Testing 10 Viral DIY Tips – Fake or Real?

Look, Tik Tok is a young man's game, so I'm not really interested in it. But what I am interested is testing the top viral construction Tik Toks to see if they actually work or they're complete bust and a waste of time. Let's get into it. All right, first up, 1.6 million views. He's got a wire. He's tracing it around the baseboards and the trim. Traced it on the tile and then just cut it with the tile and fits perfectly. So, the idea seems pretty straightforward. You're using the wire itself as a template to bend it into place. All those weird little grooves. Uh, no math calculations. And then you trace it and cut it with a angle grinder and a tile saw. However, I'm a little hesitant about it. It's a wire tends to bend. So even when you got it there, you don't know if it's a perfect 90 from one side to the end of the cut. I don't have any wire on hand, but I have a long piece of strapping here, so it'll bend the same exact way as wire would. Got my piece of tile here. I'm not doing any kind of tile work at the house, but we're still going to do this example. We're just going to not that easy to trace. My concern is the fact that these are not 90. So, you kind of don't have a reference mark. But, we're going to make this cut out to just kind of hug in there for science reasons. Yeah, looks all right. I missed this little groove here, but I don't know if it was a false bend or not, but let's go check it out. All right, moment of truth. Yep. As expected, the outer pieces of the metal is what really screws you over here. Now, in the situation of this is, you know, to go underneath the baseboard, uh, and maybe if you trimmed underneath here and underneath the jam, sure, it could work, but there's way too many variations here. I mean, even down middle, we're off by, I don't know, a quarter there, a quarter there, and the middle is h it's halfway decent. So, my conclusion on this, absolute garbage. There's so much better jigs out there that have micro adjustments and reference marks that far better off spending money that's 15 bucks and using a piece of wire around the house. All right, this one doesn't have a lot of views. It's 45,000 views, but he's got a spoon taped to it. What? He's spreading the coaul with the spoon attached to it. So, this one's kind of nice. So, the way he's got it positioned, the spoon is caving out. So, you're scooping out all the coaul versus get spreading it all over the place. I think this works. The only thing I'm hesitant about is how tight of a grout line that is that's finished. Cuz that looks that looks like 38 of an inch thick. I mean, I got a spoon, I got a caulk, and I got a cocking gun. So, let's let's see what if this actually works. So, I got a little teaspoon here for all the tea parties at the home. Um, got a fresh caulk. Got my cocking gun. Uh, in the video looks like about an eighth to 3/8 of an inch of gap there. And it has to be scooped this way cuz you have to scoop the caulk away. So, let's see. We're going to simulate here. This is, let's say, our baseboard or maybe a countertop and backsplash. And you need to seal it. So, okay, that's too much. Let me try going a little bit less. Angle it down. And I'm pressing into it. Okay, that's complete horse crap. Did it do the job? Yes. I was right. It's too thick of a bead. That's going to look horrible on your kitchen countertops or baseboards. And still, the way it turned out, you still have to use the old finger, push it in, and wipe it off. I think this is a dumb party trick that doesn't work at all. We wasted probably a really good spoon. This looks like dog crap. It's just a dumb idea. Don't This is a complete bust. Don't do this ever. All right, next up. 35 million views. He's got drywall mud on two trowels and he's taping it. He's being a savant with those trowels. I mean, he's a damn ninja. Uh, that's pretty damn smooth. He's not using typical hawk and trowel. He's just using trowel and trow. That looks slick. You know what? This Tik Tok stuff, it makes me feel old sometimes. Like I don't really consume that much content on TikTok. Maybe it's an age thing. I'm 37 now. I just had my hair transplant done. I went to Turkey to do it. They punctured holes in my skull, took a bunch of graphs, in fact 4,300 graphs to be specific, and then shot them with needles into my scalp right here. And uh I mean, it's looking it's looking better. I mean, you could see all those little follicles in there. [Music] I mean, if you're interested in getting a hair transplant because of age or whatever, uh, I say do it, man. I'm I'm glad I went and did it. I'm optimistic now. Uh, can't wear hats for a little bit, so you'll see me looking a little silly on camera, but I don't know. It's one of those things that over time you kind of reclaim your youth. You know what I mean? You have kids, you focus on yourself, and then now you you get to go, okay, let's get in shape. Let's get our hair back and uh let's figure out things that make us happy. And here we are doing things that make us happy. But if you're interested for any reason on my Instagram, I have a little section for my story highlights. I've documented the entire process from flying in to how I got around to the whole dayto-day process. If you're interested, go check it out. It's a fun watch. the the procedure is kind of gnarly, but back to the video. Seems pretty simple. I got all the stuff on hand. Uh let me throw some drywall up and uh go from there. I have mud here already. This sucks trying to get it out of your little tray, but got my second tel. This is what he was doing. I like this part cuz I think it's better than the Hawin tel. I'm not very coordinated with them, but I like this already. You're mixing in. Oh, flinging mud everywhere. Okay, so he went like this. He went [Music] Yeah, I love this part. This is actually sick. Making a mess over here. All right. [Music] Okay. And then what did he do? Did he go like this? [Music] That's actually freaking working. This is working actually. Then we go. Well, setting this down is in that back in there. Okay. Hold it in place on top. What the freak? [Music] I don't know. I feel like I have more finesse with this than I do on a regular triel. And what I like about it, you're already hitting it with a super wide what, like 10 incher. And what I'm envisioning is you're already maybe saved yourself one step of the tri. But also, I mean, the fact that you can mix it like this, apply it, and just spread it out. That's I'm going to put this one in my back pocket. I I think from now on now on I'm going to use this method, not just regular drywall knives. It even feels the screw holes really well. Okay. Oh, yeah. That's what he did, too. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. I would do this for sure. Solid tip. Nice on you, whoever came up with this. Awesome. All right, so this one looks like a tape trick uh to get measurements inside doorways or any kind of area where you have to bend your tape measure. It's very annoying to do that. You don't get the right number. It could be off by like a quarter inch sometimes. Uh so you just what? You just butt it up to the wall. Okay. Interesting. So on the bottom of it, so at the bottom of it looks like there's a number at the bottom. So that number just add it to whatever. His is I guess 2 and 7/8. So you get your measurements, you butt it up against, get your measurements, add that number that's below and uh makes it easier without bending the the tape measure and getting more accurate readings. Well, hell, I got plenty of tape measures. Let's try it. Got my trusty Stanley power lock here. Looking on the back here, we have plus 3 in side to side here. So we're going to come here. We're going to measure this outside doorway. So, we're only adding 3 in after we see what we got here. So, I got 27 and 7/8 plus 3 and 7/8. Now, how do we verify this? Uh, my way that I learned from somebody to have like detailed measurements before I learned about this trick, instead of bending it in like this to get the number, what you could do is measure one side. You could pick a number that's easy for you. Like, uh, I don't know, we'll go we'll just make it easy. So, we'll go plus three. Make our little mark there. And all we're doing is measuring from here to that plus three. I got 29 and 1/4 + 3. What is that? 32 and 1/4. Hold on. That doesn't make sense. 32 and 1/4. And this is saying 27 and 7/8 + 3 is 30 and 7/8. I don't know. Am I doing this wrong? I was off by a solid inch. I know what an inch looks like. Hold on. 3 in. >> All right. This one should be That's 3 in. >> Okay. >> Right there. >> Almost. >> What about a quarter? >> It's pretty close. 12. >> Okay. This one actually is deceiving. A little bit longer. Uh trying to put my foot up there. I'm a size 12 shoe. All right. Uh lock it in. A still off by two. I suck at this. Oh yeah, my shoe is way bigger than that. That's 12 and a half. Well, he's got big feet and I suck at reading tape measures. I guess that's the moral of the story. I got to get to the bottom of this. I know I'm doing something wrong. So, I'm going to use my other tape measure to see if that number is correct. So, it it is indeed 3 in. So if we come here and the actual reading is 79 in. But if we butt this up just to where it ends, we are sharp at 76 + 3 is 79. So it works. I just don't understand why my doorway wasn't working. This legitimately works. I'm an idiot, but uh at least we know it works. So keep it in the toolbox. But, uh, I definitely prefer my method where you just add a few inches, measure, and then you should be good to go. There you have it, folks. All right, moving on. This is a good one cuz this is a framing tip, and I always am looking for framing advice just cuz I'm not that great on it, and uh, anything that'll make my life easier will be helpful. So, let's see here. What? He's taking an angle grinder to a speed square. What is he doing? Oh, he's like, why is he making a notch? Some speed square has have like a little divot hole for the pilot, but >> that's all you need. >> So he made a little 45 or a little just a little notch in there. >> We already ground out the >> reason that we do that is so that you can find a perfect horizontal line because like >> so that this is in case the wall is not perfectly level or flush or plum, I guess. Um and you're trying to get like a true vertical line that you can reference for your horizontal line. Um, so he's holding the triangle upside down, hanging the chalk line off of it, lining up to 45 degrees. At that point, you could snap it, I guess, but you got your perfect horizontal, then you can trace your vertical. I think he's using specifically for horizontal. Um, I don't know if this is that great of a hack just because I have an alternative way to do that. I just don't know if it's accurate. So, let's try it. Let me get my speed square. So, I got to put it at like a 45. [Music] I have my notched speed square. I have my string. I don't have my chalk line with me. It's in my trailer, but I just put some washers for weight. Put it on that little notch. Get it to lined up to 45° right there. And we have our perfect horizontal line. But you can also use this for a vertical line. But here's my objection. Uh if you wanted a vertical line, you could just do this. Let gravity do its thing. And if you wanted a horizontal line instead of modifying your tools, you could just do that. That looks more accurate. That one's hiding. This one's up about a 16th of an inch. All right. So, my final thoughts is if you're trying to get a nice vertical line uh on a big wall that you don't have like a 6ft level on hand, then this method works fantastic. However, he's selling us on the fact that this is for a horizontal line. But if it's for a horizontal line, wouldn't this be a better option than only dealing with like 10 in of a speed square? So, I say it's bogus. I don't think it's useful. I don't see a day-to-day application unless you have no level near you and you need to hang a picture frame with archaic jigs, I guess. But, uh, that's my final thoughts on that one. Let's see what the next one looks like. This is to get a good alignment with the door catch um, bolt or anything you have. Strike plates. Those are annoying. A lot of doors I've had in previous houses, they don't line up. So, he just put a little pencil mark on it. I've seen this kind of been done with lipstick. You just do the same thing with lipstick and it traces the perfect thing. Um, let's try it. I don't have misaligned doors, but let's see if it lines up with the strike plate just to see that it actually does work. So, like I said, I don't have any misaligned doors, so this is going to catch perfectly. But the tracing should show up on my little strike plate just to confirm that the pencil trick works. I know that the edge is the most important part, but this is like stainless steel. It's all polished, so it's really hard to get anything on there. Trying to Let's see where it lines up on the strike plate. [Applause] I don't see anything showing up. Nothing at all. Let me try the lipstick method that I've seen happen. I'm going to go steal some from my wife. Don't tell her. All right. So, I found some uh MAC, which I know it's an expensive brand lipstick for my wife. She's just around the corner. She doesn't know I took this. So, I'm pretty confident she's not going to watch this episode. So, just keep this one between us. Let's try this. [Applause] [Music] All right. So, this method worked perfectly. I see it right over here. It didn't carry it across, but if this strike plate wasn't there, it would rub. I think a little bit further down on the wood itself, this little uh door jamb itself. But we have an alignment on top here that we can just trace out and seeing that this trick actually works perfectly. On to the next one. Let's see what kind of chaos we get ourselves into. PVC pipe and a string. >> We got a piece of PVC pipe and you ain't got nothing to cut it with. >> We're going to be cut through pipe with just string. Why would you be cutting PVC pipe with a string? >> Just because you can, I guess. Um maybe if you were in a weird under basement thing trying to get to your plumbing and you can't get a saw in there. I I can't imagine any scenario needing it. But I also I don't know if this is going to work to be honest with you. But let's try it. I'm actually curious how long this will take. So I got my timer right here that I'm going to start once I'm all set up here. So pinch that off right there. Holy crap, it's cutting into it. What? Well, broke the string. This is crazy. I'm also using thicker PVC. I think he was using like 3/4 in, maybe 1 in. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Woo! That actually worked. I'm winded. Oh Uh, a minute 7 seconds. Decent cut. Pretty good. Easy alignment. Rip the string two times. But damn, it worked. Keep that one maybe in your toolbox. Again, awkward spaces. You can't really get in there. Give it a try. But I'd still probably worst case scenario use like a multi-oscillating tool. It'll be a hack job, but probably easier than this. But damn. Freaking learn something new every day. Oh, this is Jeff Thorman. That's uh >> DIY renovations >> all over this place. >> Drywall patch. Okay. Mud. Done that. Well, if you put it like that, it's going to bubble out. I've done that. It bubbled out. He's pressing it in. Interesting. Counter the bubble out. Put more mud. Come on, Jeeoff. I know you got better than that. Oh, piece over it. Keep it from bubbling out. Stronger bond. All right, Jeff. Let's give this one a whirl. Don't disappoint me, Jeff. I need you on this one. I need you. All right, Jeff. Don't let us down. Let's get some mud on there. He just caked it in there. So far, as expected. Then he did one of these. Oh, okay. Then we got to push it in. Okay, that should be a good push. And then we cake it. Rip that off. Put another one over. Mud it over. Okay, let's see if it bubbles out. Well, holy smokes, Jeff. You did not let us down. This thing is not bubbling up. It's got a good solid sandwich, two layers of tape. I mean, this sucker works. I'm definitely going to use it going forward. Most of the stuff, whether it's the mesh, whether it's just single piece of tape, it's always bubbled up on me. This has been here for about 2 minutes now. It's flawless. Absolutely flawless. Jeffrey, you're a wizard. All right. 12 million views. Okay. Hacking off PVC pipe. Looks like it's going to like a reducer. He's boring it out. I've seen these tools. They're called like PVC pipe savers or something like that. Bores it out completely. Fits perfectly. I've always been curious to try this one. I've never tried it. In fact, I just ordered the tool and it just showed up on Amazon. In situations where you just need to change a fitting, this has been ideal cuz you don't have to cut off and backtrack and do different fittings to get it all back together. You literally cut one piece and reuse the transition. So, let's try it. We have our little example piece, 90 degree elbow that we're going to try to salvage. We'll hack this off. And like promised, Amazon 15 bucks. You have to buy each individual, you know, bit, but you can get a kit for I think 60. So, it's got all these blades on there. They look like they're replaceable. I don't know where you'd buy them. It's got a stop on it. Um, that's how it should look. So you know exactly how far to go, I guess. I don't know. Never used it. No instructions. All right. Classic plumbing scenario. Doesn't look like there's any settings. Throw that in here. Just kind of sits in there. All right. surprisingly very easy to control the the bit like not wobbling, not moving around on you. But the big question is, does it fit a new piece? Moment of truth. [Music] [Applause] [Music] That's a snug fit. This legitimately works. I'm buying all of these bits. Why have I waited so freaking long? That's freaking awesome. That's going to make my life easier. In fact, if you're doing your sprinklers and you're using PVC, some areas do that. Awesome thing to keep in your tool belt. Get just appropriate whatever bit attachment to it. I'm throwing all my money at this thing. That's a huge win. Huge, huge win. Well, some of these things worked and some of them definitely did not work. Let me know in the comment section which one's your favorite and what should we test next.