Diy

Without the budget to go buy one of those Predator Motion Sims, these guys got creative and put together their own homebrew version. Now why that flat F1 track is so hilly, we don’t know.

It took Volpin Props 17 months of blood, sweat and tears to create this incredible Daft Punk helmet, complete with colorful lighting and shiny gold exterior. Hi-res pics on Volpin’s flickr stream.

This 4-wheeled, 4-person recumbent bike is a marvel of modern mechanical engineering. See it up close and personal at Detroit’s Maker Faire 7/31-8/1. Maybe you can beg for a ride.

The guys behind this LEGO machine are real pinball wizards. It’s built from ~8000 LEGOs, including 6 NXT robots, 9 touch sensors, 10 light sensors and 4 motors. Only the ball isn’t a LEGO part.

Created by BCC1’s Bang Goes The Theory tv show, the Car-puccino is the world’s first coffee powered car. The converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco has a caffeine buzz top speed of 60 mph.

Modder Moz was looking for a cool Halo-inspired weapon to go with his Spartan costume, and decided to make himself a fully-functional laser-sighted Ma5B Assault Rifle that fires Nerf darts.

Hacked out of a Ducati Monster 620ie by two U of Miss. grads for their senior project – and now a startup biz – this 3-wheeler is less likely to get you into trouble when cornering than regular bikes.

Created by Tony DeRose and his two sons for the upcoming Maker Faire, Saphira is an 8-foot tall metal, mechanical, fire-breathing beast. Now, that’s some dragon breath. (Jump to 2:50 for fire!)

Inspired by 1930s to 1950s science fiction, this handbuilt rocketship sculpture is truly a sight to behold. The retro-fantastic ship is getting ready to land at the Maker Faire Bay Area (5/22-5/23).

This tiny box isn’t much bigger than a sandwich, but the VIA ARTiGO is a fully-functional PC, with a 64-bit 1.2GHz VIA Nano CPU. It measures just 5.7″ x 3.9″ x 2″, and comes in a bare bones kit.

This street-legal Battlestar Galactica’s Viper was built by amusement park mechanic Dean Shorey. It’s made from a postal jeep with a small-block Chevy V8 – just like the original spaceships.

Our favorite bleepin’ light-controlled audio synth is back with Thingamagoop 2; it adds analog and digital oscillators, an improved speaker, and an Arduino Programmer jack.

Colin Furze’s completely street illegal scooter burns rubber–and just about everything else; he’s equipped it with a “road rage” rear-facing flamethrower that shoots flames up to 15 feet.

Remember Wooly Willy? With a little blood, sweat, wood and magnetic filings, you too can have your own Wooly Willy table, thanks to guys at Instructables.

Even the best handymen find themselves short a hand in certain situations, which is why the MagnoGrip is a godsend: it’s a magnetized wristband that keep nuts and bolts handy.

Proof that you can build just about anything with LEGOs: Sariel’s Robotic Arm was built in just two days but includes movable fingers (w/thumb) and is driven by a pneumatic compressor.

Never be without a Rock, Paper, Scissors sparring buddy again with Steve Hoefer’s Playing Glove: this arduino gadget will not only play against you, but learns from your moves.

If you think 8-bit graphics are retro, wait until you see Chloe Fan’s Super Mario Bros on an 8×8 LED matrix; it’s surprisingly still playable despite having only one color and 64 pixels.

Daniel Valdez’s Steampunk Professor X. Wheelchair is epic: made with a 150 year-old rocking chair, it’s powered with Arduino/Adafruit and has chilled vodka and cranberry juice on tap.