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Awesome Engineering

Model Rocket Sticks the Landing

Model Rocket Sticks the Landing

One of the big innovations to come out of SpaceX is the Falcon 9 rocket, which can return to earth and land on its tail end, making it much more reusable than other rockets. After years of research, planning, and trial-and-error, Joe Barnard from BPS.space built a model rocket that works much in the same way. (Thanks, Rob!)

Omni-Wheel Drift Cart

Omni-Wheel Drift Cart

After building a bicycle that balanced on an omni-wheel, engineer James Bruton wanted to see if he could apply the same mechanism to a drift cart. By mounting the omni-wheel at the back and motorized wheels at the front, the vehicle is able to powerslide with ease while still remaining controlled. Watch part two here.

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How the Mars Perseverance Rover Works

How the Mars Perseverance Rover Works

Since landing in 2021, NASA’s Mars Perseverence Rover has sent back fascinating images and data from the red planet. Jared Owen offers up an in-depth look at how the rover was launched, the scientific equipment it carries, and how it was engineered to survive the journey and the harsh conditions on Mars.

A Robot That Can Solve Jigsaw Puzzles

A Robot That Can Solve Jigsaw Puzzles

Shane from Stuff Made Here has made machines that reduce the difficulty of basketball, pool, and golf. Now he’s built a robot which can look at jigsaw puzzle pieces, pick them up, spin them, and place them in the right location. It was a complex engineering challenge to make it solve even the simplest of puzzles.

Adjustable Vortex Ring Cannon

Adjustable Vortex Ring Cannon

JBV Creative has been playing with designs for a vortex cannon that fires a puff of smoke and a blast of air to create smoke rings. He’s refined his creation into this handheld unit with a mechanical iris to adjust the size of its smoke rings and an LED ring light to illuminate them.

Split-Wheel Bicycle v2.0

Split-Wheel Bicycle v2.0

After showing us it was possible to ride a bike with its rear wheel split in half, Sergii from The Q came up with an even more radical build. Starting with the split rear wheel, he modified the front of a bicycle with an extension arm and split the wheel into thirds. He had to experiment with configurations to make it work, though.

Quad-Gear Speed Bike

Quad-Gear Speed Bike

We recently saw how to create a very fast bicycle by dramatically increasing the size of its drive gear. YouTuber BigWR took a different approach by arranging multiple sets of gears to up this bike’s gear ratio. He was able to pedal up to speeds as high as 33 mph on flat ground.

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How Cardboard Tubes Are Made

How Cardboard Tubes Are Made

Heavy-duty cardboard tubes are used to protect rolled goods in transit and provide forms for concrete construction projects. SBS Tube shows off the production process behind these large tubes, which involves gluing together numerous individual strips of brown paper around a metal roller.

Powering an E-Bike with a Drone Motor

Powering an E-Bike with a Drone Motor

The motors used in electric-powered bicycles are usually pretty heavy. Engineer Tom Stanton wanted to see if it would be possible to rig up a tiny but strong 1kW motor from a drone to propel a bike. The trick was creating a series of gears and belts to reduce the motor’s high rotational speed while increasing its torque.

Testing a Stair-Climbing Wheelchair

Testing a Stair-Climbing Wheelchair

Cambry from JerryRigEverything uses a wheelchair to get around, but obstacles like staircases can certainly get in the way. So she and her husband Zack reached out to Scewo to test out their amazing motorized wheelchair, which not only can climb stairs but can go off-road, and lift its passenger to a standing height.

LEGO Chain-Drive Machine

LEGO Chain-Drive Machine

You can build all kinds of interesting machines using LEGO Technic parts. In this video, Brick Technology shows off a series of progressively more complicated machines they built using a motor, a chain wound around gears, and barriers to guide its path. The higher-level machines are truly fascinating to watch in action.

Voice-Controlled Vehicle

Voice-Controlled Vehicle

Driving a car typically requires a mix of motor skills to steer the wheel and push the pedals. Engineer James Bruton wanted to see if he could make a vehicle that was controlled by voice. The Deepgram speech recognition API and James’ electronic circuits are fairly responsive, but the lag is enough to make for a harrowing ride.

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Piano Key Testing Rig

Piano Key Testing Rig

Pianos must be able to play hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of notes during their lifetimes. This fascinating video shows how one piano manufacturer tests their mechanisms while loosening up any stiff parts before delivery. The machine has 88 “fingers” that each strike a key in rapid succession.

Manual Typewriter Typing Robot

Manual Typewriter Typing Robot

If you’ve ever played with a vintage manual typewriter, you know how hard it can be just to hit those mechanical keys with enough force. JBV Creative built a custom robot that uses 3D-printed “fingers” and servo motors to type text and ASCII art on an old Remington Rand Office Riter. Money shot at 15:34.

Tightrope Balancing Machine

Tightrope Balancing Machine

After building several self-balancing machines, engineer James Bruton wanted to see if he could make one that could help him walk across a narrow beam. It uses a large motorized wheel that changes direction based on the angle detected by a sensor. The trick is not letting his body compensate too much for its motion.

Unmissable Basketball Hoop 4.0

Unmissable Basketball Hoop 4.0

A couple of years back, Stuff Made Here created a basketball hoop that was always in the right place to catch the ball. Now he’s back with an upgraded, cable-driven robot with six degrees of freedom so it can catch balls thrown long or short or off-axis. Like all good engineering projects, it required lots of failures along the way.

Package Tying Machine

Package Tying Machine

We always enjoy seeing how industrial machines are engineered. In this video from author and maker of things Theodore Gray, he shows off a 1963 Bunn packaging machine that was designed to quickly wrap items with string. What makes it really interesting is how it ties a knot and cuts the twine perfectly every time.

Making an Omni-Sphere Vehicle

Making an Omni-Sphere Vehicle

Engineer James Bruton is fascinated with omni-directional wheels. For this video, he set out to make a vehicle that rolls on three split-hemisphere balls which can move in any direction. He’s since added a seat to it, resulting in what is basically the world’s most powerful office chair.

Omni-Wheel Bicycle

Omni-Wheel Bicycle

An omni-wheel is a unique kind of wheel that can roll backwards, forwards, and slide side-to-side thanks to its multiple smaller wheels. Engineer James Bruton modified a bicycle that Colin Furze had previously hacked and installed a self-balancing omni-wheel on its front fork to see how it handled.

Sandwich Assembly Robot

Sandwich Assembly Robot

Mechanical engineer Kuroki Yuto and his collaborators came up with a novel use for a 3D printer mechanism – using the 3-axis machine to manipulate and assemble parts. In this video, they show how the system can be used to put together a sandwich. They used the same technique to assemble a toy car and to fold a shirt.

Paper-Thin Speaker

Paper-Thin Speaker

Engineers from MIT have developed an incredibly thin and lightweight speaker that flexes like a sheet of paper. The piezoelectric speaker’s volume increases when it comes into contact with other surfaces, so theoretically, it could be used to turn entire walls into immersive, room-size loudspeakers.

Robot Mouse Aimbot

Robot Mouse Aimbot

Do you suck at first-person shooters? Kamal Carter might have the solution. He built a servo-controlled robotic rig that moves a mouse exactly where targets are by scanning the screen for specific colors. It cheats quite well in the FPS trainer AimLab, but it’ll need more work to be accurate in a real game.

Nested Circle Clock

Nested Circle Clock

Thanks to his Swiss heritage, Alexandre Chappel felt obligated to build a timepiece of some sort. So he set about making a unique tabletop clock that tells time on a series of nested circles. He used a CNC machine to cut all of the wooden gears. He should probably add a pointer, so you know where to look for the time.

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