IamA 3M YouTuber: Grant Thompson - "The King of Random" AMA!

Congrats on 3 Million subscribers! Long time watcher! My question is, How did you aquire the know how to do all these videos? With the recent metal casting video, do you have any history in the areas that you showcase in your videos or is it truly something that any person could do?

Thanks for your support :) Half the reason I make the videos, is to learn about them. I'm experimenting and learning everyday, so each project video is kind of a journey of what I've been playing around with, and what I've learned. Every day is a chance to explore something new, and with the metal casting, welding and rockets, they are all projects I've learned from scratch.

What was your job before YouTube?

Many many things. I was a professional motor coach operator driving luxury tour busses across the country. I worked on the oil rigs as a rough-neck, and in the seismic fields in Canada before that. I drove tanker trucks for awhile, then started a real estate business, and became a commercial airline pilot. YouTube wasn’t supposed to be a job, but it’s pretty much consumed my life. Good thing I enjoy doing it because it’s a lot of work! :)

Did anything ever go terribly wrong with an experiment?

Did anything ever go terribly wrong with an experiment?

Things do go wrong very frequently, but I’m usually expecting them to. I try and approach every project as if it’s going to fail terribly, so that when it does I don’t get hurt. 2 months ago though, I just about cut half my pointer finger off. Surprisingly it wasn’t on a project. It was in the kitchen with a bread knife. Life is funny that way!

What do you feel was the hardest part on your journey to 3m subscribers? Did you involve specific marketing techniques to achieve your current status? Congrats!

Good question. The hardest part has been the whole journey actually. Always trying to give 110% even at times I’ve been very discouraged and thought it would make more sense just to give up. It doesn't get any easier either, but I suppose that's how we grow? :)

Will you ever make a video on rockets not including KNO3 or chemicals? Thanks, a person in a country with no KNO3.

If you don't have access to KNO3, maybe you could try water rockets?

Do you have a ultimate goal for your channel?

Do you have a ultimate goal for your channel?

That is a fantastic question! Not so much a goal for my channel, but a goal for me. I’m energized by hard work, learning, and exploring. YouTube gives me motivation to push myself to greater heights, invent, modify and create. And all these things make me feel alive, so I just plan to keep doing them and see where this all leads. Of course 10,000,000 subscribers by the end of the year would be great as well, so let’s put that on the list? :D

What project do you think was the most fun to do?

What project do you think was the most fun to do?

Every project is really exciting to me for different reasons, so they have all been my favorites. Recently though, the Laser Blowgun has been one of my favorites, because it was a project I did with my 5 year old, and really came out of nowhere, and materialized into something really awesome :)

Whats your day job?

Can you please stop the Quick Clip videos?

I used to fly daily as an airline pilot. I moved to the night shift 3 years ago so I could work on projects and videos during the day, but making videos takes all my time, so I don’t really fly much anymore. I spend 8-12 hours/day every day working on projects and videos now.

Is it hard not to answer those Youtube comments that you really, really don't like?

Great question :) Sometimes it is, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe if they understood things a bit differently, they would have a different opinion.

How do you come up with ideas for your videos?

How do you come up with ideas for your videos?

I get this question a lot, and there is no easy answer. Some projects are inspired by dreams I’ve had since being a kid, some are inspired by books, some by my parents, others by things my kids want to do, and some from projects I’ve seen on the internet. In every video I post, the description has extra information on where the inspiration for that specific project came from, and more information and history on how it developed.

I ran into you at the home depot a few weeks back, my kids followed you around the store trying to get a picture. My little stalker kids flooded me with a million questions about how you make the show. Is it possible to do behind the scenes episode showing how you put an episode together? Are you a one man crew or do you have others working for you?

Haha I remember that. I was getting materials for the Blowgun Project. Did you see that one? :) Yes, I'm a one man crew and if I had time to do BTS I would, but I can't see a way to make it work yet.

Do you get injured sometimes doing your projects, and if you did what is the wost injury you had?

I got a sunburn from the arc welder project. I wasn't expecting that

Hi there, what will be the next cool project you will make?

A mini arc furnace that can melt rocks :) But that's a secret for now!

I've been really wanting to launch a channel. Money info seems really hard to come by, often with huge approximations. Realizing that this isn't necessarily representative of other channels, could you give us a ballpark number of what you make from YouTube monthly or annually?

Money from YouTube does vary a lot and there a lot of factors, but if your content is clean, no copyright violations, and the people who are watching your videos aren't running AdBlock, you could probably expect somewhere between half a penny to 2 pennies for every 10 people that watch a video. It's pathetically low, so you'll need millions of views per month just to make a living. I hope that doesn't sound harsh .. that's just reality.

Hey Grant - love the videos! You are an inspiration to the do-it-yourself-ers!!!!

One question about the foundry: have you melted the crucible? And if yes, how is that prevented?

Thanks!!

Yes I have melted many. I tried using small propane canisters at first, but melted through them in a hurry, losing a lot of my aluminum. This help spawn the new design of the foundry to where I can recover all the liquid metal when that happens. The STEEL fire extinguisher has worked great for me. I did burn through one of them, but that's because I tried using lump charcoal which got a lot hotter. Your best bet is to get a clay or graphite crucible off the internet. I showcased the fire extinguisher because it's something you could use if there was no internet.

Were there any projects you got half way through but never ended up finishing?

Were there any projects you got half way through but never ended up finishing?

I have hundreds of projects in the queue, and usually 5-10 I’m constantly playing or experimenting with. Some of them get put on hold for years, but my hope is to finish them all. I’m going as fast as I can, but they will all get done eventually :)

[deleted]

Who inspired you to start youtube, and when did you start taking youtube seriously?

Of course it was Kipkay and his videos with Make magazine. I was trying to learn about how things worked, and he seemed to have the only watchable video format for YouTube. So when I started developing projects of my own, I used Kipkay as an inspiration and example until I could develop my own style and find my own voice. HouseholdHacker also became a great inspiration for me as well.

What was the thing that got you started on Youtube?

Also, what is your opinion on rice?

Random question! I love rice, especially with soy sauce. I can eat it just like that, with nothing else.

Dogs or cats?

Neither

Hey grant, I love your videos! How do you come up with so many different/random projects to try? How often do you try something you end up not using? If so what was it?? And how much did that sword end up weighing?

Loved the foam rocket video, had me rolling with "the bigger one" lol

I'm glad you liked that :) The sword was 691 grams, and won by Anthony Wagner from Virginia who guessed 690.2 grams. I have loads of projects I haven't been able to make videos about yet, but I've got goals and hopes I can start producing them sooner rather than later.

Hi Grant,

Do you edit your videos yourself? if so how long would you spend editing each one?

Hi Matt. Yes everything you see is from me. Graphics, video, projects, description, annotations. Everything. It's a heavy workload, and I typically spend 40-80 hours on editing, with another 80-120 hours on developing the project and filming it.

What does your kids think about your videos (if they watch them) and react to your projects?

What about your wife?

They all seem to love them. We usually have a family viewing of a video before I upload it where we all sit together and watch. Most of the time they are pretty riveted. Which is really impressive because they don't have much of an attention span to begin with. My wife loves my videos even if she doesn't have any interest in the project.

Hey, Congrats on the 3 million subs! I am one of your followers and your videos are always entertaining and informative!

Anyway, I was wondering if there is any experiments or projects you would like to do, but cant due to funding, regulations, or just magnitude of the test?

Thanks for the videos, and good luck with your channel and passion!

Good question. I try to keep my projects on the smaller side so they are more relatable. Bigger isn't always better for me. I'm more interested in concepts and scaled down models, because they are safer, cheaper, and still very educational. Maybe one day I'll be interested in really big projects, but that doesn't appeal to me at this point. Thanks!

[deleted]

I was constantly playing with experiments and projects that my friends and family all seemed to be inspired by, and YouTube was starting to become a popular way to share videos, so I thought it would be fun to start posting some unique ideas and see if the rest of the world would like them as well. I had to learn how to start video editing because I wanted to make the best quality I could. Hopefully I’m getting better at them one video at a time.

[deleted]

They probably think I spend too much time at my computer. Other than that, it's one of the greatest things that could have happened to us. :)

Hey, I love your videos!

You are one of my best YouTubers and find your videos unique... in a good way! :)

One of my questions is, why dont i win anything? I am from Kenya, East Africa and dont win anything. Do people win because they submit their e-mail many times to rig the vote or do you choose randomly? I really want one of your cool DIY's to keep as a collection and maybe make a replica.

Thanks!

I use random.org to choose randomly from a spreadsheet of everyone who submits. It's completely random, but there are a lot of people who submit, so it's just a game of chance like the lottery I guess. Keep trying! :)

Are there any projects you wanted to undertake, but they turned out too complicated?

Are there any projects you wanted to undertake, but they turned out too complicated?

Yes, the arc furnace was one of them. But anything too complicated right now, just means I need to learn a bit more about it first, so I can uncomplicated it and finish the project.

What was it like watching your popularity soar like it has recently?

Also the aluminum foundry was amazing thank you for showing us how to make that and the tutorials that came with it!

What was it like watching your popularity soar like it has recently? Also the aluminum foundry was amazing thank you for showing us how to make that and the tutorials that came with it!

You’re welcome for the metal foundry :) Growing the channel is a roller coaster of emotions. It’s blown away my wildest dreams, and at the same time made me wonder how big this can go. Ultimately though, I started the channel as an outlet for me to showcase things I’m passionate and learning about, so I try to keep the blinders on, and just keep doing projects and videos without the distraction of fame or popularity. I consider myself a pretty normal guy and don’t feel like anybody particularly special.

Alright awesome! So I've literally sat here for 8 hours straight answering your questions, and it's been awesome with over 1,300 comments. I'm going to try and compile all the most frequently asked questions into an FAQ sheet, but for anyone who missed it, you can still get on and read everything that happened here. You all are great, and I'm really looking forward to having you on this journey to the next million .. or 10M!? Thank you! :D