Awesome Making

Maker Mr Novruz walks us through the process of turning a single length of stainless steel wire into a cool and useful holder for keys. There’s something wonderfully satisfying every time he bends and twists the metal.

From dice towers to dice spinners to dice cups, you can roll dice in many different ways. Pixelcadet’s dice-tossing blunderbuss might be the best dice roller yet. This large-bored, rubber band-powered gun uses dice as ammunition instead of bullets. Here’s how its cartridge works. You can purchase the .STL files to print your own on Etsy.

We hate having random bits of hardware and spare parts lying around our garage. There are some pretty nice mechanics carts on the market, but we really love the one that Pask Makes custom-built for his workshop. He cut and welded it from steel, then finished it with a retro silver-green hammer finish paint.

If you’ve been to a science museum, you’ve probably seen those funnel-shaped tables where you can drop in a marble, and it spirals towards its center. Olivier Gomis shows us how he built three gravity well tables by cutting up pieces of walnut and maple veneer, gluing them into layers, turning them on a lathe, then sanding them to a smooth finish.

After hearing a tragic story about the deadly use of a stun gun, I did a thing thought he could prevent such tragedies by building a new kind of crime-stopping device. So he designed and fabricated a set of jaws that police could use to grab onto slow-moving subjects while keeping them at a distance. Of course, it won’t work if the scofflaw has a gun.

After building a bicycle that rides on square wheels using tank-like tracks, The Q applied his creativity and engineering skills to create a bike that has no wheels at all. Instead, it rolls around on skinny, angular tracks with a very small contact point with the ground. We’re impressed he can balance on this thing.

Spiral staircases offer a stylish way to add access to another level without taking up too much space, though they’re made in a very different way than traditional stairs. How It’s Made shows us the modern way of making these staircases using metal platforms and wood decks. The railings look like the trickiest part.

We always enjoy seeing how various metal items can be forged into Damascus steel. Random Hands shows off the process of turning a stack of measuring tape blades into a unique kitchen knife with one of the prettiest blade patterns ever.

Vertical blinds are usually made from plastic or fabric, but carpenter John Heisz has an affinity for wood, so he made his own from scratch, using of ash wood he cut down to 3/8″ thick strips. He then built an exposed mechanism for opening and closing the blinds, giving them a more artful look than the ’90s decorating staple.

How It’s Made presents a brief look at the process of making safety matches. The chemical process isn’t all that interesting, but the machine that magically grabs and stands up over 2 million loose matchsticks per hour is truly amazing.

Maker Tim Sway has built a couple of “0% wood” instruments in the past, including an acrylic bass guitar, and another made from Corian. This time, he decided to build something that’s much more reliant on the aural properties of its construction – an acoustic guitar. As you’ll see, it was a very challenging and frustrating project.

Most furniture has a structure made out of wood or metal. But HomeMadeModern wanted to see if it was possible to fabricate a table entirely from epoxy resin. He started by making a wood prototype, then used those parts to create silicone molds to cast the resin. The finished piece is sturdy and has a truly unique look.

Think Flight wanted to see how much they could scale up the design of a standard rubber band airplane. Besting the record recently set by Project Air, this single-engine rubber band flyer has a 16-foot wingspan. It took him roughly seven months of experimentation and flight testing to achieve his final lightweight design.

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.

Over the years, the guys from novelty shop Vat19 have made a bunch of giant-sized things inspired by stuff they sell. Among their ridiculously oversize creations are a room-size air hockey table, a 250 lb. gummy pizza, a beer pong catapult, and a pool-sized bath bomb. They also made a gigantic bouncy ball.

We usually think of wood as a pretty stiff building material, but in this short video, we go inside a factory where workers bend and twist wood to their whim using machines and bending jigs. We’re guessing they must steam the wood first to make it so pliable.

We already knew that Simone Giertz likes building robots. She also enjoys working with stained glass, so she decided to combine two of her hobbies to create what is likely the world’s first stained glass robot. She started with a metal robot arm, then cut and soldered glass panels to replace the metal pieces. It was clearly one of her more frustrating builds.

After laying his eyes on the giant mechanical keyboard that Razer brought to CES, keyboard enthusiast Glarses wanted one for himself. And after Razer wouldn’t sell him theirs, he got to work building his own from scratch. He was able to use some off-the-shelf giant switches, but everything else had to be custom fabricated.

You can run down to the Home Depot and pick up a tool that uses gunpowder or compressed air to drive nails. I Did a Thing tried his hand at building his own explosive-powered nail gun, but his looks like a hammer, plus, it’s much more dangerous than off-the shelf tools. Kids, don’t dance barefoot on your lathe.

Maker Random Hands created an impressive real-world version of the Valhalla Axe from Assassin’s Creed using a rusty old anvil. To create the weapon, he heated the metal in a furnace, shaped its head with a power hammer, cut it with an angle grinder, then ground it into its final shape. The finished piece has cast metal and wooden handle.

A table saw is one of the most useful tools in the shop when it comes to cutting long pieces of wood. Maker KJDOT decided to see if he could build a working model of one in miniature, and the result is impressive enough that we’d love one for our workbench. It turns out that MicroMark sells something similar, but it’s very pricey.

Burls Art creates guitars from unusual materials. This time, he made an lap steel guitar from aluminum $1 coins that were once good for a discount at RadioShack. He started by making a sand mold, melted the coins to cast its body, then anodized it in red. We were hoping he would have embedded some unmelted coins though.

Maker DiesInEveryFilm wanted to see a sword with a flexible blade could be as effective as a straight blade. He created his unusual weapon by machining a custom blade, cutting it into segments, sliding them onto a length of aircraft cable, and welding them into place. The result is a bit floppy but still dishes out damage.