Awesome Machines

Most 3D printers build objects one flat layer at a time and need support structures for overhangs. Joshua Bird’s 4-axis 3D printer can rotate its extruder head at various angles, allowing it to produce objects without supports. While the hardware is cool, the real magic is the S4 slicing algorithm, which figures out the optimal path for self-supporting models.

Got dirty hands? You could wash them in the sink, or you could go with an unnecessarily complicated machine instead. Joseph’s Machines built this contraption that subjects its users (victims?) to a handwashing regimen. It starts by dunking hands in water, lathering them with soap, scrubbing, then rinsing and drying them automatically.

Have you ever wondered how they make prescription eyeglass lenses fit the frame you picked out? Colin Birkman from Precision Optics Eyewear shows how a special machine traces and scans the inside shape of the frames, then sends that data to another machine precisely cuts lenses to the right size to pop into the holes.

We’ve seen LEGO airplanes before, but never anything like this. Expert LEGO builder karsa created this amazing 54″ long jumbo jet model with working flight controls. It has a combination of mechanical and pneumatic systems to control its flaps, rudder, landing gear, cargo doors, and more. Show your support for the design by voting for it on LEGO Ideas.

The letters floating in your alphabet soup had to get made somehow, and now we know how. This brief, but immensely satisfying video shows how letter-shaped tubes are extruded from pasta dough, then a spinning blade slices off each letter and drops them into a tray below. The same technique is used to make other pasta shapes.

The Karakuri Channel has made some amazing little mechanical gadgets and kinetic artworks. This video shows how they built a small but complicated machine that tosses dice onto a turntable. Once they land inside its ring, an arm clears the dice and sends them up an elevator to start the process over. (Turn captions on for English descriptions.)

If you want to remove pencil marks from paper, you need a good eraser. While good old elbow grease usually does the trick, there are motorized erasers too. LEGO builder Dr. Engine thought it would be fun to build a few overengineered Technic machines to see which would do the best job at erasing graphite from paper. Which design is your favorite?

Ever wonder how food factories can crank out so many burritos? Well, they use a machine like this one. Watch as the Solbern BF2 SS uses its rolling, spinning plates to transport tortillas down the assembly line while gently folding their sides to wrap around ingredients. Is anyone else hungry for Mexican food now?

You know the saying that you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube? Well, this is the part where toothpaste gets there in the first place. Factory Monster takes us on a tour of a highly automated Korean factory to show how machines blend ingredients and squirt the mixture into plastic tubes, which are then sealed and packaged.

What you’re looking at here is a satisfying montage of machines designed to bend and bond tiny wires in place. The machines use ultrasonic and laser technology to reliably perform this exacting task. The part where they show the coin for scale puts things into perspective. Such machines are typically used to connect external components to silicon chips.

This compact machine brings computer-controlled carving to any desktop without breaking the bank. Starting under $300, SainSmart’s ready-to-use CNC carves wood and soft metals and can also mill precise traces into circuit boards. Add-on modules turn the Cubiko into a laser engraver, polisher, or drawing tool.

The first time we saw a robot that could bowl a strike, it was CGI. It turns out there’s been a real bowling robot all along. E.A.R.L. was built by the United States Bowling Congress to test bowling balls. The machine picks up a ball, spins it between its grippers, then rolls a perfect down the alley. E.A.R.L. once bowled over 800 points across three games.

This custom build from Brick Machines combines two of our favorite pastimes – LEGO and candy. Built primarily from LEGO Technic and Mindstorms parts, the tabletop factory includes a mechanical candy hopper, an optical color sorter, a conveyor belt, color-matched lights, and an elevator to keep the sweet treats flowing in an endless loop.

You know how a pickleball has all of those holes in it? We always thought they got there using some kind of a mold. But this video shows how one factory uses multiple drills to punch holes in a hollow plastic sphere. After each round of drilling, a machine rotates the ball and drills again until complete. Someone needs to turn this video into a 10-hour loop.

Because Steve Price can’t be trusted to roast marshmallows, the Sprice Machines host built a complicated chain reaction machine to do the work for him. The camping-themed Rube Goldberg contraption starts with a toy car rolling down a hill and ends with a marshmallow spinning above a heat gun. Now he just needs to expand it to make S’mores.

Meltio makes machines that use wire-laser technology to 3D print objects out of various types of metal. The additive manufacturing process uses a high-power blue laser to weld thin metal beads to form shapes. This time-lapse video footage gives us a glimpse into its capabilities, starting with a spherical tank that we hoped would be a Death Star.