Peter Brown's ShopTime

Welcome to November’s installment of Couch Time ! Each month, we will bring you a selection of videos covering interesting projects from other YouTube makers working in a variety of media. We are big fans of mistakes. Huge fans, really. Everybody makes them, no matter how experienced they are or how perfectly their videos are edited. Peter made his own mistakes in the recent Micarta video , which he finally published after eight months of pretending the footage didn’t exist. So for this episode of Couch Time, we’re going to highlight videos that show those mistakes. Batman Mech Helmet // Behind the Scenes – I Like to Make Stuff 2 Bob Clagett takes us behind the scenes of his Batman Mech Helmet build. Foamwork is a relatively new area for Bob, and he made several failed attempts before creating the final product. Third time’s the charm, right? Not this time. The fourth build finally worked out and it looks great. DiResta: Axe Mold Making – Make: Jimmy DiResta’s Make: video c...

Micarta is a composite material made from paper or cloth and resin. It is exceptionally hard and durable, and is commonly used for knife scales and other items that need to stand up to rough handling and heavy use. Peter decided to make micarta from card stock. This is Shop Time’s third foray into making micarta (previous micarta projects include the blue jean bracelet and book tablet holder), and you’d expect that previous experiences would make this project go more smoothly. And that’s where you’d be wrong. The actual process of spreading the resin went well. Peter used a shop-made HDPE roller to spread the resin and a piece of laminate to prevent the project from sticking to the bench. He remembered to mix enough resin (because paper and cloth both drink the stuff like they’re dying in the desert). And then things started falling apart. First, the paper started slipping around when Peter tried to put pressure on it. Then the duct tape wouldn’t stick to the parchment paper. THEN Pete...