Make A Lamp From A Motorcycle Crankshaft 

C'mon, this lamp deserves an air filter as a shade.

Hey Matt, I'd suggest changing the socket to not have a switch. Put a switch in the center of the crankshaft where the exposed wires are so it's a "design decision."

holy sh*t he did it, he actually did it. He finished a project of the type "will do that sometime" Love the video

“… barely an inconvenience.” I chuckle when my favorite channels reference each other.

I almost skipped this video thinking "Why would I watch someone build a lamp?" Then I remembered Matt was building the lamp and came to my senses. Did not disappoint.

Years ago I had a ball bearing get stuck in a carburetor passage. I showed it to the machinists at work. They tried compressed air and a drill but couldn’t get it. The weird guy that doesn’t talk much pulled out a set of dental drills that were ceramic and poked right through the bearing.

All hail the ...thingy.

I love that the BOM includes the four lampshades, none of which you used (and all of which you could probably return lol), and not the center punch which you ruined 😅 Loved this video, and the lamp! Great work, great sense of humour 😀

Very cool. If ever you redrill to completely hide the wires, you can run wiring easily by attaching them to a bathplug chain (the little balls type) and drop that through. It will find the path easily as you turn the crank, no matter the angles are. Pull gently and it's done.

I love that you posted the actual costs for your free lamp, there at the end. Nice build.

Your sense of humour and sarcasm is what makes this channel great!

The all-over candy shell hardness is done by induction heating. Case depth can be controlled by area of the part too, so there can be thicker candy shell where it needs to be strong, yet keep a large soft chewy center where it needs to be tough. I have heard actual metallurgists use the candy analogy so it's totally legit technical jargon.

I feel this would have been a good project for an EDM machine, you should dedicate the next 10 episodes to building your own EDM machine to more efficiently drill holes in your side project!

Funny, my dad made one of those 30 years ago. I had completely forgotten it until I saw your thumbnail. Let's impress the algorithm 👍

What an positively enlightening video. All hail the algorithm!

LOVE the lamp, LOVE the Furniture Row #78, had the privilege of watching that company grow from day one, back in 1972.

A crankshaft from a 60 degree V6 with the split crankpins and "Flying arms" between the split would make an awesome lamp. Go look at the crank for a 1MZ-FE - it's a fascinating looking thing.

Always a pleasure to watch your videos. An EDM machine would be a perfect project for the problem with the ball plugs. As these are kind of rare and expensive, another solutions would be to weld a small bolt to the ball and used a sliding hammer to get them out of the way.

It's always tight when youtubers reference other youtubers you would never expect them to know of. All hail the algorithm!

i dont know what it is about watching drill bits break but it just makes me smile, great video!

surely one of the lamps of all time

You rock mate. Especially sense of humour is spot on.

Every time, every time I force myself to watch an obviously boring video from Matt, and it just explodes with so much fun and humor, making me regret not watching it sooner. The man can literally make a "watching paint dry" video and it will be intriguing and unexpected with the commentary.

That part about the neutral & lead wire really caught me off guard. I forgot that some countries have polarized plugs. By the way, as the thing is metal and the cables look like single insulation, wouldn’t a ground lead be a good idea too? Actual question, I’m no electrician but that would be my gut feeling, as I work with grounded everything devices (19” racks and all of the components).

Nice. I made one from the siezed h20 pump from my daughter's boogie van and a piston/con rod from her beloved school bus that had burned to the ground after delivering the children at school, nobody was hurt. Sort of a memorial to her legacy of worn out and destroyed cars along her way. I had forgotten it, so thanks for the memory jog. AHTA!

An oil burning lamp with the oil supply routed through a crankshaft's oil holes would have been cool too! Oil burning lamps probably suck tho..

In case you were to encounter this problem in the future: you can revert a hardened piece of metal (or just a piece of a piece of hardened metal) by heating it up to above 729°c and letting it cool down slowly (unless it's a special kind of steel that hardens in air). In this case, for example, you could've heated the parts you needed to drill through to an orange-y red and just left it on the bench while you took an extended lunch, then you shouldn't have any issues drilling through it afterwards. Source: I am a blacksmith.

I love when you decide to make something yourself and it ends up costing way more than you'd ever spend on that thing. Last year I decided to make my own pocket calculator from a kit, and at the end it cost me almost $200 (cad). Certainly worth it though for a definetaly not pocketable, non scientific, battery powered calculator. (it used mechanical key switches for its buttons that's why I made it)

Using HSS drills on hardened steel was a brave move! Lovely lamp!

High-quality straight-flute tungsten carbide drills. I've run them so hard that they're glowing and shooting sparks, without bricking the bit. As long as the work holding and tool rigidity is sufficient to keep the cut from skipping (which will most likely cause the brittle carbide to chip - quality cutters like Niagara's hold up _way_ better), you'll probably still have a totally usable bit, too... after it cools off.

I'm glad someone with 10x the skills I have also breaks drill bits. Beautiful end product.

Good job. Back in 2016, made a couple lamps out of a ninja crank and another out of a bunch of motorcycle transmission gears for a charity auction. Both sold to the owner of a local racetrack and Wounded Warrior foundation got a donation

A full two seconds into the vid - hey I need a crankshaft lamp ! I of course do not actually need a lamp, but that's what YT seemingly does best.

SuperfastMatt is a Pitch Meeting fan.

Your half assed approach is much better than their full assed approach. Love your work 👍

Matt never half-asses anything. He always fully-asses it.

Get a piston from a ships motor that’s 30cm in diameter and use this as lamp shade. It weighs a metric ton and if you knock it over it destroys the table and the floor, sounds like you might enjoy this feature!

Love Lamp....

This will be super easy … barely an inconvenience. I see what you did there. Love they channel, although it’s been maybe a good year since I last watched one of their videos

FANTASTIC !! I would call it PERSEVERENCE!! after all... with all these efforts... it deserve that name!

I don't know your local electrical code, but as an electrician I would strongly advise you ground the crankshaft so that if you ever damage that cable the whole thing doesn't come live. It's cool, but if it appeared on my desk I'd definitely designate it an unsafe appliance without grounding.

The ol' Murphy's Law: When you have a 50/50 choice, there's a 90 percent chance you will choose wrong! Great vid Matt. It is enjoyable to watch along and think to one's self "you could probably try X but it's probably not the right thing"...then we see you try X and find out it wasn't the right thing to do LOL all the while knowing you were likely thinking the same thing! Nice work.

Blowing a piece of cotton/string with an air line is a really good way of starting a feed through awkward ducts.

Awwwwwwww man, drilling from two directions is TIGHT!

All I'm seeing from the broken bits is a great sales pitch for an 'under designed' EDM machine. I made a really terrible on from a large oil catch pan, swamp cooler water pump, flexible tubing from a Keurig, a small brass tube, an old stick welder and an old Craftsman 'use your own drill' drill press. cut a hole right through a sheared/jammed grade 8 bolt that allowed me to hammer a hardened allen bit in and remove the bolt without drilling.

I'll watch after I dismantle my old 302 or I'll just build one or whatever either way this looks like a great way to brighten the day.

While watching this video I was thinking, wow after so long finally a video. Then I looked at the video tab on channel. RU-vid did not gave me any notification for last 2 videos uploaded even though I have notification bell on. Last video I watched was maximizing garage space...

Nice to some lathing action in this one. I wonder if the lampshade will stay on during the land speed run 🤔? Also, for future reference, I found it a lot easier to make a lamp out of a camshaft 😁. Algorithm. 😎

I’ve always wanted to do this I’m so excited

I've got a lamp I made out of a LS1 Trans Am cam shaft. Has one of the lifters on the end of pull chain. Going to turn the crank into an end table and the block into a coffee table.

That intro just killed me! "....I made a lamp."

you could've used wireless electricity. maybe a laser down from the ceiling to some sort of solar cell thing. seems easier than the drilling.

What an awesome lamp. And you definitely said "thicker" at 6:35. 🤫

I have two lamps made out of pistons and connecting rods. The secret I found to making those is that someone else made them probably about 50 years ago.

Nice lamp, Matt!

Just inherited a lamp my grandfather made during his time in the airforce out of the master connecting rod from a P&W wasp engine.

Toughest thing about making a lamp is finding a good lamp shade. Size, color, light transmission thru it. Still looking for just the right one for the shotgun stock lamp I made.

If you have to feed wire or rope through a narrow winding passage, twisting can make things very easy.

"Super easy, barely an inconvenience" had me laughing out loud. Nice nod! And cool lamp indeed.

What fun. And the added thrill of 7 ways to break a drill bit. Thanks so much...

Next broken crankshaft, may I suggest a low voltage solution? This is so the shaft itself can be used as one wire (negative) and you can fish through a single, super thin wire for the other (positive) side. Then you can be really satisfied by having the wire stay within the shaft all the way! And frustrated with a power supply instead of a simple plug. Ah, the joys of perfectionism.

Heat the Crankshaft red hot then slowly cool it overnight. When I made mine I threw it in a wood stove and left it overnight. By morning it was annealed soft steel. Easy to drill.

2:10 wowowowowowow

'fraaa-geeee-leeeey, must be french.'

Dear Matt, I’m starting to think that your automotive work isn’t really the point here. What makes you tick is what I would call “car-themed exhibitionist self-flagellation”. I’m all here for it. Love the lamp 💡

The way to get the ball out is to grind around it to mostly remove the crimp, then bang it out from the back. Used to have to do that the 1.6L VW cranks to clean out the swarf.

I would love to do this with a Miata crankshaft, but hopefully I can't use mine for a little while 😂

I like this thing you made. Here, have some engagement. All hail the algorithm.

Your channel is definitively underrated.

I'm surprised this didn't devolve into trying to construct a home made disintegrator (there's such a thing) or EDM machine (as others have mentioned), or at least borrowing a plasma cutter to get those channels clear.

That has all the attractions of a lamprey.

"Good enough for now" will at least last a decade. There's nothing more permanent than a (good) temporary solution

I love these free projects, fyi I bought from west elm a lamp my wife wanted and it cost a lot more than $257..... plus you can take back those extra lamp shades... unless you are going to make more lamps.... All Hail the Algorithm!

The obvious thing to do is run wires to the base and electrify the whole thing, it will work great providing you don't have kids, pets,wife,housekeeper or visitors.

To Quote Space Jam "'s shit remake" All hail Al G Rhythm!

Welcome to the Ryan-verse Matt. It's barely an inconvenience to have you.

You could snake a cable through those 45 degree turns by first snaking through a bit of fishing line with a small bit of fishing lead on it, just twist and turn the crankshaft to send it through. Then tie cable to the fishing line and pull.

Ha. We can work on that later which means it's done. Also, there's some stuff other hot rodders use on bare metal called "T-9" for rust protection. No idea which is better.

7:03 nice

Harden steel drills really easy when it's glowing cherry red. Pretty sure a lamp could handle the weakened area. Just my .02

Illuminating!

yes, I do love lamp

I was just about to comment “I love lamp” and then I saw the very end of the video 🤣🤣

The spot where you had to exit the crank and leave the wire exposed externally would have been a GREAT spot for a switch. Turn the design flaw into a feature.

As Brick Tamland would say - "I love lamp" Edit: Dang nabbit - should have waited till the end of the video before posting!

can't believe you have now 276k subs. I think that by donating 1 dollar each we could totally finance your next free lamp project.

Having a being oil burning lamp would be somewhat poetic for that crankshaft...

Sweet. I made one years ago out of a Saab B204 camshaft and sprocket.

Cool lamp

Huh, no joke, I just thought about this earlier you today as I was lathing. Cool!

How did I miss this ? .. oh its 16 minutes old. Matt is life. Well, entertaining anyway

Ooooo More Porsche shade! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Now you need a floor lamp made from an old Jag V-12 crankshaft.

Cranks are through hardened alloy steel with a thin [.002/.004"] nitrided surface. Even drilling thru the 320HB core is difficult.

Can't drill through a hardened steel ball bearing. Carbide locksmiths drill bits: hold my beer.

All hail the algorithm. Remember it's 50/50, 90. Whenever it's a 50/50 guess, 90% of the time it will be guessed wrong. -Murphy

"Bring A Trailer" should be renamed "Bring A 53' Semi-Tractor's Trailer Full of Cash".

Beautiful lamp

Is this video testing the waters for new merchandise? Matt the Lampmaker has a nice ring to it.

Now you can add another feather to your cap 😊 ¡All hail the algorithm!