Tested

Posted by 141drew Oct 18, 2013 at 4:28 PM and filed under News & Editorial

This is incredibly dorky, but somehow captivating as well. You guys have all heard of Mythbusters I’m sure and, as a result, you probably know Adam Savage – one of the two nerdy hosts. What you might not know is that Adam also has a pretty large YouTube following as well. Through a series of shows titled “Tested,” Adam shows off his shop while taking on a number of different projects. The above is probably my favorite, but you can see many more here.

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HOTFR8

Banned

Oct 18, 2013

I would hardly call him nerdy but that is great to see.

larry_g

Well-known member

Oct 18, 2013

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=192140

Thread above has additional information.

lg
no neat sig line

Haveblue

Well-known member

Oct 18, 2013

Thanks for the link Ryan! I didnt know about tested. Its great to find new shows like this, as I dont have any tv services..I "watch pc" instead of tv. LOL!

srmofo

Well-known member

Oct 18, 2013

I love the extent at which he goes through to make his movie prop replicas. I don't remember if those were part of the tested series or not though

Ryan

Administrator

Staff member

Oct 18, 2013

srmofo said:
I love the extent at which he goes through to make his movie prop replicas. I don't remember if those were part of the tested series or not though

Yeah. To me that is incredibly dorky on the surface... And then you hear him talk about it and see the passion... Captivating to watch.

IndyGarage

Well-known member

Oct 19, 2013

I'm not much into the toy gun case, but the passion with which he does it and his obvious love of tools and what you can make with them feels pretty familiar.

akdiesel

Well-known member

Oct 19, 2013

There is quite a talent behind that goofy roll he plays.
I like the fact that he exposed the use of some material I had no idea of, like the leather look paper.
Every little bit helps.

gahrajmahal

Well-known member

Oct 19, 2013

He builds much the way I do although so much faster. I refinished a silverware case last year and lined the interior with new velvet. It took so much more time than I expected it to.
Additionally, I even have the special textured black vinyl he mentions that is used on amplifier cases. I used it and vintage Fender speaker grill cloth as trim in my 68 Chrysler interior. There is a familiarity when you see those older materials that gives a build authenticity even though it is new.

NUTTSGT

Super Moderator

Staff member

Oct 19, 2013

Awesome video detailing the build of the gun case.

One thing I did notice in the background was some storage units. Not the pull out cases that has been mentioned before but what looked like a Lisle or Vidmar unit, just on a smaller scale. If I could scroll the video back, I'd get the time off the video.

EDIT: I checked the video again. When it was full screen I couldn't scroll fwd/rev. But at 6:29, they are on the right side of the screen.

tmike14400

Well-known member

Oct 19, 2013

Even though this video is kind of a 'private build' type thing, I was surprised he doesn't wear safety goggles/glasses, especially with how close he gets his face to the surface when cutting.

Nice result nevertheless.

I PLAY FOR KEEPS

Well-known member

Oct 19, 2013

Nuttsgt - he goes over his drill bits in this vid towards the end not sure if they're the drawers your referring to. http://m.youtube.com/watch?p=PLJtitKU0CAehsdcybehbPFHObmWsKtQcY&feature=plpp&v=1OPSbF6kM9k

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maks8489

Member

Oct 19, 2013

Thanks for introducing me to this. I love Myth Busters and watch to see what they do in the shop as much as anything else.

NUTTSGT

Super Moderator

Staff member

Oct 19, 2013

I PLAY FOR KEEPS said:
Nuttsgt - he goes over his drill bits in this vid towards the end not sure if they're the drawers your referring to. http://m.youtube.com/watch?p=PLJtitKU0CAehsdcybehbPFHObmWsKtQcY&feature=plpp&v=1OPSbF6kM9k

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Yep, that's them. Now that I watched that video, I do remember him talking about them. Thanks.

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IndyGarage

Well-known member

Oct 19, 2013

tmike14400 said:
Even though this video is kind of a 'private build' type thing, I was surprised he doesn't wear safety goggles/glasses, especially with how close he gets his face to the surface when cutting.

Nice result nevertheless.

You can tell as he's making a fine cut with the jigsaw he can't see, so he takes the safety glasses off and doesn't put them back on.

I will confess to doing that from time to time.

neel2008

Well-known member

Oct 20, 2013

Adam is one of the few people that I would actually watch like a half hour video of making a damn box. lol

Oldbear

Well-known member

Oct 20, 2013

neel2008 said:
Adam is one of the few people that I would actually watch like a half hour video of making a damn box. lol

I'm the same. I watched the video and when it was done checked the time... Adam's shop has the same time-sink problem that mine does.

I like the fact that he pauses, strums fingers, moves his tongue to a different spot, has paint and glue on his fingers, stops to go find something, gets a step or two ahead and even gets distracted by hardware... not near as polished as Myth Busters. :thumbup:

ckadams00

Well-known member

Oct 20, 2013

My brother submitted this video to his contest. He didn't get selected, but I don't think there are too many people out there who can sew, weld, silk screen, program a cell phone and install a compressed air club launcher.

For anyone who has seen Caddyshack you will get a kick out of this.

The Frisco Kid

Well-known member

Oct 21, 2013

neel2008 said:
adam is one of the few people that i would actually watch like a half hour video of making a damn box. Lol

this!

383 240z

Well-known member

Oct 21, 2013

I got turned on to TESTED after hearing about his podcast from somebody on here. The podcast is called untitled the Adam Savage project. I thought I was blind till I saw how close he kept his head to the saw when cutting. Still love his term for what he is. A maker.
Keith

7th Kahuna

Well-known member

Oct 21, 2013

Thanks for sharing Ryan. I saw a couple of Mythbusters 'behind the scenes' videos which hinted at the potential of a show like TESTED. I am looking forward to checking these out.

PugetDude

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Oct 21, 2013

Great Link- it was nice to see a TV personality with real hands-on skills on a time-accurate build. So much of what we see is so phony-baloney it makes me want to hurl; i.e. buliding a dining room table and chairs or doing patch panel repair and paint in half an hour...

KPSquared

Well-known member

Oct 22, 2013

ckadams00 said:
My brother submitted this video to his contest. He didn't get selected, but I don't think there are too many people out there who can sew, weld, silk screen, program a cell phone and install a compressed air club launcher.

For anyone who has seen Caddyshack you will get a kick out of this.

Your brother is a freakin stud! Thats so awesome. I should be to young to love Caddyshack. . .but I'm not. :rocker:

Vegaman_Dan

Well-known member

Oct 23, 2013

I like TESTED because it's not politically correct, no script or advertisers telling him what he can or cannot do, and no silly brand name covering to avoid legal issues.

The shop is clean, but it's cluttered and I recognize many tools as stuff I already have or have used previously. He isn't brand focused and I saw tools from Sears, Ryobi, Mac, Dewalt, and sure enough, even some bright orange tools with 'Chicago' on their case. No snobbery there, he uses what works for him, and I greatly respect that.

You can see he engineers things with his mind, knowing what an object needs to do or be and works backwards from there. He knows the materials and can improvise on the fly with confidence. And he's smart enough to know when he's made a mistake and learn from it. Even when that mistake tips him off to a better way to do something.

It's raw and unrehearsed for the most part. He enjoys his time in his shop for no reason than to just make stuff. It doesn't need to have a purpose except to enjoy the process of making it.

In short, he's one of us. Now we need to get the admins here to invite him here! He'd fit right in.

FarmerPete

Well-known member

Oct 23, 2013

There aren't many crowds that Adam wouldn't fit in with.

I remember he gave a talk at Defcon back in 2009 I think it was. Defcon is a giant hacker conference in Las Vegas.

Mugen112

Well-known member

Oct 23, 2013

Wow! Amazing to see how well a something could be created with experience alone. Someone with zero experience doing this would have taken weeks to make it, and it wouldn't have turned out half as nice. BTW I'd love to have a shop like that!

James E

Well-known member

Oct 23, 2013

Cool video.

And, if nothing else, I learned that some crazy people out there actually believe that Rick Deckard was a replicant (including Ridley Scott). I never picked up on that in all the times I've seen the movie.