[mellow music]
‐ You don't have an exercise machine at home, do you?
‐ I do have a treadmill.
‐ Use it for decorative stuff at home?
You don't ever use it, do you?
‐ I do use it because you have to get your heart rate up.
‐ Do you? ‐ You do.
‐ Yeah? ‐ I mean, at least you should.
My heart starts racing whenever I talk with you.
‐ That's right.
‐ You are my elliptical machine.
‐ It's anaerobic workout.
‐ [laughs]
‐ Here we go. [saw buzzing]
‐ Yeah, baby!
[laughs]
Hi, I'm Tim Allen.
If there's one thing I love,
it's people who build things
and hanging out with them.
All right, that's two things.
So I invited three incredible makers
to compete from their own shops.
They'll be creating mind‐blowing builds
from cool stuff that I send them,
all for a cash prize.
‐ I'm coming for ya!
‐ I've asked my ride or die, Richard Karn,
and our resident expert, April Wilkerson,
to have fun with me as these makers
design, build, compete, and of course, add more power.
Oh‐ho‐ho.
What could go wrong?
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa! ‐ Whoa!
‐ Except for maybe that. ‐ Oh!
‐ This is "Assembly Required."
[rock music]
♪ ♪
All right. I got everything ready.
How are you doing today? ‐ Great.
I‐I can't wait!
‐ No more coffee for Richard Karn.
For the love of God, no more coffee.
Over. ‐ Copy.
‐ [laughs] ‐ Okay.
Let's go meet who we have today.
‐ Let's go to the videotape.
‐ My name's Evan Collier.
I am the owner for ARCH Production & Design NYC.
Currently, I live in Nyack.
An 8,000 square foot warehouse of creativity.
♪ ♪
2006, I moved to New York,
and I started building commercial artwork,
hundreds of projects for major brands around the worl.
I can weld, I can solder, I can design.
I am stoked to be on this show,
and I'm gonna kill it.
‐ All right.
‐ Evan, he's got a lot of skill sets.
That's a formidable challenger right there.
Next up.
‐ My name is Charles Kern, and I'm from Denver, Colorad.
I'm the owner and founder of Chrome Yellow Corp.
We are a company that specializes
in taking old school buses
and turning them into off‐grid RVs, tiny houses.
I've even turned a bus into a traveling hat factory.
The work that I do, it's got electrical systems,
propane and diesel systems.
Every day, I spend my time
taking old things and breathing new life into them.
‐ Right there. That's your mission, Tim.
You love taking old stuff and making it into new.
‐ Hasn't worked with you. ‐ [laughs]
‐ I'm a big freak for old buses and RVs,
so there's a little bit of camaraderie right there.
I wanna see Jon from Waco.
‐ My name is Jon Dawson. I'm from Waco, Texas.
I own my own construction company.
We do remodels, new construction,
anything that requires skilled labor.
I did a 1940s house
and brought it back to its former glory.
Finish work is probably my specialty.
I can make a house look immaculate with finish work.
Tim and Richard, I really hope to show you
the creativity that I have.
And I hope to blow you away.
‐ It's a big competition, man.
‐ Well, he takes all those old craftsman style houses‐‐
‐ Repurposes and gets creative with it.
Very exciting to watch these guys.
‐ Okay, well, let's go live and meet our builders.
Gentlemen, can you hear us?
‐ I can hear you. ‐ Yes.
‐ Makers, welcome to "Assembly Required."
I'm Richard Karn.
‐ And I'm bestselling author Tim Allen.
Hard to believe that people actually used to do that, read.
‐ You are some of the best makers in this country.
And we are giving you the chance to prove it
by building some amazing things from scratch.
It's great to see that you're all
working from your own shops.
It gives you a chance to sneak off to the fridge
for a little snack to keep you on the right path.
‐ So here's the catch.
You gotta work with what we send you.
‐ Yes.
But only two of you will take on
our final challenge.
The winner gets a cash prize,
and of course, the right to brag.
‐ "Right to brag."
You just made bragging sound lame.
‐ No. ‐ You win.
You get to talk smack. There.
‐ [laughs]
‐ Let's talk about exercise, right?
There's only one way to keep building stuff
well into your 90s: you gotta stay in shape.
Someone bring me some IcyHot.
‐ [laughs] ‐ [laughs]
‐ In the second round, two of you will attempt to build
a space‐saving multifunctional treadmill exercise machine.
But first, the Make or Break Challenge.
‐ Mm‐hmm.
‐ We gotta see what you're made of.
You're going to build a treadmill base.
During the test, at the end of round one,
you're going to have to run on it.
So it better work like greased lightning.
It's gotta be strong, smooth, and steady.
‐ Like me.
Richard is best at two of those three.
‐ [laughs]
‐ We have sent you a mystery crate of items
that will test your skills as America's best builders.
You will have 90 minutes
to build an item of your choosing
using any or all of the items we've shipped
and the resources in your own shop.
Use your ingenuity.
Some of these items work better than others.
But it's up to you to figure that out.
When the time is up, we'll look at your work,
and we'll put it to the test.
And you'll be judged on three criteria:
quality, design, and functionality.
We will be watching your progress
every step of the way, and you'll be able to hear u,
but only if we want you to.
At the end, Tim and I will deliberate,
and unfortunately, one of you will be eliminated.
‐ Eliminated.
You'll be banished from the planet Earth
and all the known universe. No, that's too much.
‐ Makers, your shipments have arrived.
You have 90 minutes.
Your time starts right now.
♪ ♪
‐ We got plywood.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ Look at that. They're just dumping it out.
‐ I like that.
‐ Look at everything we sent them in that crate.
You would think this challenge is gonna be
straightforward and easy, but let me tell you, it's no.
They can use anything in their shop.
In that 90 minutes, they have to build this treadmill base‐‐
leaves no room for error.
[light music]
‐ This is the bearing roller.
This is what the axles are gonna run on.
This is gonna be the treadmill. The actual belt.
[drill whirring]
‐ Jon goes right away structural
'cause he's more in the building trade.
‐ So this is gonna be my top portion,
which means I'm gonna want
a little bit of a front piece here.
The time frame of 90 minutes is going to be insanely difficult
because, I mean, usually, I'll take 90 minutes
just to plan something out.
♪ ♪
I hope those are right,
'cause they're not gonna be able to come out.
‐ Just immediately all these different ways to go.
‐ Jon is going with a 2x4 for his frame
and a single sheet of plywood for his base.
You got a question how that's gonna affect the treadmill.
Remember, guys, you got 90 minutes,
not a lot of time for this treadmill base.
‐ The plan right now is to construct a wooden base
using a dado channel to hold some plywood,
which I'll put my nonstick surface on
that the belt will ride on.
And at the ends, I'll have the keyed rods
riding into pillow blocks tht will be bolted to the ends
that are supporting the plywood base
of the treadmill.
So right now,
I am just doubling up the thickness on my base.
Little glue, little schmoo, a dab will do ya.
‐ You know, I like that thicker base.
Bigger is gonna work better here, I think.
Charles, how are you gonna keep the treadmill pad itself
from riding left to right?
[tense music]
‐ Uh, I can use these washers
you guys gave me to kind of dial in
to the parallelity, if that's a word.
‐ All right, buddy. Have at it.
[nail gun thudding]
‐ Look, how you have the different stages.
‐ Evan, what are you making?
‐ I'm making this treadmill.
I mean, it's based on design,
and it's based on functionality.
That's it.
‐ Wow, okay. Sorry I asked.
‐ It's as simple as that.
‐ Is this the base of it we're looking at?
‐ Yeah, you're looking at the base, Tim!
‐ [laughs]
You don't have to get angry with me.
‐ [chuckles]
‐ All right, man, keep it up.
30 minutes left, people.
‐ This is hard.
I think building houses is easier.
[saw buzzing]
[light tense music]
‐ Oh‐‐uh‐oh, Tim. What's going on here?
‐ Jon is having a little issues with the belt.
His treadmill has no angle to it.
That can't be doing him any favors.
‐ This is just not coming together.
‐ You know, I'm not sure what the problem is.
Let's have April take a look at this.
‐ Hey, April.
There's only so many ways this thing can go together.
‐ Well, apparently, there's three different ways here.
‐ Hey, guys. ‐ Hey.
‐ Have you been watching this? ‐ I have been.
This is a great challenge.
‐ Which horse do you think is rounding the corner
with a head start?
‐ I would really be curious to see
how Charles is gonna tension it,
and that will play into it, but Evan has at least thought
about how he's gonna adjust the wheels in order to trac.
And I think that's gonna be the biggest challenge.
So Jon has an 1 1/2 inch thick deck but 1 inch rollers.
‐ Uh‐huh.
‐ So if you're imagining the belt gliding
across an 1 1/2 inch thick deck,
going down to a 1 inch roller, it's gonna be creating
so much drag in between the two surfaces.
‐ Jon, can you hear us?
‐ Yes, sir, I'm here. I got you.
‐ Walk us through what you're doing here.
‐ Well, I wish I knew.
I thought it was gonna be easier to get it functioning.
My plan kind of went out the window,
so I'm just doing some improv.
‐ Good, go, go. Think outside the box.
I'm gonna leave you alone 'cause timing is everything.
‐ Yeah, and speaking of time, you got about 20 minutes left.
‐ Yes, sir.
[saw buzzing]
‐ We've seen this before.
Builders get into this situation.
It's either start over
or figure it out and keep on trucking.
[tense music]
‐ [sighs]
‐ Jon's only got a few options here:
start over or fix the belt issue.
‐ It's a tight tolerance to start with.
So if you have to start over, whoo‐‐good luck to them.
‐ We've seen this before where you start and you go,
"I'm gonna start over again.
Now instead of 90 minutes, I've got 15 minutes."
‐ It's still impressive what they can do in 90 minutes.
I'll leave you guys be unless you have any more questio.
‐ Okay. ‐ That's it, thank you.
‐ Thank you for all of your helpful information.
‐ I guess might as well try to make it look nice.
‐ Wait, Jon is just moving on?
He's not even going to try to fix his build?
‐ Put some stain in.
‐ But Jon's making his look better already.
So he already feels he's got it done.
‐ This is just a thin attempt to try to make it look
a little less 2x4‐y
and a little more something else.
‐ He's taking a big risk, not making sure it works.
Uh...
‐ All right, makers. You've got ten minutes left.
[dramatic music]
[sander grinding]
[air hissing]
♪ ♪
‐ Stain it.
‐ Evan, a little customizing. Right, Evan? Good going.
‐ Custom design and fabrication, baby,
all day, every day.
‐ Now make sure you don't get too high on the fumes.
‐ Yeah, man! I'm really diggin' it.
I can see all kinds of patterns in the wood.
‐ All right, get back to work.
You got about six minutes left. Go for it.
‐ Six minutes left?
All right, I'm not gonna be able to stain the whole thing.
[saw buzzing]
[brisk rock music]
♪ ♪
[drill whirring]
♪ ♪
‐ Charles looks like he has something to hold on to.
He's got almost a railing going on there.
‐ Very smart.
‐ I am just trying to bust out
some handrails, which, honestly,
I wasn't sure if I'd get a chance to do.
‐ He better hurry up.
He's got, like, two minutes to put that o.
[drill whirring]
‐ I really want this thing to have something to hold on to
so I'm not bashing my face.
‐ Very different looks.
‐ And extremely complex to judge this,
'cause unless there's a big surprise,
they've all done exactly what they're supposed to do.
‐ Right. ‐ I'm gonna bail out of here.
You have to decide.
‐ [laughs]
[drill whirring]
[upbeat rock music]
‐ You have 57 seconds.
♪ ♪
[saw buzzing]
♪ ♪
both: Five, four, three, two, one.
‐ Step away from your treadmills.
‐ Makes no sense 'cause they're treadmills.
‐ Step away! Oh, they look great!
This is so exciting.
‐ Man!
‐ Whoo! ‐ Yeah, baby.
‐ Nicely done. Hydrate, hydrate.
Quickly, Jon, get something to drink, for the love of God.
‐ Yeah.
‐ All right, builders.
It is time to get your cardio up
and test your exercise machines.
Jon, we're going with you first.
Step onto your treadmill and show us how it works.
‐ So it works‐‐
it's hard when I don't have anything to hold on to.
I'm gonna see if I can run.
‐ It's a little sticky. ‐ Don't hurt yourself.
‐ Without a handhold, it's‐‐it is very difficult.
[belt squeaking]
[rock music]
‐ All right, Jon, get off before you‐‐
‐ Die? ‐ Yes.
‐ [chuckles]
‐ I wanna get a doctor in there to check your groin muscle
'cause I'm sure that hurt.
‐ Yeah.
‐ Charles, you're next.
Show us how it works.
‐ Oh, yeah. Happy to.
[belt squeaking]
I can run.
‐ Look at that.
It really helps to have something to hang on to.
‐ Yeah. ‐ That's really nice.
Good job, buddy. ‐ All right, Evan.
‐ Evan, it looks like you have the Oscar Mayer Wienermobil.
‐ Vroom, vroom, vroom!
[both laugh] ‐ All right.
Get up on the treadmill.
‐ All right.
[belt squeaking]
[rock music]
[yells] ‐ Whoa, whoa, whoa.
‐ It's loosening up.
‐ You see, he's got his equilibrium now.
‐ We're going now, baby!
‐ Don't hurt yourself. ‐ All right, all right.
I don't want you to break your frickin' neck.
‐ All right, gentlemen.
Tim and I are going to talk all of this over
and we will get back to you.
‐ Chuck. It's a quality piece.
But he didn't stain it. He didn't get the design‐‐
‐ No design. ‐ A design flair.
‐ He falls apart in design.
It's functionally‐‐it's exactly what you're supposed to do.
Jon's design, to me,
has everything vintage about a treadmill.
‐ Yeah. ‐ He detailed the legs.
‐ But it didn't have the smoothness to the treadmill.
‐ It didn't function at all.
Evan, I mean, right away, it does look, what you said,
the wiener wagon,
it does appear to be a wiener wagon.
‐ His design takes more of the stress away from your knees.
‐ What are you, an orthopedic surgeon?
How the hell do you know that?
‐ I'm just saying.
‐ All right, I'm good.
‐ All right, makers.
You all worked really hard,
but only two of you are gonna move on to the next round.
First up, Charles.
It frickin' works.
You were on the treadmill, even though, physically,
you're not a very good specimen.
‐ [laughs]
‐ Congratulations.
You're moving on to our second round.
‐ Thanks a lot, guys. I really appreciate it.
‐ Jon. ‐ Yes, sir.
‐ I love the look of your machine.
‐ So do I.
‐ However, the treadmill just wasn't working right.
We're gonna go to Evan now.
You look very satisfied with your Wienermobile.
‐ Boop, boop, boop, boop.
[laughter]
‐ A lot of things you did right, to me.
‐ A lot of things. ‐ You took a chance.
You thought about design right away.
‐ Yeah. ‐ That being said‐‐
‐ You're moving on to the second round.
‐ Yes!
‐ Jon, we're so sorry. ‐ We loved your work.
‐ We did. ‐ We love what you did.
Unfortunately, Jon, you had a problem early on
with your belt, right?
The tension wasn't good.
And for whatever reason, you chose not to fix it.
And for that reason,
it doesn't have the performance it could hav.
You know, I wish you would have really dug in there
and figured that out.
I'm literally sorry to see you go.
‐ Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.
Tim and Richard know what they're talking about,
so I have confidence they made the right decision.
Unfortunately, it was for me to go,
but I think I actually did
a lot better than I was expecting,
so I'm really happy with that.
‐ Charles and Evan, congratulations on making it
to the second and final round, the Run with It Challenge.
‐ Thank you. ‐ Yeah.
‐ You will attempt to build a space‐saving
multifunctional treadmill exercising machine.
‐ [chuckles]
‐ Inside your crates are materials needed to buid
your custom exercise machine.
On top of that,
this build needs to be a true showcase
of your making skills.
‐ With drama. ‐ Give us something incredible
with a sleek design and really cool features
and leave no doubt that you are the best maker.
When you complete your build after five days,
it will be shipped back to me and Tim,
where they'll be tested on three criteria:
quality, design, and functionality.
Your crates will arrive tomorrow morning.
Good luck. Run with it.
[upbeat rock music]
‐ All right.
‐ We got a box!
[sighs]
The fresh smell of wood.
♪ ♪
♪ Ah ♪
‐ It's a huge, huge crate.
Oh, wow. Okay.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
‐ Okay, people, for round two,
we've given them even more cool stuff.
And the makers could use anything
that they have in their shops,
but we can't make it too easy for these guys.
So I had April create a secret challenge.
They're gonna have to be fixers as well as makers.
Otherwise, they'll be dead in the water.
[snickers]
‐ It's a lot of stuff.
It's almost like you could go in so many different directions
that you could get lost.
‐ Yeah, okay, so this is an alternator,
albeit, a slightly damaged one.
This has a bent blade.
Who knows how that might have happened, but‐‐
‐ One of the fan blades right here
seems to be bent pretty badly out of shape.
‐ Oh, how'd you know that? ‐ Oh, he already found that.
‐ What'd you guys do to my alternator, huh?
‐ [chuckles]
‐ April, can you come over here?
‐ Cooked up a little fix it for the makers, right?
‐ Yes. ‐ Saboteur.
‐ I am, in this case.
So on every single alternator, there was a bent fan blade,
actually two, one bent out and one bent in.
‐ I'm just gonna grab a pair of vise grips.
‐ I don't think this is going to slow them down at all.
‐ It is an easy fix.
You just have to be careful not to, of course,
break that piece of metal back by bending it too much.
‐ Yeah. ‐ And then of course,
also making sure that the balance is correct.
‐ How do you make sure the balance is correct?
‐ You can do it by eye.
Whenever you see it rotating, you know how your eye
can pick up the slight out‐of‐balance‐ness?
‐ Do you have any idea what she just said?
‐ Yes. ‐ Yes, he does.
[laughter]
‐ Now I can't even tell which one was broken.
Shoot. [laughs]
I'm just that good!
‐ There we go.
Nothing a little elbow grease and a pair of pliers
can't fix most of the time.
All right, I'm happy with it.
‐ I'm impressed by the quick problem solving skills
of these two.
‐ Hey, Google.
Will you set a reminder that I need to start preppig
for the end of the day in an hour?
‐ Got it. I'll remind you at 8:09 p. m.
‐ Thanks, Google.
[drill whirring]
Okay.
[rock music]
[saw buzzing]
♪ ♪
‐ Charles is making some adjustments right here,
and I like that.
♪ ♪
‐ Still not happy with how much power
I'm able to make with this.
I need to increase the diameter of this.
They gave me these pool floaties.
I think what I'm gonna end up doing is
taking this and putting it around this axle
so that I can increase the diameter
and give the belt a little more pull on it.
‐ That's smart.
‐ The scary part is I'm not an expert at foam rollers.
Definitely nervous about that.
I have concerns about whether or not that foam
was gonna grip shaft well enough or the belt.
It makes me a little nervous.
See what happens.
‐ Like where he's going. Don't think it's gonna work.
[lively music]
‐ It's day two.
We're going to get power from the alternator
and from the drive train.
But once that's done,
we're gonna build the handrail.
All right, so we'll grab a volt meter.
♪ ♪
[belt squeaking]
♪ ♪
All right.
We got power coming off the alternator.
‐ He's got the juice.
But now can he start adding
the bells and whistles,
you know, get the fun stuff going?
‐ I have this vision, an armature bracket
that can receive my carved wooden poplar spindles.
Looking good.
♪ ♪
‐ All right, well, he's building
handrails for a treadmill.
‐ We took that poplar,
put it on the wood lathe, started turning it down.
‐ So he's mixing the steel stock with wood.
Do you like that idea? ‐ No.
I'm a purist.
Wood to wood or metal to metal.
‐ And there you have it.
That's so baller.
All right.
Good day's work.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
‐ [clears throat] Excuse me, Mr. Allen.
Would you like a top off?
‐ I hate you so much. ‐ No.
You got that coffee maker that Tim gave you working?
‐ I did, Richard.
Would you like to look at it? ‐ Yes, I would.
‐ [laughs]
‐ So what happened
was there was a small puncture right there.
‐ Here? Ah! ‐ Oh, that might be hot.
‐ It's hot. ‐ It's a heating element.
‐ Holy criminy.
I would like to swear right now 'cause it burned my flesh.
‐ So I found an epoxy that has a tolerance of 500 degrees,
so‐‐and I just covered it right on up.
So once you patch it, now you have a working coffee makr
instead of replacing it.
Oh, you're welcome, Tim. ‐ Oh, thanks.
‐ Let me know what else breaks.
[light rock music]
‐ It's day three.
I'm gonna really just try and stay moving
and pick up the pace a little bit.
We're not in the homestretch,
but we are gonna cross the halfway mark today.
And I definitely wanna have some solid progress.
This thing has to go up and down.
That's like a treadmill feature, you know?
I've got a plan.
Using pneumatic door closing cylinders
that we get off of these school buses,
we save them, we've never done anything cool with them.
Now is, like, maybe a chance to do something cool.
[heavy rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ What's going on here?
‐ That's his air compressor.
‐ I'm gonna be hooking this up to run off of another pulley
on the other side of my treadmill.
And the hope is that I'm gonna use this to compress air
to pressurize some pistons that will get this to go
up and down for whoever‐‐
whoever is dumb enough to ride on it.
‐ [laughs]
‐ It makes a cute noise.
[pulley squeaking]
I mean, that's pretty funny, right?
‐ [laughs]
‐ [grunts]
‐ It reminds me of the sounds Tim would make
on "Home Improvement," you know?
[grunts] [pulley squeaking]
Right?
‐ Jeez, I sound better than that.
[chuckles]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ Onward and upward.
[drill whirring]
‐ That's a pretty ingenious idea.
‐ I think so too.
‐ Tooting the compressor,
goes down through my air hose,
goes into this piston
and that piston, through this T.
Those push up, and as those push up, the thing goes up.
‐ And, you know, you wanna do
some hills while you're on a treadmill.
‐ Well, it's supposed to do more than that.
[belt squeaking]
‐ It's certainly working.
All of my harebrained schemes panned out.
Couldn't be happier.
[rock music]
‐ It's day three.
Plan for today is I wanna mount components
that are activated by the treadmill moving.
So we're gonna jump into the rotisserie.
When you're running on this treadmill,
you're gonna get a little hungry.
So we're gonna chop that bike,
and we're gonna mount that bike
onto that rear drive axle
so we can get that turning motion
for making our snack while we're working out.
[roars]
[both laugh]
[saw buzzing]
‐ With work like this where parts have to fit,
you've got to have your measurements right.
You just can't go hacking away willy‐nilly.
And yes, I said willy‐nilly.
‐ We seem to have created a problem.
Come up too short.
‐ Oh, boy.
‐ [sighs]
‐ Taking a few extra seconds to measure
instead of eyeballing saves you a lot of time.
‐ In hindsight, I should have cut the frame in the middle
and not close to the back wheel.
That was a [bleep] up. That was a mistake.
‐ Hmm, a simple little mistake like this can set him back
for the rest of the competition.
‐ This is harder than I expected.
[pedal clanks]
[sighs] Freaking out here.
[tense music]
‐ We seem to have created a problem.
Yeah, it's coming up too short.
‐ Oh, boy. ‐ In hindsight,
I should have cut the frame in the middle
and not close to the back wheel.
Freaking out here. [sighs]
I cut the frame too short.
And I had to extend it out, the whole thing.
[welder buzzing]
‐ So what's going on here?
‐ Our boy Evan is doing double the work.
Guess he forgot the old adage, "Measure twice, cut once"
‐ We want it to sit and align with the drive.
So we're gonna have a vertical tire
on the rear axle of the treadmill.
And then we're gonna have the second tire rotating
on a horizontal treadmill.
And that vertical treadmill
is gonna drive the horizontal treadmill,
so one tire turning the other tire.
I'm short.
[dramatic music]
I wanna be able to tension this.
So as you're walking the treadmill,
it will turn some gears and cogs and wheels,
and that will turn a rotisserie
that will in turn be heated up by, like, a blowtorch.
‐ Not quite sure why you need that.
‐ Normally, you wouldn't wanna put a rotisserie
on your exercise machine, right?
But that's the whole point of this challenge.
They've got to add features
that are powered by the treadmill.
Right now, Evan has nothing working.
And there are two days left to finish the build.
‐ This bike wheel is taking up my whole day.
I really hope it pays off.
♪ ♪
‐ While the makers are busy,
here's a cool hack from April for you folks at home.
‐ Hey.
‐ Do you guys ever have any caulk problems?
both: Um...
‐ Caulk. With it drying out?
‐ Yeah. ‐ Oh, yes, I do.
‐ All the time. ‐ Yeah.
‐ So my tip is whenever you open up a tube of caulk,
what you do with it in order to keep it airtight
so that it's reusable... ‐ Yeah.
‐ You take a wine cork. ‐ No way, really?
‐ And you‐‐yeah. You drill a hole in a cork.
And then you can just pop it on
and it keeps it airtight so that it's reusable.
‐ That is such a great idea.
‐ And do you use a wineglass with that now?
‐ Let's say you're not a wine drinker.
Another tip is that you can take some duct tae
or gaff tape and simply thread it over.
You can punch a hole in it,
and then it also gives you a handy storage.
‐ Where do you come up with these things?
‐ That's my favorite. ‐ I love this.
I do love this. ‐ I like that, yeah.
‐ Either way, it just does‐‐
doesn't give you a handy place to store it.
‐ Right. ‐ All right, you're wonderful.
We're gonna go‐‐ ‐ We gotta go the Batcave.
‐ Hey, I got a compliment out of Tim.
‐ Oh, yeah. ‐ Yeah, it's about time.
‐ All right, thanks. ‐ Good job.
[driving rock music]
‐ I feel like what this is asking for is a dashboard.
So I got this beautiful piece of scrap walnut.
[saw buzzing]
I'm going to cut it,
ground off the edges, sand it down.
Then I can start getting my layout for my gauges.
♪ ♪
I'm using some linseed oil.
Just makes it look really nice.
♪ ♪
All the things I can do to trick it out
without having to reinvent the wheel.
♪ ♪
I need to get all of these things put in place
so I can run the wires to thm
and not have anything be longer than it needs to be.
[leisurely rock music]
‐ Hey, Google. How old is Tim Allen?
‐ Tim Allen is 67 years old.
‐ Wow. Those guys are really old.
‐ The hell?
‐ Day four, we're gonna do the electrical.
Disco lights need to be installed.
‐ Well, he's got speakers going in now.
‐ While you're working out, you can adjust your volum.
Volume down. Volume up.
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah. Can't wait to work out.
[laughter]
‐ [grunts] Way too hot.
[light music]
[yells] ‐ [laughs]
‐ Why, hello there.
How you doing? ‐ Good.
‐ What do you think about this thing?
Do you wanna say hi to Tim and Richard?
‐ Hi. ‐ Hi, Tim and Richard.
‐ To infinity and beyond!
[both chuckle]
‐ [laughs]
‐ Bye, guys. ‐ Bye.
[lively rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ All right, here we go.
Today is day five.
So I have to make sure I get all of my finishing touches
put on my machine, the grill,
make sure the mechanisms are working,
and that my belt isn't slipping.
All right.
‐ Ah. ‐ Well, there's‐‐
‐ Hey, you found the old bus part, I like it.
‐ This is actually,
if you can believe it, the grill from a school bus
as far as I can tell, from the late '30s.
‐ I love it. The same part today
would we be made of some kind of plastic.
So I think I'm gonna hold off
and just set this to the side for now.
♪ ♪
Okay.
♪ ♪
Good to be back on solid ground.
♪ ♪
‐ That crane is cool!
There's nothing cooler.
‐ [grunts]
Interesting phenomenon here. [sighs]
[light tense music]
‐ Oh, boy.
‐ Kind of had a feeling that foam roller
was gonna start slipping and slipping
and slipping more and more.
It was one of my original fears.
‐ If you knew it was a problem,
day five probably wasn't the best time to address it.
Yeah, I'm not sure that was a good idea.
‐ Maybe I can just put some glue on here.
♪ ♪
‐ Superglue can do a lot,
but I'm not sure it's going to bond metal and foam.
I think the surfaces are just not compatible.
‐ Time is ticking.
♪ ♪
That is not good.
[dramatic rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ There's just so much slip happening.
The whole machine is really dependent on the foam roller
not slipping, just spinning.
‐ He's gotta get this fixed.
Look at that. Time is ticking.
Without the front axle spinning the flywheel
and getting more power from the alternator,
dead in the water.
‐ I gotta keep moving today.
Think I'm gonna use silicone,
and I'm gonna inject it down the keyway.
‐ That's smart.
‐ I don't know.
♪ ♪
‐ Oh, boy.
‐ So he's hoping that that will set up
by the time it gets to us. ‐ Yeah.
‐ Well, I guess we'll find out.
‐ I'm just crossing my fingers that it works.
Feel like my time is just slipping.
[lively rock music]
[door creaks]
‐ It's day five. It's time to rock and roll.
In order to finish this today,
we need to stain, we need to paint.
I'm gonna have to take everything apart.
I'm gonna have to take all the metal off of it,
take the wheels off it, the chain off it,
all the cogs, all the axles.
I gotta take the grills out, take the disco lights off.
So everything we did yesterday,
all has to come apart.
‐ Does he have time for this?
‐ No, you don't.
[light tense music]
‐ Tearing it down introduces
the possibility for more problems.
Dropped a screw.
I can put it back together in a different way by mistake.
There's definitely potential
for new and different problems.
♪ ♪
[saw buzzing]
♪ ♪
Hmm, I don't know if I'm gonna have enough stain.
‐ That's not good.
♪ ♪
‐ [panting]
Now that my time is almost up, I'm gonna be trying
to put on as many finishing touches as I can.
♪ ♪
‐ Both of these builders are cutting it close, Tim.
♪ ♪
‐ A little paint thinner.
♪ ♪
I'm burning time making my own stain.
Don't have time for stress.
‐ Oh!
‐ That's a heck of a lot to finish
in these last few minutes and a lot to screw up.
‐ I'm not sure Evan is even gonna finish.
‐ They're gonna call it right now, aren't they?
[tense music]
‐ [panting]
[drill whirring]
‐ Five, four, three, two, one.
‐ I'm done!
I did not overthink this.
This just came through me.
I'm totally into it.
I wanna put a motor in it and some wheels
and take it to Burning Man.
‐ I'm just gonna cool off for a minute.
I feel really good about what I made.
I really love that machine.
I don't think Evan has a chance.
It's too cool.
It's got too much style and too much personality.
And there's just too much of me in that thing.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
‐ Uh‐oh.
Tim, did you get a new car? ‐ Wow.
What on earth are we doing?
What were we thinking?
♪ ♪
‐ I know.
♪ ♪
Well, there are a lot of bells and whistles on both of these.
[lively rock music]
♪ ♪
‐ To kick out the jams,
Evan installed a three‐speaker sound system
and paired it with dual 360‐degree disco lights.
Toss the switch,
activate the LED underlighting,
which, as any trainer knows,
is the key to getting your heart rate u,
and if you start to get sluggish
while you're getting your steps in, just reach bac,
grab something from the tasty bike wheel‐powered rotisseri.
♪ ♪
Charles' exercise machine brings the timeless charm
of public transportation into your living room,
with a school bus stop sign and vintage bus grill.
The dude went for more power right out of the gate
by increasing his rotor size to get his alternator spinning
and his air compressor pumping.
Clever.
That extra power went straight
to his treadmill‐raising pistons.
The wheels on this bus may go round and round,
but does it have what it takes to go the distance and win?
There's only one thing left for Richard and I to do,
test these treadmills by working up a sweat.
Or at least Richard will.
We know both of these makers
added a lot of features to their exercise machine,
but if the treadmill base doesn't power them,
it doesn't count.
Let's get on these things.
‐ All right. Here we are.
‐ Yeah, good luck.
‐ Okay. ‐ Okay.
‐ Okay, how do I turn this on?
‐ You gotta walk.
‐ [laughs]
‐ All right, first up, Evan's exercise machine.
Let's see how many functions he was able to add
that could be powered from its treadmill base.
‐ Let's get on these things.
‐ All right, here we are.
‐ Yeah, good luck.
‐ Okay. ‐ Okay.
‐ Okay, how do I turn this on?
‐ You gotta walk.
[laughs]
[belt squeaking]
‐ Okay, there we go.
‐ Let's kick on some of those disco lights.
‐ Oh! What's going on?
‐ I say we try out the sound system.
That's‐‐it's frickin' amazing.
[cheerful organ music playing]
‐ [laughs]
I'm walking here. I'm walking here.
‐ Evan's got all the bells and whistles going on, literally.
‐ Tim, come on, I'm having fun. What's going on behind me?
‐ I'm cooking marshmallows.
I don't think I've ever been happier.
Stop, stop. ‐ Well, yeah.
Turn off the buttons.
Well, that was interesting. ‐ All right.
Evan's build is functional and fun.
‐ I mean, I had fun. I don't know what you had.
‐ There you go. That's what I wanna hear.
Evan has multiple lights, a sound system,
a rotisserie, an emergency stop.
That's four things he's added to his exercise machine.
Clever, clever stuff.
‐ Okay, well, let's check out on Charles.
‐ Well, this is‐‐okay.
‐ I'm very curious to see
if that foam roller situation got fixed.
Go.
[rock music]
I think you have to walk faster.
Come on, put some muscle into it.
‐ It's not working. It's not turning the generato.
[belt squeaking]
‐ Keep walking.
[light rock music]
‐ There's nothing to turn that. The axle's not working.
All this needs is to be cemented to this thing,
and then everything would work.
‐ Charles cut some corners, and it cost him.
All of that work, and it all came down
from the one thing from the beginning...
‐ And he knew it. ‐ He thought was‐‐
‐ He knew was the problem. ‐ Was the problem.
‐ We must award the victor to the one
that actually produces the fun and baked marshmallows.
‐ Yeah.
‐ Our decision has been made for us.
‐ Well, I guess we should go back
and tell our builders... ‐ The bad news.
‐ And good news.
‐ Good news.
All right, here we go.
‐ April, come here. ‐ April.
‐ You tell them, April.
‐ We have to deliver the news.
We're gonna need some help. ‐ Oh, hey!
Where did you two come from? ‐ Hey, guys.
‐ Charles, Evan, how you guys doing?
‐ Yeah, baby.
‐ Well, you did incredible work.
You guys, it was so fun to see
both of these devices in the same room.
‐ You have no idea how different you guys are,
how an expression of each one of you
we just see in my shop here.
‐ Your machines... ‐ Thank you.
‐ Are two impressive pieces of design.
‐ Wow. Thanks.
‐ But the maker
with the winning custom exercise machine is...
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Evan.
‐ Evan! Come on, Evan!
‐ Evan, you're the winner. Congratulations!
‐ Whoo! ‐ Yeah.
‐ I know. How are you feeling right now?
‐ I feel so good.
I'm stoked; I poured my heart and soul into it.
‐ Well, you're not just an "Assembly Required" champion.
You are also the winner of a cool 5 Gs.
‐ Courtesy of iFixit.
They're also gonna be sending you this ultimate fixer kit.
‐ Charles. ‐ Charles, I love the buses.
I love what you did.
That foam roller was still slipping on the axle.
It never really got fixed.
Didn't work. That's the way it goes.
You're still a winner in our book.
‐ I don't think I have any regrets.
I mean, I know exactly where I failed, you know,
and the fix on that,
it would have taken me 15 minutes.
But I took it to the end,
trying to tack on all these cool bells and whistles.
And, you know, I'd rather go out trying to do my best
and make something really memorable than play it safe.
‐ Good job, you guys. ‐ Good job, you guys.
Thank you both for joining in the fun,
and congrats, Evan.
‐ Thanks for the opportunity.
It really means a lot to me.
‐ Thanks, guys.
[rock music]
‐ It was awesome.
To any makers out there who think that they can
compete and win on "Assembly Required,"
I would say believe in yourself.
Don't overthink it. Keep it simple, stupid.
Just build fast, build hard,
and stay true to your style and your skill set.