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Awesome Engineering

Making Literal Ice Skates

Making Literal Ice Skates

Why you would want to glide around on skates made out of ice is anyone’s guess, but Works By Design got us to watch his video regardless. He started by testing various mixtures of water and binders for strength. After that, he fabricated custom metal blades and a special silicone ice mold. Our feet are freezing just looking at this thing.

10 LEGO Elevator Designs

10 LEGO Elevator Designs

After testing various LEGO door mechanisms, the Brick Experiment Channel is back with another series of engineering tests using LEGO and Technic parts. While most of their brick-built elevator and lift designs are motorized, one of them runs on pneumatic power. That scissor lift and rotating lift inspired by Scotland’s Falkirk Wheel are really neat.

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Making a Nail Wave Machine

Making a Nail Wave Machine

The Karakuri Channel loves to make unique mechanical art. This time, they designed and built a gadget that turns nearly 300 brass nails into a moving wave. To make it work, they removed the tip of each nail and attached a sleeve and a ball bearing. A motor turns interchangeable discs against the balls to create wave patterns. Watch with subtitles.

Six-Axis Rack Mechanism

Six-Axis Rack Mechanism

Mathematician Henry Segerman is back with another fascinating mechanism – a six-axis rack. It’s built with a dozen gears and sticks that look like long, green crinkle fries. The combination of parts locks the structure together, and moving any stick makes all of the others move. Like Henry’s other designs, you can download the 3D printer files Printables.

Tea-Making Marble Machine

Tea-Making Marble Machine

Inspired by Colin Furze and his tea-making Rube Goldberg machine, engineer James Bruton wanted to make his own overly complicated contraption for fixing drinks. Bruton’s TEA-800 beverage dispenser is triggered by a large ball bearing that activates various parts of the machine. It gradually moves a mug into position and fills it with hot water, brews a tea bag, and adds milk.

Möbius Strip Tank

Möbius Strip Tank

Engineer James Bruton has been experimenting with designs for a unique tank with treads that twist like a Möbius strip. After an earlier design that struggled with steering, his revised tank can bend at its center to drive around corners. It’s not a particularly practical design, but it sure is cool to watch in action.

Tentacle Kinetic Sculpture

Tentacle Kinetic Sculpture

Berlin-based artist Florian Goerlitz makes incredible mechanical artworks that have appeared in large installations and at festivals. This smaller piece is notable because it creates so much movement using just a single motor. Made almost entirely from wooden gears, it has three arms that move around its center, undulating like tentacles on an octopus.

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Mechanical 7-Segment Display with Keyboard

Mechanical 7-Segment Display with Keyboard

While they’re not exactly state-of-the-art, mechanical displays can be quite fascinating to watch in action. In this video from Japan’s Karakuri channel, they show off a 3D-printed machine that displays digits on a pair of 7-segment units by pushing its keys. It has 213 parts in all, and no electrical components. Turn English captions on.

LEGO Technic Vehicle Suspension Designs

LEGO Technic Vehicle Suspension Designs

We’ve seen a machine designed to test the suspension on LEGO cars. Here’s a series of nine LEGO Technic vehicles, each rolling on a unique suspension setup. Dr. Engine built and tested each of the rides to see which design had the best shock absorption, load handling, and rock crawling abilities.

Mark Rober’s NERF Gun in Wood

Mark Rober’s NERF Gun in Wood

A little while back, Mark Rober engineered a tiny NERF gun using a compliant mechanism. The design has spawned numerous other builds, including this neat-looking blaster Matt Esltea made from wood. It’s not made from a single part like Rober’s NERF weapon, but it’s built with a similarly springy launching mechanism. It’s a beautiful build, but will it work?

How Vintage Pinball Machines Work

How Vintage Pinball Machines Work

There’s a good reason that pinball machines are so expensive. These hand-assembled games incorporate multiple circuit boards, complicated wiring harnesses, and hundreds of parts. Technology Connections starts with a brief look at a 1990s pinball machine, then dives in deep to explain the amazing engineering of a vintage electromechanical machine.

Making a Working Valorant Killjoy Turret

Making a Working Valorant Killjoy Turret

The character Killjoy in Valorant has a nifty turret weapon. Mechanical engineer Danny Lum brought the weapon to life with a custom-built robot. At its heart is an OutofDarts Proton Pack hopper connected to a Jupiter blaster. He 3D printed a custom shell and built a motorized aiming system with an object-detection camera to shoot foam balls at human targets.

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LEGO 1×1 Gear Train

LEGO 1×1 Gear Train

Today’s most satisfying video comes in the form of this clip from the Brick Experiment Channel. Their goal? Create the longest possible chain of 1×1 LEGO Technic gears while retaining the same gear ratio from start to finish. We’re impressed that a single motor can drive that many gears.

Air-Powered Vertical Ornithopter

Air-Powered Vertical Ornithopter

Inspired by how hummingbirds hover in flight, Works by Design wanted to see if he could build a flying machine that lifts off vertically and stays aloft by flapping its wings. It uses compressed gas for propulsion and a custom-built air motor to move its wings. It’s not an efficient method of flight, but it was cool to observe the engineering process.

Making a Kinetic PC Case

Making a Kinetic PC Case

As part of his home workstation revamp, Ideal Idea wanted a computer case like no other. The idea? Build a PC that doubles as a kinetic sculpture. He made the case from laser-cut wood panels and created two interchangeable faces. An Arduino and a stepper motor control the mechanisms. The ripple design with the hexagons is fantastic.

8 Ways to Build a LEGO Motorized Bridge

8 Ways to Build a LEGO Motorized Bridge

Inspired by fellow creators munimuni Bekkan and Brick Experiment Channel, LEGO builder Dr. Engine thought making his collection of movable LEGO bridges would be fun. Each of the eight motorized bridge designs works in a different way to provide passage for boats beneath and vehicles on the roadway overhead.

Making a Ground Effect Hoverboard

Making a Ground Effect Hoverboard

No matter how much we’ve wanted one, Mattel never made a real-world Hoverboard like the one in Back to the Future II. JLaserVideo built a working hoverboard that can float a couple of inches off the ground. After exploring various kinds of levitation technology and their limitations, he settled on a design that works like an upside-down air hockey table.

A Literal Chatbot

A Literal Chatbot

The term “chatbot” is typically associated with those frustrating customer service AI gatekeepers before chatting with a real human. But in the case of this Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot, the chatbot has four legs and can walk. Engineers from the robotics company used ChatGPT and other AI models to enable Spot to answer questions and act as a tour guide.

Self-Playing Robot Guitar

Self-Playing Robot Guitar

While we have gotten some enjoyment from robots playing music, they’ll never replace human artistry. Engineer Michael Kuzma created his self-playing guitar to see how far he could push electromechanical music-making. Samurai Guitarist sat down with Kuzma to hear about its development and to listen to what the robot is capable of.

Ridiculously Overengineered Pencil Sharpeners

Ridiculously Overengineered Pencil Sharpeners

Engineers have come up with all kinds of pencil sharpeners. Shane from Stuff Made Here used his engineering expertise to see if he could come up with some new ways to achieve the sharpest point for his pencils. His six ridiculous pencil sharpeners include a 5-axis waterjet, a robot with a spinning X-acto blade, and a tiny chainsaw.

All-Terrain Tank Boots

All-Terrain Tank Boots

While an all-terrain personal mobility device sounds like a good idea, we’re not sure that boots that drive like tanks are the best way to get around. Joel Creates shows off his design for a wearable off-road vehicle that’s totally impractical yet extraordinarily cool to see in action. They’d balance way better if they had longer tracks.

Making a 10-Foot Tall 3D Printer

Making a 10-Foot Tall 3D Printer

Consumer 3D printers are great for producing small objects, but for larger things, you need to either buy a massive industrial printer or use one of those special printers that can print onto a moving belt. Emily the Engineer did neither of those things and instead modded a cheap 3D printer by adding long aluminum rails to extend its range of motion.

Making a Flywheel Trebuchet

Making a Flywheel Trebuchet

Engineer Tom Stanton is fascinated by the way in which flywheels can store up energy as they’re spun up to speed. In this clip, he combines a flywheel mechanism with a sturdy aluminum trebuchet, creating a durable machine that can toss a tennis ball at fast as 180 mph.

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