weapons, interesting info, entertaining presentation that is free of yelling and poking fists at the camera, and really well produced.

[Mcgyver]

Click spring for presentation, entertainment and production. Rob Renz for knowledge/learning. Both get five stars.

Blondie Hacks? I don't think she knows what shes doing....at least after the one video I saw on indicator repair.

The rest of them? I haven't seen all, and this comment doesn't mean they are bad....but mostly I'd rather making something in the shop than watching

[I make chips]

Joe, Rucker, Kurtis, Quinn, Engel, Binky, Brian, 42, Dooz, Tony and probably 14 others I forgot.

[BCRider]

Joe, Rucker, Kurtis, Quinn, Engel, Binky, Brian, 42, Dooz, Tony and probably 14 others I forgot.

I'm down with the idea that it's hard to pick one since they all are great in their own ways and I find all of them interesting and fun to watch at times and highly informative at others..... Although I'm wondering at how Doozer slipped into that list... He pay you?

Although she's still learning I do enjoy Blonkihacks just for that reason. It's comforting to see that it's not only my shop that Murphy visits and where perfectly good items can be fudged up and tossed in the scrap bucket.

And I have to mention Rustinox for both his enjoyable personality as well as the central role played by his small shaper.... Since I also have a shaper of similar size. One of his earlier videos on better cutter design for shaper use was a milestone in my advancing to where I started to enjoy the machine instead of being confused by it. It was a hard lesson to learn that shaper tools need pretty different cutting angles compared to lathe tools.

Two I've subscribed to recently that I'm quite enjoying are SuperfastMatt for his small engine land speed car build and wit and Jeremy Makes Things for his conversion of badly delapidated scrap metal items into useful things.

And that's just the metal working side of things. I also watch a collection of wood working channels including twoodfrd.

[nickel-city-fab]

I have to confess I like StefanG and RobRenz as much as anyone. Although I'm nowhere near that level of precision and my work does not require that. But I always learn something from them.

[Doc Nickel]

How do you gents find the time to watch all of these?

Doc.