Awesome Diy

Last Christmas, maker Jiří Praus decided he wanted a unique ornament. So he set about building a light-up sphere that can display colorful patterns. He built the orb using meticulously-soldered brass wires, 194 individual RGB LEDs, and an ESP32 microcontroller. Check out the full build details on Instructables.

Bobby Duke Arts takes a page out of Toy Story 4 and digs his latest art project out of the trash. In this clip, he shows us how he melted down and manipulated pieces of plastic cutlery and turned them into a dragonfly and a praying mantis. He calls the video a tutorial, but you’re gonna need some serious skills to follow along.

The standard version of Catan comes with a thick paper playing surface and tiles. Kevlar DIY shows off a much more impressive Catan set that he built using black walnut wood, resin, and a variety of objects to create the game’s iconic hexagonal playing pieces.

If you have lots of small parts in your workshop, it can be a challenge to keep them organized. Engineer Dustin Dobransky built a voice-based system using Google Home, IFTTT, a Particle Photon microcontroller, and LED strip lights to place and find items in unlabeled bins. Complete build details on Instructables.

Once Upon a Workbench worked with his friends to build his kids one of the coolest playhouses we’ve ever seen. The build was inspired by Link’s house in the Nintendo Switch game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If you have similar ambitions, you can purchase the plans for $60.

Model maker Boylei Hobby Time loves to incorporate light into his dioramas. In this clip he shows us how he took an off-the-shelf 1/12th-scale model of Darth Vader and took it to the next level with a backlit metal base and a bright red lightsaber that runs on a flexible LED filament set inside of a cocktail straw.

Tired of the plain old boring walls in your workspace? Get Hands Dirty shows us how to use cut pieces of ReFelt recycled plastic felt panels to create bold and modern patterns for walls or ceilings which not only look amazing but can be used as a pushpin board and to improve acoustics.

It wouldn’t be Halloween without some creepy, crawly spiders, and when it comes to scary arachnids, the bigger the better. Paul Jones of Dead and Daughter shows us how he built a massive spider for his lawn using PVC pipe, bendy hair rollers, a bike helmet, duct tape, and wig hair among other things.

See-through computer screens are a staple of sci-fi design. While they look really cool, they’re not the most practical way to view content. Still, makers Evan and Katelyn wanted to give it a try, set to building their own by modding a standard LCD screen, removing its LED backlight and polarizing filter, then building a new frame for it.

I Like To Make Stuff teamed up with The Smugglers Room to build a piece of custom Star Wars-inspired furniture that holds a large TV and server rack filled with audio and video equipment. The finished piece looks like something from inside of the Echo Base control room and would make a great design for an arcade cabinet.

Maker King Minhvuong shows off a really sweet design for a tabletop Bluetooth speaker. He built it using hundreds of stacked colored pencils set into epoxy resin, then cut, shaped, sanded, and varnished the resulting block to form an eye-catching enclosure.

This DIY handheld gaming system offers gamers an opportunity to learn about electronics. The system features a 2.42″ monochrome widescreen and comes with 200 Arduboy games pre-loaded into its memory. Advanced users can even program their own games for it. Available with or without a tool kit.

If you like the look of shipping containers, you can buy a tissue box holder inspired by their design. But if you’re a pro model maker like Adam Savage, and want something you can sit on, you build your own from scratch. You can get the digital files for printing the photorealistic vinyl stickers here.

Artist jedrek29t makes all kinds of neat dioramas by embedding objects into resin. Watch him build a scene of a miniature UFO as it hovers above a grassy field and starts vacuuming up cows in its tractor beam. He also integrated an LED into the spaceship so it works as a nightlight.

Raphael of Epic Cardboard Props has built some pretty amazing things out of cardboard boxes and hot glue. This time, he went all out, and created a huge sculpture of a T.Rex head, inspired by the killer dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Want your own paper dino? Buy the template and follow along with the video tutorial.

Adafruit Industries produces some really nifty components for making electronic gadgets. In this video, they show how their NeoPixel LED strips can be used with a one-way mirrored sheet, acrylic, and some 3D-printed bits to make an infinity mirror you can toss in your pocket. Build details and parts list here, and the source code is here.

After building a high-end gaming PC into a desk, Matt of DIY Perks realized the illusion is completely ruined when placing a monitor on top of it. So he made a hidden ultrawide display that stows inside of a matching wood veneer and aluminum bookshelf. Now he just needs an invisible keyboard and mouse.

Using an ordinary computer keyboard as a starting point, maker SKM managed to create a fully-functional keyboard that’s made out of cardboard and popsicle sticks. We’re not sure how long it will last, but it’s definitely more functional than his cardboard mechanical typewriter.

We love how builder Laura Kampf is creates objects that are both thoughtful in their function and design. Her latest project is a curved wooden cabinet with a turntable and amplifier shelf, plenty of cubbies for storing records, and spaces for speakers that tuck neatly behind grille cloth.

Looking for another fun project to do at home? Artist Mathieu Stern shows us how to use digital photo software plus a couple of specialty chemicals to make your own unique cyanotype prints at home. You can get the chemicals or pre-treated fabric sheets on Amazon or Blick Art Supplies.

At first glance, this looks like a modern and minimal desk. But DIY Perks wouldn’t show off something that basic. This table conceals a high-end Windows PC beneath its hardwood veneer surface. He had to spread out the components and get creative with the cooling system to fit everything inside of something so thin.

Maker W&M walks us through the process of turning a couple of muffin tins into a miniature concrete mixer, complete with a motorized stirrer. Though in this case, its purpose is to smoothly blend instant coffee with water. It probably would make a good hot cocoa too.

The Q was looking for a way to power his plug-in gadgets while away from home. While he could have just bought a ready-made power pack, he decided to build his own, wiring together dozens of 18650 batteries, then connecting an inverter to convert the DC power into AC.