Awesome Diy

Maker Xyla Foxlin always wanted one of those little teardrop campers to take on her adventures. But the steadfast and hard-working Xyla wanted to build her own instead of buying one. It took her and her friends about three weeks to fabricate it from marine plywood, fiberglass, and aluminum, and the finished trailer looks fantastic.

We love playing classic arcade games. But an arcade cabinet isn’t exactly the kind of thing you’d put right in the middle of most living rooms. Maker Alexandre Chappel shows us how he designed and built a 2-player arcade machine that hides inside of a sleek wood cabinet that hangs neatly on a wall.

In general, electronics and water don’t mix. DIY Perks shows how it’s possible to build a water-cooled PC that can be submerged underwater. He started with power-hungry PC components, then built a water-tight acrylic and copper case with copper cooling pipes that flow water around the pricey computer inside. The finished system looks incredible.

Maker Neil Paskin previously created a cool parts organizer cart. Now, he’s back with another impressive build – a set of curved drawers that fit into a cylindrical tower. It took some geometry skills to figure out the angles for cutting its 24 triangular drawers, which he refined into curved shapes with a jigsaw and router. The whole thing spins on a turntable.

Inspired by a Tech Ingredients video that claimed that a couple of pieces of foam board and inexpensive audio exciters were the “World’s Best Speakers,” AmplifyDIY decided to put the design to the test. It’s hard to know how they sound in person, but he certainly was impressed at the audio that $60 worth of parts can produce.

While you could buy some cheap folding chairs, we prefer the modern design of Get Hands Dirty’s design, which has a clean, angular look and is something that you can build for yourself if you’ve got the right tools and lumber. The wood-shaving interlude was a nice touch.

Inspired by the expensive airless tires seen on construction equipment and concept vehicles, The Q set out on a mission to make his own shock-absorbing, puncture-proof bike tires using a similar design. What’s even more impressive is that he built them using only PVC pipe, nuts, bolts, and the tread from a standard bike tire.

T-Nu from the wonderfully-named Craftastrophe loves to build tiny things. In this video, you’ll see how he made a mini version of a 1958 Gibson Explorer electric guitar with every little detail. It even has real metal strings and teensy fretboards. They built the whole thing by hand and without any 3D-printed parts.

Syracuse University Libraries’ Preservation Department shows us how to save a water-logged book and restore it back to its original condition. All you need is some paper towels, a fan, and some weights. You should also store it in the freezer if you can’t work on it right away.

In today’s work-from-home world, having a good desk is a must. You could buy one, or you could do what HomeMadeModern did and build one to your own exacting specifications. We love how Jessie incorporated walls, and sound-deadening felt to make it her own. We’d probably do corkboard for tacking up notes.

Musician Nicolas Bras is known for inventing some truly unique musical instruments from off-the-shelf parts. In this video, he shows us how to build a simple string instrument from metal cans, wood, an electric guitar string, and a little water. You can grab blueprints to make your own aquatic harp on Patreon or download digital sound samples from Soundpaint.

Modelmaking has always fascinated us. Cath from The Square to Spare shows us the steps to make a miniature fridge that looks just like those fancy French door models. Its cabinet can be 3D printed or cut from balsa wood, with acrylic or resin shelves, wrapped in stainless steel contact paper, and lit with LED fairy lights.

When you’re hiking or camping, it’s essential to keep a bottle of water with you. Wrapping your bottle in paracord not only makes it look cool but improves its grip and gives you some extra cord in case of an emergency. The Weavers of Eternity Paracord shows us how to wrap a bottle in the versatile cord using cow hitch knots.

The eyes on Spider-Man’s mask typically have a fixed expression. But Sean’s Crafts took on the challenge of giving Spidey more visible emotion by making his eyes change shape. He started by making a mask from poster board, fiberglass cloth, resin, and wood filler. Then he rigged it with mechanical eye shutters controlled by a bike cable.

Modern crash test dummies are shockingly expensive to buy. Engineer James Bruton didn’t have a spare million bucks lying around, so he decided to build his own. He made his dummy from wood, metal, 3D-printed plastic, and rubber. While it isn’t quite as refined as the industry-standard units, it’s fully outfitted with sensors like the real deal.

RCLifeOn built a unique drawing machine that creates geometric illustrations on an acrylic sheet using a computer-controlled fluorescent marker. Bright LED lights help the images glow brilliantly. For now, images must be manually erased between drawings, but he plans to add an eraser mechanism.

We have a thing for multi-purpose furniture. HomeMadeModern shows off a design for a contemporary piece of furniture that functions as a small couch and a desk. It has a smaller footprint than two standalone pieces, and it just looks cool. It also has built-in side tables. Best of all, it can be built with basic power tools.

Ed from Fifty Percent Awesome wanted an arcade cabinet but didn’t have space for one. Instead, he built an arcade system inside of a custom coffee table. Under its lid, it has a 4-player controller, a de-cased LG TV, speakers, and a Raspberry Pi 400 for emulating games. It runs on AC power or Ryobi 18V power tool batteries. It all comes together in part two.

The first portable computers weren’t exactly compact or lightweight. DIY Perks’ briefcase PC follows in these footsteps, but the payoff for the heft is a high-end gaming PC with a wrap-around 144Hz triple display, a 16-core AMD Ryzen 5950X CPU, an NVIDIA RTX 3080 GPU, 64GB of RAM, and a premium audio system with a subwoofer.

This 208-page reference book is packed with tips and tricks you can use to build your DIY abilities. You’ll pick up skills like building your own metal forge, working with glass, wiring basic circuits, screenprinting, and more. It’s also got a section on organizing your workshop for efficiency.

Mayku’s FormBox brings the power of vacu-forming to your desktop. It connects to an ordinary vacuum cleaner and heats thermoplastic sheets to create objects and molds. Its can mold objects up to 150mm x 150mm (~5.9″ x 5.9″) and can mold objects up to 130mm tall (~5.11″). It works with a various plastics in from 0.25 – 1.5mm thick.

LCD screens struggle with contrast because their crystals have to selectively block out a backlight. DIY Perks wanted to see if layering a second LCD panel could improve contrast. He combined parts from two identical displays, depolarized their screens, and upgraded their backlight. It’s a cool hack, but an OLED is still better.

Arcade machines are lots of fun, but they aren’t typically living room friendly. Bob from I Like to Make Stuff shows off a piece of furniture that combines a storage unit with a Raspberry Pi arcade, and four sets of arcade controls in a hidden, slide-out shelf. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can buy the plans to build your own.