Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/19/watch-adam-savage-take-apart-a-giant-size-swiss-army-knife-replica.html
…
7 Likes
“I deny your reality and substitute my own.” Amazing how Adam predicted this election season so long ago.
1 Like
Pretty sure he’s high while he shoots this.
1 Like
Any updates on the allegations from his sister? And can you hold an adult responsible for their actions as a child?
At one point Master Savage indicates that the other two (apparently unnecessary) wires are part of an overheating shut-off circuit (?) Here’s my wild and unsubstantiated alternate conjecture: The green one is a ground wire, and the remaining one is a separate motor winding for 220v mains.
4 Likes
His enthusiasm is really catchy. 
3 Likes
I saw the blade was backwards before he pointed it out. That would bug me forever. Every single day it would stand there saying “You are a fool and I am the living proof; maximum shame be unto you”. But Mr. Savage seems cool with it. I bow to his marvellous attitude.
Is he high? He’s just make something work. Of course he’s high. That’s what making stuff is like.
2 Likes
Me, too. I don’t know why he didn’t fix it as soon as he saw it. Reddit is replete with screenshots and gifs where he realizes when he’s made a mistake.
That was some amazingly fast gloveless bandsaw work. Sure hope he is not high.
everything he says at the beginning about why he always wanted one applies to myself, and yes, I got mine! eat your hearts out:
creatively acquired from the utility room of my local cutlery store. it had seemingly been there a very long time before I got to it. it was obvious it had been mothballed because it had been displayed in their window long enough that the red plastic had been UV damaged to a brown brick color. I had to mask the emblem and spray it back to red.
mine is an older model. when I got it, between the red pieces was a piece of sheet metal surrounding the mechanism with slots cut in it for the blades, but it had got bent all to shit in storage and had to be scrapped. my red pieces are two-part; the same shape with metal clips that pressed through the front to the mech side, and then another one nested over it with the emblem on it to cover the clip part.
unfortunately, when it came to me, one side was missing the face plate, so I eventually scrapped the clip part. but its nice to look at the clockwork bits. and the framework, gears, and pushrods are all brass and steel on mine, which I’m glad for. one of the gears separated from the piece it was driving and I had it spot-welded back together maybe ten years ago.
one great feature of the older models is that the drive shaft connects to the motor via a cowl that screws into the base, so it’s easier to work on, you just unscrew 4 screws and the knife and base come apart.
luckily, when I brought it home and plugged it in, it ran perfectly, although the motor made a clicky, low rumble like maybe it threw a bearing. and although it continued to make the noise over the course of several more decades of use, it never got worse and ran faithfully every day. the repetitive noise became soothing to me, even.
unfortunately, last year, the inner surface of the hole in the large blade wore down to where it would jam the cam action. luckily, despite freezing the whole mechanism, no gears seemed to strip nor did the motor burn out. if I displaced the weight away from where the hole wore out, it would run for a while but continued to jam. that’s why there are visegrip pliers sticking out the top. then I just left it alone.
this video wasn’t a complete teardown but should be helpful in getting at the bit that needs service. one of these days, I’ll fix the hole and throw a new, quiet motor in it. I figure while I’m in there, I’ll clean all the dust and grime off the mech and make a plexiglass cover to display the clockwork. one of these days…
5 Likes
I’m really surprised he made the replacement blade out of flimsy synthetic material and not real metal. I expected better from Mr. Savage.
The original blades were plastic @kmoser. Completely ruined my childhood memories. They looked so real and shiny.
Yes, it was strange to me that someone as accomplished as him didn’t just look up the wire colors. Yellow-green is standard for ground. At least in europe it is. Wire soldered to the housing is rather a giveaway as well. I’m not really an electronics guy either, but this is household stuff.
2 Likes
I’m surprised that he didn’t remake the blade after he realized that it was backward. If you watch anything else the guy does when he makes a mistake he corrects it. Kind of sloppy for him, to be honest.
He’s also very much a pragmatist who has learned in the prop and visual effects business that good enough is the goal to strive towards, especially under time constraints, which a one day build is by definition.
He even says in the video (when he realizes the notch doesn’t quite work) “I care not. We’re gonna finish this now. Perfect is the enemy of the done”.
Edit: autocorrect has really let me down here. For hours my comment said “when he realizes the b*tch doesn’t quite work” Obviously I typed “notch”. I hope nobody was offended by that misogynistic slur I didn’t put out there on purpose!
1 Like
Right, but if you watched his previous 30 videos you know when he makes mistakes, and this one was a doozy of a mistake, he goes back and spends extreme amounts of time going back and fixing the mistakes. This one was just weird overall to me, maybe because it was a spur of the moment “one day build” because he just took it off the shelf to show and tell and remembered the blade was broken. If you’ve seen him before his “one day builds” often take days and days to finish.
Well mostly he tries to hide his mistakes and only when that doesn’t work he fixes them. I have seen his videos before (which should have been obvious from my comment above) and perfectionist isn’t what comes to mind when I see him work. He’s an incredibly proficient and quick worker who tries to achieve exactly what he set out to do but not more or less. Sometimes that’s a prop indistinguishable from the original (and that is where perfectionism comes through, when he obsesses about the smallest detail of a Blade Runner blaster), sometimes it’s something that just needs to be good enough when seen from afar and he won’t sweat the details. And sometimes it’s a spontaneous repair that will do until he feels like remaking the blade (which he said he would at some point).
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
