Weekend Watch: Utkan Şenyüz is a Maker and “Master of None”

We cover a lot of different makers’ video channels here and most of them are centered on one subject: Woodworking, electronics, robots, food hacking, survival skills, etc. One video category that is not as popular or as celebrated is the Jack/Jill of All Trades general making/fixing/repairing channels. These are often done by a couple and the videos simply document any encounter with making in their lives, from building furniture for the house, repairing appliances, and gardening to holiday costumes and decoration projects, learning electronics, and miscellaneous tinkering and crafting.

One such generalist YouTuber is Illinois maker Utkan Şenyüz and his “Master of None” channel. The brief for Utkan’s “Master of None” channel is simple. He video-documents “fixing, building, creating, and troubleshooting the many things we come across in our daily lives.” The result is a wide array of videos, published over the last year since the launch, covering everything from building various pieces of furniture for the house, to equipment repairs, to car hacks, to fun, more exploratory projects like a teardown of a Double Robotics telepresence robot.

Here are a few of my favorite projects that Utkan has done so far.

In this video, the channel’s first, Utkan makes a unique frame for one of Jimmy DiResta’s limited edition letterpress posters with one of Jimmy’s chief edicts on it: “If it looks straight, it is straight.”

I like his intro to this one: “I wanted to make a woodworking project and finish it in two days. Two months later I am done!” Note how, in this and other videos, he uses a utility knife to make his marks, not a pencil. This tip was shared in an Andy Birkey “Gimme a Minute” tips video and included here on Make: on one of my “Tips of the Week” columns.

Utkan found this Ikea lamp in the dumpster and decided to turn it into a swing-arm mount for his camera.