Awesome Ivan Miranda

Maker Ivan Miranda wanted to build a mechanical clock that uses marbles to show the time. He created an elevator that lifts marbles and drops them into a track. He used light sensors to detect white marbles and solenoids to release the right ones to display dot-matrix digits. It’s a work in progress, but it’s already impressive. Watch part one of the build here.

With the help of his gigantic 3D printer, maker Ivan Miranda built a ridiculously overpowered toy weapon. It uses a pair of powerful motors and belts to quickly load balls into its hopper, then blows them out the front using a ducted fan like the ones used in leaf blowers.

Ivan Miranda built himself a massive 3D printer, so what better to use it for but to make a 3D-printed tank that’s big enough to sit inside of and drive? He’s been working on the tank for some time but only recently added the seat and control pedals. He plans on adding a turret and a cannon soon.

Inspired by the machines of Wintergatan, Daniel de Bruin, and Matthias Wandel, fellow maker Ivan Miranda created his own musical marble machine. He designed and built it from scratch using 3D printed parts, a resin drum, and an aluminum frame. The ball bearings make notes by falling onto a MIDI controller keypad.

Maker Ivan Miranda lives in a beautiful place in Spain. But he hates when it rains there, and he doesn’t like carrying an umbrella. So he set about the task of engineering a motorized helmet that uses a powerful motor and a turbine to blow the rain away from his body. And yes, it works in real rain.

Ivan Miranda has built a few homebrew 3D printers, including three very big printers. His latest build – the Giant 3D Printer MkIV is his largest yet, with a 1000mm x 500mm (39.3″ x 19.7″) heated printing bed. Follow along with the build process, then watch it print a massive plastic wrench. You can buy the plans to build your own here.

Maker Ivan Miranda’s electric off-road vehicle is built more like a tank than a skateboard, riding on motorized, 3D-printed tracks instead of wheels. The drivetrain engineering is impressive, but is it powerful enough to climb a hill while he’s riding on it?

After getting his hands on a foam cylinder that looks like a gigantic NERF dart, Ivan Miranda did what any enterprising geek would do, and built himself a weapon to launch his oversize ammo. He built his bazooka from PVC drain pipe, 3D-printed parts, rubber surgical tubing, and paracord to reset its plunger.

A while back, maker Ivan Miranda built himself a robot which could write words in the sand. He’s back to build an upgraded version of the machine which can draw much faster than the previous one. It uses 50 mini servos to doodle, two mini tanks to drive, and Arduino Mega controllers for its digital brains.

After building himself an huge 3D printer from scratch, Ivan Miranda thought he could do even better. The new version features a more reliable, and lighter weight bed mechanism, and greater rigidity for the carriage and printer base. The goal is cleaner and more reliable oversize prints, and a machine that’s easier to work with.

Maker Ivan Miranda recently completed his largest build to date, a working R/C model of a tank made using lots of 3D printed parts. Its motors and tracks are powerful enough to negotiate rough terrain, and it’s even got room for a driver inside. Check out the full series of build videos here.