THE BEST Diy

Nathan Sawaya’s LEGO cello not only is roughly the size of a real cello, but can be played, too–just don’t’ expect it to sound like one; watch the time lapse, brick-by-brick video above.

Our friends at 0-60mag.com show you how to build your own Need For Speed: Shift-themed racing console for only $500 (not including electronics); get the 60-page PDF here.

We’ve seen Twitter for power usage and watering plants, but the Tweeting Kegerator is easily the most useful: it monitors beer temp, handle pulls and brew levels; follow it on Twitter.

Loved for being open-source and hacker-friendly, Chumby is now available in kit-form; Chumby Guts is cheaper and comes unassembled, but is limited to 3 per order due to popularity.

IBM’s Deep Blue may be a chess champ, but Queens University’s Deep Green is a hustler-in-training; the team is also working on human-friendly augmented reality pool.

Kevin Cyr’s Camper Bike is a functional three-wheeled, pedal-powered RV that made the rounds in China in 2008; he’s currently at work on his next project, the urban-inspired Camper Kart.

We’re still waiting for our own flight to space, but MIT students recently sent a camera 17.5 miles into near-space using a prepaid GPS cellphone, hand warmers and a styrofoam beer cooler.

Behind every great business is a great flowchart: this Computer Repair Flowchart may have been made in 2003, but is still a goldmine of information on common hardware issues.

Solving Sudoku is trivial for this LEGO robot by Hans Andersson; the hardest part is image recognition, accomplished with a light sensor and several algorithms. Thanks, Nurgak!

We can almost picture a medieval battlefield with this fantastic Chain Mail Chess Set; it’s made by artisan David Austin and consists of precisely 42,256 rings.

Learn how to build your own Dry Ice Cannon above, which can send objects up to 80 m with 22 bar of pressure by mixing dry ice and water; red beret not necessary for max range.

Waterloo Labs’ FPS with Real Guns rigs up a projection screen with accelerometers to detect bullet impacts: in other words, it lets you literally shoot the screen while playing Half-Life.

The folks over at Verna’s Vipers have DIY instructions not just for a single Battlestar Galactica Viper rocket, but an entire squadron: build everything from the MK II to the Blackbird.

Sticky Light is a smart laser scanner that uses a laser diode, mirrors and detector to trace contours, enabling you to play games like air hockey and pinball with bare hands. Thanks, Chris!

Stephen Hobley wowed us with his Laser Harp, but it gets better: he’s hacked it to work with open-source Guitar Hero clone Frets on Fire, appropriately dubbing it Laser Harp Hero.

Russian case modder DireSnake’s Bomb looks like it’s packed with antimatter, but it’s in reality a 12″ wide acrylic pipe with chrome-plated handles, 46 LEDs and 120 mm light fans.

It’s been ages since we played a round of AD&D, but these sweet Bioshock tabletop pieces have us dusting off our 20-sided dice; they’re converted from Warmachine figures.

We’ve always dreamed of creating our own tabletop game, but The Game Crafter lets you do exactly that: they’ll handle printing and fulfillment for a 50% cut, allowing you to focus on creation.

This Game Over SNES case mod won’t just eat cartridges but your brains, too; with blood splatters, burns, dents and even a pair of eyes, this console’s clearly been zombified.

Matt’s Open Source PSP isn’t a PSP, but named for its Sony-like dual controllers; still, it’s a fun DIY project that uses TripleWide Extendershield and Arduino to play two-player Pong.

Gears of War tends to get all the DIY love, but Hyokenseisou’s Resistance 2 Marksman is top-notch cosplay: it sports a working scope, laser guide, ammo counter and ammo clip.

I have a good feeling about this: Star Wars: Uncut gives fans a chance to retell A New Hope; the movie will be split into 472 clips, likely of varying quality but all better than Phantom Menace.

Like a hamster ball but with a Lego Mindstorms NXT inside, Nils Volker’s Spherical Robot is an exercise in gyroscopic driving: it moves by simply rotating its internal mass.

Designed by an MIT student, iDoor is the ultimate iPhone app: it opens a hydraulically actuated dorm room door which also responds to knocks thanks to vibration sensors. Thanks, Jacob!

Ben Heck’s fifth Xbox 360 Portable is lookin’ good: it adds an ethernet port, flush DVD and side panels, volume buttons and more air holes; it’s totally built from scratch. Thanks, Icebone!

Marshall’s Supertendo is a portable SNES that looks pro-enough to have come from Nintendo itself; that’s due to a vacuum-formed case, down to the speaker holes; buy it here.