Hot Off The Hydraulic Press

A new category for my blog is Useful Knowledge, which are things that I have found that are very useful in the knowledge department.

Hydraulic Press Channel has over 3 million subscribers.

If you can get past Lauri’s strong Finnish accent (he is from Finland), the channel is rather interesting. Basically, he crushes things with his 140-ton hydraulic press. The YouTube channel is run by Lauri Vuohensilta and his wife Anni and was filmed in his workshop at Tampere, Finland.

The channel got its start in 2015 when Lauri tried to fold a piece of paper more than 7 times (which if you don’t know, is impossible) using one of his hydraulic presses, the paper actually exploded. That video went viral and the rest is history. Lauri describes the channel as where we do the craziest experiments, stunts, and builds that we can think of. Described many times as a Mythbuster without the myths holding us back.

Since that first video, Lauri and his wife have crushed things like golf balls, a book, a deck of cards, a hockey puck, Legos, and a Nokia 3310 phone (which is the phone that the “can’t be destroyed” lore is from). Lauri has also crushed things like bolts, ball bearings, and hammers. If you see something on social media being crushed by a hydraulic press, it is likely Lauri pulling the level on the press.

Many of the videos are as funny as they are interesting to watch. They also operate the “Behind the Press” channel, which is behind-the-scenes shots from the main channel along with a bunch of other great videos, like “Exploding Broken Down Tesla Model S”.