Awesome Machines

YouTube and Vine trickster Zach King created this wacky video which features what appears to be a typical Rube Goldberg machine, but that has magical powers thanks to the wonders of editing and post-production.

This incredible machine is the Plasser & Theurer RU 800 S, and what it’s doing is building a railway line by laying rock, beams, and track with minimal human intervention – a once monumental task if you’ve ever seen an episode of Hell on Wheels.

This hypnotic video shows how a modern kitchen appliance can knead a potful of freshly steamed rice into a chewy and delicious Mochi rice ball. We kept waiting for the ball to slither its way out of the pot and start talking.

This incredible tech from DMG MORI is a single machine that can create metal objects using a process called laser deposition welding, which melts a metallic powder into a desired form. It can then mill the parts to further refine them.

While we’re not sure of the practical uses for a metal bike helmet, we’re still mesmerized by this Mazak Variaxis 5-axis milling machine as it replicates a Rudy Project Windmax helmet from a block of aluminum using PowerMILL software.

This incredibly complex machine takes spools of fiberglass, Kevlar or carbon fiber and braids them together for form a durable composite. Similar techniques are being used to make lightweight automotive and airplane parts.

LEGO tinkerer Kleinraum42 pitches his idea for a set which encourages builders to create fun interactive machines using marbles and LEGO dominoes (LEGOminoes?) Head to LEGO Ideas and vote to help make it a reality.

Inventables‘ easy-to-use machine lets you upload designs from your computer and carves objects from a variety of materials. The bundled software can carve and cut in 2.5D, while you can use off-the-shelf CAM software for full 3D objects.

In this demonstration for Mastercam, you’ll see a solid cylinder of metal turned into perfectly spherical globe, using a high-speed computer-aided lathe – a machine that delicately cuts away metal as the piece is rotated.

A pair of forklift drivers pull a stupidly dangerous, but nonetheless impressive maneuver – with one giving the other one a lift into the back of a truck to help it move its load inside. Apparently this isn’t that uncommon.

This impressive Rube Goldberg contraption was built to promote the awesome platform adventure game Leo’s Fortune. With its use of trains, clocks and saws, it does a good job representing some of the game’s levels.

Using Scantech’s SL 3D scanner and a 5-axis Breton CNC machine, they were able to precisely recreate a damaged stone gargoyle from Denmark’s Kronborg Castle. Imagine the work it would have taken to do the job by hand.

This modern marvel of manufacturing is a Sharpe Nissin CNC tube bender, which spits out a seemingly endless variety of 3D shapes by manipulating metal tubing. It’s also Bender Bending Rodríguez’s great-grandfather.

This flat-packed wooden toy will keep you occupied for hours as each turn of the crank unleashes an endless cascade of ball bearings. Its maker also offers another configuration, and expects them to go on sale soon.

The AFE-2DC ULTRA CNC sounds like the name of a souped-up droid, but it’s actually a machine designed to do just one thing – bend wires at insanely fast speeds. Watch in amazement as it churns out all manner of shapes in seconds.

Superlegosam wanted a soda machine on his desk, so he did what any LEGO geek would do, and built a fully-functional vending machine using LEGO bricks and an NXT controller. It even accepts coins. He’s also got a candy machine.

With a nod to the Strandbeest, check out Jason Allemann’s latest supercool LEGO creation, a motorized post-apocalyptic themed custom LEGO walking ship.

YouTuber fornax turned a broken printer into something even more useless (and infuriating), a useless machine with not one or two but eight switches. At this point, it’s almost useful for exercise.

An incredible demonstration of the mechanical blacksmithing marvels built by Germany’s Hebö Machines, capable of twisting, turning, bending and texturing metal in seconds.

LEGO fanatic Akiyuki has spent years working on complex mechanical LEGO builds, and his latest is a real doozie. The 100-foot-long machine serves no purpose but to shuttle around 500 tiny balls.

Austin has a thing for K’nex building toys. Check out this insane, room-filling ball-rolling contraption built from over 40,000 components, 8 motors, 5 lifts and over 450 feet of track.

Designed by studio HeyHeyHey, Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine is the most complicated Rube Goldberg contraption we’ve ever seen. It’s purpose? Promoting itself.

There’s more than one way to brew beer, as is evidenced by this insanely complicated Rube Goldberg contraption from Trumer Pils which goes to great lengths to produce a cold pint.

This innovative approach to the robotic gripper from Cornell, the U of C, and iRobot uses granular material that flows around a item and conforms to its shape to pick up objects of all shapes and sizes.

In the machine that can print buildings, layers of sand are bound together to create a marble-like material, in effect turning it back into solid stone. The process includes internal curves and ducting.

Too lazy to get in the car and head to the local Krispy Kreme? Loosen your belt and get one of these insane machines instead: they crank out 1200-2400 fat-filled mini-donuts per hour.