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Couch Time: September 2016

Welcome back to Couch Time, the monthly column where we show you unique and interesting projects from other makers on YouTube. Last month we covered videos from David Gagné, Laura Kampf, Matt Cremona, Jimmy DiResta, and KRTWood.

La Fabrique DIY – Making a Very French Birdhouse

A birdhouse is possibly the archetypal woodworking project. Bill Lutes on the Reclaimed Audio Podcast even turned it into a joke — his first guess about every project is “a birdhouse.” In this video, La Fabrique DIY (an artist group that runs a French-language Instructables-type website of the same name) creates a birdhouse in the Basque style. It isn’t complicated, doesn’t require any special tools, and looks adorable. Stay until the end for some footage of the birds enjoying the house.

Frank Howarth – Maple Clouds

Frank Howarth has always been an exceptionally creative woodworker, but he took his work to an entirely new level after building his giant CNC router. This turned segmented bowl would be impressive on its own, but then Frank adds CNC-cut clouds. Then more clouds. Then some more. The end result is gorgeous, and Frank’s stop-motion animation is impressive as always.

Carl Jacobson – DIY Kitchen Knife Storage

In this month’s “Why didn’t I think of that?” moment, Carl Jacobson creates a knife holder by turning a simple cylinder and filling it with rice. Yes, rice. The rice not only holds up the knives, it also wicks away moisture and prevents rust. To add some style and work around a crack in the maple blank, Carl inlays a tree using milliput epoxy clay (you may remember Peter’s milliput bowl inlay and milliput ring videos from earlier this summer).

Le PicBois – Figured Maple Grooved Bowl

Pat Lap of Le PicBois took a summer break, but he’s back in the shop now and making up for lost time. In this video, Pat turns a bowl from some figured maple and dresses it up with a series of grooved details on the outside. It’s a great example of how to turn a simple project into something unique. Welcome back, Pat!

The Wood Whisperer – 4-in-a-row game

Marc Spagnuolo managed to secure a sponsorship deal with Honda (yes, the car company). As part of this deal, he did a series of simple weekend projects using basic tools and plywood – like this four-in-a-row game. However, since content creators apparently aren’t allowed to make a living, some people threw a fit. We think the project is pretty cool, especially since it’s a simple project that anyone can do with basic tools. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a full workshop or a half million dollars worth of tools. That particular excuse is off limits. If you enjoy the project, Marc made the plans available for free.

Giaco Whatever – Concrete USB Hub

Speaking of trolls: Giaco Whatever’s latest video for Make: Magazine, a concrete and wood USB hub, was met with an unusually high number of dislikes and negative comments. That’s kind of a harsh response for a free video that nobody was forced to watch, but people are weird. The good news is that the negativity was met with a counter-movement, and several makers now have their own concrete USB hub projects in the works as a show of solidarity. Take that, trolls!

If you have suggestions for next month or a particular theme you want to see, tell me about it in the comments. Thanks for reading!

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