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Awesome Machines

Recirculating Gravity Well

Recirculating Gravity Well

A gravity well is a cone-shaped device that pulls marbles or other small balls into its center like a vortex. JBV Creative built a version of a gravity well connected to an elevator, so as spheres drop through its middle, they head back up to the top and start their journey all over again. It’s incredibly satisfying once he drops thousands of steel balls into it.

Mass-Producing Sandwiches

Mass-Producing Sandwiches

We like to make our own sandwiches. But a store-bought sandwich might have to do when you’re in a pinch. This video from How It’s Made takes us inside a factory that cranks out sandwiches, where humans and machines work hand-in-robo-hand to create lunches for thousands every day. Yep, there’s a robot designed solely to apply mayonnaise.

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Longest LEGO Chain-Drive Machine

Longest LEGO Chain-Drive Machine

A while back, we checked out a complicated machine that used LEGO Technic parts to pull a chain around a bunch of gears. That one was built by Brick Technology. The Brick Machines took the idea and expanded on it with a ridiculously complicated machine driven by a continuous chain built from 1,184 LEGO chain links.

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.

High-Speed Bottle Blowing Machine

High-Speed Bottle Blowing Machine

This machine is moving so quickly that it’s hard to believe how much it is doing. The high-speed blow molding system can crank out and quality test roughly 45,000 bottles per hour – that’s 750 bottles per minute. We need The Slow Mo Guys to stop by this factory with their high-speed camera.

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.

How to Cook Dozens of Chickens at Once

How to Cook Dozens of Chickens at Once

Want some freshly-cooked rotisserie chicken? These guys have set up the ultimate chicken cooking operation, featuring a variety motorized wheels and carousels that each cook dozens of chickens over an open fire. We’re not sure why every machine is different, but they all seem to get the job done.

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Emitter: Fluid Art Machine

Emitter: Fluid Art Machine

We’ve featured the hypnotic fluid creations of artist Roman De Giuli before. In this video, he demonstrates the Emitter – a custom-engineered machine that uses stepper motors to pump and drip colorful pigments into water. The resulting designs are still organic but exhibit a rhythm and repetition not seen in De Giuli’s earlier works. Shot in 8K HDR at 60 fps.

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.

LEGO Sand Drawing Machine

LEGO Sand Drawing Machine

We’ve seen machines that can draw patterns in sand, but this is the first time we’ve spotted one that was built using LEGO Technic components.  Brick Machines created this sand art machine with a magnetic assembly that moves along a set of custom aluminum rails using corkscrew gears driven by a Mindstorms controller and tech from PyBricks,

The Impaler 10,000,000

The Impaler 10,000,000

The Hydraulic Press Channel goes back to basics by showing off their latest tool of destruction, The Impaler 10,000,000. This custom-made press tool has a pointy tip and a matching base, allowing it to poke holes, crush, and extrude objects until they surrender to its force. It’s really good at juicing fruit, too.

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Machining a Spring

Machining a Spring

We’ve seen a complicated machine that creates springs by bending stiff wire, but this machine appears to be a bit simpler. It’s fascinating to see how it twirls the metal into a perfect spring by feeding it through a small opening and pressing it against an angled tool to bend it.

Floppy Disk Factory

Floppy Disk Factory

It’s been a long time since we needed floppy disks to store data. But we still enjoyed watching this retro factory video posted by StirlingEngineering, which shows how they used to produce 3.5″ floppies. It’s a satisfying 5-minutes sequence of mechanical ear candy.

Comparing the Sizes of Heavy Construction Machinery

Comparing the Sizes of Heavy Construction Machinery

We’ve been up close with some of the impressive land-moving and construction equipment that Caterpillar makes. MetaBallStudios sizes up these alongside some even bigger machines, including giant excavators, cranes, and earth movers that make even the 51.5 foot-tall CAT 797F mining truck look like a miniature.

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.

Fun with Sheet Metal

Fun with Sheet Metal

Get your daily dose of engineering porn with this video from Uwe Krumm GmbH. The company makes precision tooling for manufacturing, including the press brake tools shown here. It’s a hypnotic and satisfying 6-minute sequence of sheet metal being bent into complex shapes through the simple application of force.

World’s Smallest Hydraulic Jack

World’s Smallest Hydraulic Jack

We can’t think of any practical reason you’d need a car jack that fits in the palm of your hand. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Maker B took the time to craft a 1/5th-scale hydraulic jack from steel, brass, and copper. It not only looks amazing, but the tiny jack is fully functional. Maybe he can use it to change tires on an R/C car.

ELEGOO OrangeStorm Giga Large-volume 3D Printer

ELEGOO OrangeStorm Giga Large-volume 3D Printer

The enormous OrangeStorm Giga 3D printer can output objects up to 800mm x 800mm x 1000mm (31.4″ x 31.4″ x 39.4″.) With a top speed of 300 mm/s, it prints fast and can hold up to four FDM print heads for outputting four of the same model simultaneously. Despite its size, it’s well-priced – with Kickstarter orders starting at $1500, including one print head.

Sinking LEGO Ships in an Aquarium

Sinking LEGO Ships in an Aquarium

Expert LEGO builder Brick Technology put together a series of unusual mechanisms designed with one purpose – to sink LEGO ships. After starting with a machine that fires bricks at rowboats, he stepped up his efforts with machines that create waterspouts, waves, and floods and tested them on progressively larger boats.

Eatch Robotic Kitchen

Eatch Robotic Kitchen

This industrial robot from Eatch can cook up to 5,000 meals per day, with each meal prepared in its own small pot instead of one giant one. The system automatically dispenses cooking oil, fresh ingredients, and seasonings into the pots, then spins them at an angle over a flame. It even washes the pots after it’s done.

Unbending Rebar

Unbending Rebar

We’ve seen how rebar is made; now watch how these metal reinforcing rods get a second chance at life after they’ve been bent. Created by JP Botelho, this machine can take even severely mangled lengths of rebar and literally set them straight. It’s an oddly satisfying process to watch.

10 Kinds of Motorized LEGO Doors

10 Kinds of Motorized LEGO Doors

Sliding, swinging, garage, barn. There are lots of different kinds of doors. The Brick Experiment Channel shows us how to make various kinds of doors using LEGO Technic parts and how to automate them to open and close with the twist of a dial. That sectional garage door works a lot like a real one does.

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