THE BEST Diy

Looking like a cross between Unicron and the Tokamak, this LEGO CubeStormer puts humans to shame and humanity on notice: it can solve a Rubik’s cube in only 12 seconds.

The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon is written for young mariners, but with 101 tips that include brewing biofuel, fighting sharks, and waging paintball sea battles, it’s for the young-at-heart, too.

Going to jail is probably the safest thing you can do in Nick Endean’s Resident Evil version of Monopoly; properties, Community Chest and Chance are all based on R.E. locations.

Kudos to Frans, aka fotoopa (Belgian for photo-grandpa): he’s built his own Arduino Bee Camera Rig that uses crossed lasers to photograph insects as small as 2 mm while in flight.

Build your own weapon of legged destruction with these SpiderBot (Hexapod) plans on Thingiverse by Daniel Schatzmayr; his design calls for a laser cutter, wood, and 20 servos.

If you liked Parrot’s AR.Drone, build your own using Arduino; Paul Rene’s aptly-named Quaduino features four rotors, pitch/roll//yaw controls, a compass, barometer, and accelerometer.

Sean Carney’s Weather Clock looks old fashioned, but it’s actually high tech: an Arduiino scrapes data from the Internet and displays temperature and conditions using two servos.

Jay’s DIY phaser may be a class 3B laser that uses a 12X Blu-ray diode, but you’ll throw your Vulcan side out the nearest airlock once you watch the video above: PEW! PEW! PEW!

Matthias Wandel’s LEGO Domino Row Builder is a true DIY: he not only made the builder using LEGO bricks and a tape deck motor, but cut the dominoes himself (he’s a woodworker).

Introducing the T-minus Tree: using differential calculus, a car battery, and 32 engines wired in parallel, two DIY’ers find a way to “reuse” their Christmas tree by turning it into a rocket.

It’s still a work in progress, but Anthony Le’s War Machine looks ready for Iron Man 2; it’s made with urethane and features a minigun and light-up eyes, arc reactor and gauntlets.

MST3K fans will always watch movies with Tom Servo and Crow in mind, but these laser-cut Mst3shades literally keep them in your field of vision; plans here; Ponoko-version here.

Inspired by this gadget, the Most Useless Machine not only reaches new heights for futility but has us waxing morose about the pointlessness of our own lives. Happy New Year, friends.

Shunichi Makin’s been busy ever since his mini-HAL 9000; he’s created not one but three super-deformed versions of Iron Man in papercraft, each with 3-4 printable PDF files.

It ain’t no Swiss movement, but the Makerbot Watch is the ultimate wrist-mounted geek accessory; it’s build-it-yourself Arduino-driven timepiece that uses concentric LEDs to tell time.

An Aqua Modeler in Japan puts the ship back in spaceship with this remote-controlled, underwater capable Enterprise; they’ve also converted Battleship Yamato and the USS Voyager.

No way Santa’s gonna miss Bainbridge Circle in Murrieta, CA; the synced music show uses 12 houses, 30,000+ lights (mostly LED), 130 extension cords, and 8,000 feet of control cable.

DIY doesn’t get much more legit than Harrison Krix: the professional prop creator was commissioned by Daft Punk to replicate a gold helmet and outlines the entire process here.

John Austin’s Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction is a must for cubicle combat; build 35 devices including catapults, slingshots, and bombs, all MacGyver’d from office supplies.

It’s only able to swivel slightly, but for less than $15 it’s tough to beat this DIY Dual Monitor Stand; it’s mounted to a desk and made with galvanized steel pipe, PVC pipe, and wood.

Han may be off making the Kessel Run in 18 parsecs, but we’ll be content to loaf like Jabba in this Millenium Falcon Bed by Kayla Kromer; photos are by Heather Leah Kennedy.

An entry in Cooler Master’s 2009 Modding Contest, Macius Barreto’s Morphius is a four-legged robotic case mod of awesome; it’s built out of fiberglass and finished with car paint.

If you haven’t put up your lights yet, don’t bother: Christmas Light Hero is an audio/visual double whammy-bar of garage lighting hooked up to a playable game of Guitar Hero.

Scott Trosclair is one super man: he’s turned his cubicle at a film animation studio into a mini Fortress of Solitude, complete with LED-lit acrylic crystals and a hand-sculpted Jorel head.

Even a Wraith would love Jacob Yarmuth’s Stargate Atlantis home theater; it features a 10 ft. Stargate with a 96″ screen, THX sound system, motion sensor doors, and fiber optic starscape.

If you prefer ohms to ornaments, Evil Mad Scientist Labs has decked their tree with resistors and other electronic components; got other holiday plans? Check out the LED Menorah Kit.