Hardware Youtube

What happened to great technical hardware YouTube content?

The algorithms, shorts, and market saturation are pushing the best creators to go mainstream 😟

I recently found myself 23 minutes into a Sandy Munro video deconstructing the bed casting on the Cybertruck. I hadn’t watched one of his videos since I was prepping for Tesla internship interviews nearly four years ago. Why? I think I was sick of all the click-baity thumbnails in my YouTube feed. I needed a solid technical video where I actually learned something.

The unfortunate truth is that the mechanical engineering/machining/hardware audience is just not big enough, and once YouTubers reach the 500k subscriber mark, they have to generalize.

They start optimizing their projects for quick advertising shorts, eliminating technical deep dives that may lose non-technical watchers, and choosing projects that make for good thumbnails and titles.

Two classic examples of this are Hacksmith Industries and Stuff Made Here. It hurts me to put down the latter as it was my favorite channel during college, but I guess it is just the reality of growth and success.

YouTube is one of the best ways a young engineer can learn and get inspired. In 15 minutes, you can get exposed to how radar works or what it takes to machine a large telescope lens—areas that usually take a PhD or 30 years of experience to understand.

Here are our favorite YouTubers

Super Technical

  • Stefan Gotteswinter - very technical machining content the old school way

  • AvE - great disassembly work with tips on determining material/manufacturing location/quality, gruff humor

  • Easy Composites - everything you need to know getting started with composites (3D printed molds, pre-preg, forged carbon, etc)

  • Huygens Optics - super super technical content on how to make lenses/telescopes/etc

  • Jon Kraft - great deep dives and projects explaining how radar works

  • mrpete222 - an old school machinist basically vlogging about super interesting old school machining stuff.

The Sweet Spot

  • Bennett Stirton - up and comer with fantastic technical content relayed in a student esc yet professional manner

  • BPS.space - awesome rocket content with deep technical dives and also amusing jokes

  • Munrow Live - part by part disassembly of Teslas with fantastic insights on why things were built the way they were.

  • Not An Engineer - newer channel with awesome mechanical projects discussed in detail

  • S3 - the best deep dives out there on hardware startups.

  • Stuff Made Here - super intense hardware/electronics/software integration projects

  • Winston Moy - the best intro to CNC videos on the internet with great simple projects

  • Works By Design - fantastic complex mechanical projects with extreme depth

Very Entertaining

  • Project Air - a young British engineer on a mission to attach rocket motors to everything!

  • Engineezy - very satisfying 3D printed mechanisms

  • Hacksmith Industries - iron man style weapons, battle bots, bionic hands etc

  • Mark Rober - very entertaining “engineering projects” and cute squirrels

  • Project Farm - extensive tool testing (i have bought multiple tools that have “won” and they have all been great!)

  • Tom Stanton - similar to Project Air with the air engine replacing the rocket motor

  • Adam Savage’s Tested - a real mix of detailed vlogs and fun projects

  • Strange Parts - journeys across the world to manufacturing facilities, high tech events, and battle bots’

  • styropyro - crazy pyrotechnics in a mad scientist fashion

  • TITANS of CNC MACHINING - maybe the biggest CNC channel on YouTube

  • Zack Freedman - hobbyist 3D printed projects

Who Did We Miss?

(We need to expand the list)