It’s been more than a month since I’ve posted a long format YouTube video. Before we get too far down the path of assumptions as to why, I thought the reasons made for a good discussion topic this week whilst I look to the future. Notice the subtle nod to my British friends in the use of “whilst” in a sentence. It’s been too long since visiting Nottingham and the lands to the north. By the way, why do the locals still refer to the nearby land as Sherwood Forest when no trees remain? Off on another tangent, me.

The YouTube Beast

The world of YouTube and understanding its internal classification algorithm is maddening if you are a niche content provider. Woodworking seems to be a smaller niche subject area, not considered to appeal to a broader audience and therefor does not garner the same push to viewers when a new video is published. A well engineered and entertaining video doesn’t really get seen at all unless you already have a massive subscriber base, or the video gets an early high percentage of “likes” or comments. Beyond that they just sit there unseen, never being recommended to new viewers for even a chance at subscriber growth.

Might I like some cheese to go with that whine? Yes please. Havarti if you have it.

I’ve talked before about the YouTube algorithm and that it’s based on an advertising business model. If you publish the type of content that appeals to billions of unwashed teenagers, or reality TV viewers even crappy videos get recommended to broad audiences. New original content about crafty woodworking stuff? No so much.

Still, it’s not time to give up. I can see that over time the viewership grows when another path to have my video content appear in other search engines. Sometimes my video gets picked up by an international search engine or forum and my view count launches almost vertically on a month to month graph. Other times Google will pop up one of our videos in the top three choices during a key word search. In a few examples it took a year for a video that stayed flat on views to finally get recommended for viewing (somewhere other than YouTube). For those people that do come back, watch new videos, visit our website (and read this blog)…. Thank you! I know that our video quality is now getting better. We try to make each topic interesting and informative and it is exciting actually, to work in the wood shop and then take the time to produce the summary video. The work is truly its own reward. No. No giving up.

But, why no recent videos?

Well my friends, I’ve started a project that has swamped me emotionally and physically now for more than a month. I mentioned it briefly in a previous blog with a teaser photo that showed a couple pieces to the project.

My newest wood shop adventure was borne out of a childhood memory from an unlikely inspirational location; the doctor’s office. When I was a kid, I remember going to the doctor with my mum and sitting near the corner of the waiting room where a few toys had been assembled. One of them was a table top series of plastic ramps and chutes that you could feed marbles into and watch them roll, change direction and drop. I thought that was pretty cool.

More recently, I had stumbled onto a few videos that showcased some ready made wooden gear mechanisms and ramps that you could purchase and snap together to make your own marble machine. That was pretty cool as well, but the video was all about the motion of the machine rather than the effort to actually design and build the components. Actually you weren’t designing anything just buying the kit and putting it together. The IKEA of marble machines, I guess.

And so, without any real problem that needed a solution or a practical application for a project like this, I thought “let’s build a marble machine!”

The weeks have rolled on and progress has been slow where a day’s effort to create a new working piece to the machine might be wasted because of a minor miscalculation. Standing and bending over the work bench for 10 hours or more does a number on my back too, but Advil and stretching in a hot shower seem to help. It’s been a two steps forward and one step back scenario all throughout the build as ideas that sounded great just didn’t work during prototyping.

Certain problems don’t pop up until you test what you built, like the rotational rate differences between one marble lifting mechanism and another. I have a saw blade that rotates marbles up at a rate of six revolutions per minute, and then a smaller screw mechanism that lifts them higher at the same rotational rate. The thinner diameter of the screw mechanism means fewer marbles get lifted painfully slower than the saw blade can feed. I had to replace the screw mechanism with another motor at 4X the speed to increase the lifting rate. Onto the next design problem, and then the next.

And then eventually, something wonderful happens. Pieces start to work together. Sure, one of the ramps is a bit too long but it can be adjusted over at the band saw. The angle of the marble jump ramp was too flat and the marbles didn’t lift up in the air as anticipated. No problem. Cut a steeper angle for the ramp.

I think some of the other marble machines I’ve seen were brilliantly engineered and clearly designed using CAD software and a CNC machine to cut each piece. They’re just too perfect in my opinion. Woodworking should be about working the wood, not working on a computer so a machine can cut out your pieces for you.

With that purist woodworking mentality in play, it means that things don’t always work as designed. Furniture is easier because you know exactly to what fraction of an inch each piece needs to be cut. Pieces are easy to measure and their interaction with the next piece is easy to document. Not so with kinetic sculptures. There is a design idea for sure, but the build process is all about prototyping how the finish piece will actually work. With all the stop, start and rework activity that accompanies a project like this, it’s easy to throw in the towel but I guess I’m not looking for easy.

I’ve made progress especially in the last 10 days, but I’m still not close to having all the components work together seamlessly. In the end it will wind up being the source for two videos; one to just watch the motion of the machine components and the second featuring the build summary. No free plans for this one. I’ve changed and tweaked almost every piece on the machine. Initial measurements went out the window on week one!

But, in order to see the whole machine work, I can’t quit. I’m too close now. I’m sure I will have issues with the final pieces of the build, but they are simply hurdles to jump over.

“Never give up. Never surrender!” – Buzz Lightyear