Maker Laura Kampf is always coming up with creative ideas for her workshop. This time she built something she can take with her – a battery-powered soldering station that looks like something cobbled together in the wasteland of a Fallout game. It has a removable storage bin, work surface, lighting, and a magnetic alligator clip.
What you’re looking at here isn’t a real robot, it’s a really impressive costume, built by artist XiaoQianFeng. She created the wearable mech outfit for her brother using wire mesh, paper mache, cardboard, wood, and if you can believe it, ceramic tile. The finished costume is too heavy to move around in, but it looks amazing.
Maker Peter Sripol wanted to see if he could build a functional submarine using off-the-shelf parts and a $100 budget. He assembled its frame from PVC pipe and 3D-printed connectors, and its remote steering mechanism is completely analog. He even rigged it up to pick up undersea “treasure” with magnets.
After making a small parts organizer, Neil Pasken challenged fellow builder John Heisz of I Build It to create his own. John’s version has 18 swing-out “butterfly” drawers, each with dividers for keeping parts readily accessible. Other than the tiny set screws, he built it entirely from wood. He also posted a build guide.
Miller Knives decided he could use another keychain knife so he set about building one that actually looks like a key. To make it work, he layered together three keys, cut the middle one to allow space, machined a butter knife for the blade, then joined the pieces together with a couple of nails.
Cursing is f**king charming when it’s cross-stitched or daintily embroidered. Julie Jackson, OG of the Subversive Cross Stitch movement, continues the snarky DIY trend with Super Subversive Cross Stitch, 50 easy-to-follow patterns including: Not today, Satan; Let the good times be gin; What fresh hell is this? and more.
We’ve seen how The Mandalorian uses a giant wraparound screen and camera tracking tech to produce immersive environments. Jelle Vermandere doesn’t have a Disney-sized budget, so instead, he built a homebrew rig that uses a ring of lights synced with a virtual environment to match his lighting to the scene.
Maker Frank Howarth wanted to make a unique ceiling light to install over his dining table. After playing around with a simpler design, he decided to go with a three-panel design comprising CNC-cut wood slices based on the topography of the lunar surface. They also look like a Joy Division album cover.
Martina and Hansi from Nerdforge needed a new computer for editing videos. Rather than go with some off-the-shelf PC, they built a completely custom system that looks like a medieval fantasy house. The structure is wood, covered with miniature bricks and foam accent pieces. This thing both runs Windows and HAS Windows.
Weapons are usually built from durable materials like metal or plastic, but The S built this one primarily from cardboard. The oversize toy blaster fires plastic balls and uses a corkscrew to feed them into its motorized chamber for launching. Bonus points for incorporating those rubber sandals into the firing mechanism.
With the rise of live streaming, there are lots of choices for desktop microphones. But DIY Perks prefers to make his own things and wanted something with a unique style. So he designed and built this brass microphone with a shock mount and boom arm reminiscent of a vintage TV antenna. Incredibly, it only cost him $30.
Liam Thompson’s cat is currently 20 years old. The old guy is having trouble getting around these days – especially going up and down the stairs. So Liam, being a nice guy and an industrious builder, fabricated a custom elevator just for kitty. The basket rides on rails and is powered by a small electric hoist.
LEGO bricks are great for building all kinds of things, but did you know you could use them as a mold for casting concrete? Neither did we. HomeMadeModern shows us a couple of techniques – one in which the blocks are used as a direct mold, and the other where the bricks are covered in silicone, which becomes the mold.
ViralVideoLab shows off a 3D-printed glider which is able to remain airborne when its frame is covered with a film of water and dish soap. The surface tension creates a temporary wing covering and provides the proper amount of resistance to keep it aloft. Here’s an alternative design with a different wing structure.
If you’ve ever tried to watch TV outdoors, you know that the picture washes out in the sun. DIY Perks shows us how he built a custom outdoor TV by hacking a grid of bright LED lighting onto the back of an LCD panel recycled from a broken TV. To keep it from overheating, he built a water-cooling system using a pump and a car radiator.
Inspired by the expensive airless tires seen on construction equipment and concept vehicles, The Q set out on a mission to make his own shock-absorbing, puncture-proof bike tires using a similar design. What’s even more impressive is that he built them using only PVC pipe, nuts, bolts, and the tread from a standard bike tire.
When you buy saw blades from the hardware store, you can expect them to be made from steel. But maker Ivan Miranda wanted to see if it would be possible to make his own saw blades from other materials. He tested out a few designs using 3D-printed plastic and laser-cut aluminum with some very mixed results.
When it comes to building with LEGO bricks, keeping your bricks sorted can be a big pain. We’ve seen how brick sorting can be done with automation, but I Like to Make Stuff built something a bit simpler – a wood and acrylic device that sifts bricks through a series of holes, separating pieces of similar sizes and shapes.
After playing Mario Kart on his cardboard arcade machine, artist DanCreator wanted to ride in a real Mario Kart. So he got out his tools and got to building. To replicate the game’s anti-gravity zones, he attached two leaf blowers and some pool floats, so it glides like a hovercraft. We love how Dan recycles bits from other projects.
Maker Laura Kampf wanted an overland-style trailer to carry items behind her bike. Rather than going with an off-the-lot model, she built her own by taking the shells from two wheelbarrows and hinging them together atop an axle and wheels. The spare tire on the back is a nice touch.
We always enjoy watching the spheres go round and round on marble runs. They’re usually made wood, metal, or plastic, but DanCreator made his marble run out of his favorite material, cardboard. We’re impressed with its complexity and the precision of its ramps and curves. It took him roughly two months to build, and the effort shows.
A while back, Shadow Foam built a custom-cut foam tool organizer for their Makita power tools. After moving to a new workshop, they built an upgraded version using their new and improved foam, and incorporating feedback from followers. You can purchase Shadow Foam for your own projects here.
Inspired by those mechanical boxing gloves which turn up in comics and cartoons, JBV Creative wanted to replicate the idea using 3D printing. He initially built a couple of small ones which deploy with the push of a trigger, then upgraded it with a ridiculously long scissor mechanism. 3D print files available here.
