Vampires aren’t as common as they once were, but in most places they aren’t fully protected and it’s still possible to get a tag for legal hunting come October — at least if you’re using traditional weapons, like a good old wooden stake.
[This Old Tony] on YouTube didn’t have a good old wooden stake handy, but he does have a machine shop. Does he turn stakes on a lathe? Hardly. He turns an aluminum block into a giant pencil sharpener so he can use his drill to make vampire-removers out of any stick he finds.
If you thought that intro was too silly, you can skip the video. [Tony] is a funny guy, and is obviously enjoying himself in the voice over. He also obviously knows his way around a machine shop, and the 22 minute video shows every step of making a tool from a solid block of aluminum and some steel plate. It isn’t as soothing as some machinist’s videos are, though, as roughing out the 30 degree interior cone that will hold the stake against the steel blade is somewhat nerve-wracking to watch. Getting the blade mount tangent to the cone may have been trickier machining overall, but [Old Tony] nails every step. He’s now ready to dust any Nostferatu or Lasombra who darkens his door, assuming he has the strength to hammer the 3″ stakes he’s making through their undead ribs.
We’ve been enjoying [Old Tony] since we saw him build his own CNC table, only to ignore it in favour of his hard-earned skills. If you like that sort of thing, take a look — [Tony]’s cutting wit can make even videos about boring tools entertaining.
The same result could be achieved with a simple lightweight belt sander – and in fact that’s how pencils are sharpened in the factory. Unfortunately that wouldn’t generate as many youtube clicks as wasting a lot of material machining some aluminium billet.
unfortunately this is the status of YouTube nowadays. “shenanigans” with entertainment value.
being funny while teaching is great. doing “stupid shit for views” is the problem.
the worst part is that the “stupid shit for views” always wins. look at Linus tech tips. it used to have some informational value, nowadays it’s just “guy drops a hard drive for YouTube views”. and jakkuh, Linus’ former right hand, has now a YouTube channel that started ok and it’s now fully consumed by the character of “guy who doesn’t know shit buys expensive tools to do one job and does it wrong for views”
Don’t encourage him.
This would be a relevant criticism on an LTT video or similarly trash channel. However this is a real product people buy and sell that he just felt would be a fun project.
This old tony is an OG machining channel parody. The problem is that all the sponsor-linked patreon-begging affiliate-selling “funny maker” channels that multiplied like rabbits in the past few years kinda ruined the whole show.
I mean, Tony does it well but the whole concept is losing its shine.
Tony also had some family stuff going on the last few years so his content output has slowed considerably. he’s still one of my favorites though. I also really enjoy Inheritance Machining.
Even Inheritance Machining now focuses on make another video and puts more effort into video production that what he is working on, dim mood lighting, nobody machines in lighting like that… I lost interest in his channel
This is something that is an actual product that people actually use because using a knife or sander takes more time and effort. He just decided to make one because he wanted one and thought it’d be fun to make it himself.
So not only is this reply lame since he’s not making something trashily, it’s also just wrong since there are commercial products out there for it.
As he points out in the video, the typical large-pointy-stick-maker would do even better with a chainsaw and/or an axe, which is less elegant but more field-portable and universally useful than either.
In defense of this design, though, there’s a reason that commercial pole and stake-sharpening tools use it too – it’s rugged, simple, easy to take out into the field or garden, and requires no maintenance aside from occasional blade sharpening and adjustment. The hefty planer-style blade is also capable of sharpening green wood, which sandpaper is really not – and that’s pretty much always what you’ll be working with if you’re out making fence posts or hunting vampires in the wild and not in your shop.
This Old Tony is a hobbyist. I think by definition he’s not doing anything for efficiency. He clearly thought a giant elementary-school pencil sharpener was hilarious, so he did it.
Or you could simply not do it, since he has no use for the sharpened stakes anyway.
It’s mostly just having fun making a giant-scale industrial-strength pencil sharpener
You can take a frozen chicken, stick it in a lathe chuck and machine it to size but it’s still not a good idea.
You could always make a youtube channel about not doing anything at any time for any reason. Don’t think many people would be interested in that though. Tony does things that he finds interesting, some lead nowhere, some are pretty solid usable stuff. He isn’t trying to sell anything, just making videos about machining (mostly) and besides the top-shelf dad jokes, he’s decently informative.
There is already such episode from czech animated serie Pat & Mat about two frantic DIY guys from 1980s.
That’s actually close to what I imagined when I first saw this giant sharpener thing. Simply chuck it into the lathe, bring it up to speed, jam a tree branch into it, then instantly turn into a liveleak video
AvE did a really funny video back in the day where he machined a potato. Is say it was a good idea just because the joke was funny.
ToT has absolutely need for pointy stakes. He is a very keen gardener, and in more than one video he has gone through how to sharpen his garden secateurs or chainsaw blades and showing off his new garden tools.
If you think ToT is clickbait you’re not paying attention.
I’ve seen multiple channels trying to ape his style with bad clickbait videos and all they achieve is showing how good he actually is – he’s a skilled guy passing on real machining knowledge in an entertaining way.
I hate lame clickbait videos as much as the next guy, but ThisOldTony is not that. He puts out one video like every six months. He does actual quality work and talks through it. Anyone ranting this is clickbait trash is either an idiot or didn’t watch the video.
Why not both? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
First time in the Hackaday comments section?
Watch a video?? Ain’t nobody got time for that, I came here to complain!
In many ways Hackaday is just like Wykop. You don’t read the article. You just click and comment.
What article? It’s just a recap of the video.
I think that Tyler August is a pen name for dumping “youtube-a-day” content, since they’re not listed with the current staff of writers.
Once again the Poles are ahead of the game
Not a knock at Tony, but it’s not fully hand-machined. He used his CNC-modded mill to cut the blade mounting area.
I liked the video.
That’s what the vampires want you to think.
The hidden clan of hominidae-branch carnivorous creatures who once lived in a deep network of caverns near Babylon have absolutely nothing on the updated modern version
I’m old enough to remember the times when vampires sucked blood, not cocks.
Pretty sure it was always both
I believe that a certain Vlad the Impaler might find this item of interest (and no, he was not a vampire).
yea they cant make a proper movie about vlad without bringing up vampires. the syfy channel did an ok attempt (for a cheap tv movie) but still had to shove a vampire tilt in at the end.
A vampire is only as good as his Day Man, anyway…did you know that most vampire deaths are from not paying property taxes and/or not spending money on structural maintenance?
Bulldozers show up, shove the condemned castles down and splinter the casket into stakes…right out in the broad daylight such that there is no possibility of escape.
As for the stake sharpener…avoid the No. 2
–too soft.
Seriously though, this is good for fence stakes, gardening, etc.