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Awesome Machines

Precision Packaging Machine

Precision Packaging Machine

If you’ve ever received a giant box from Amazon only to find a tiny item rattling around inside, you’ll appreciate this video. What you’re about to see is a Sparck Technologies automated packaging machine that first takes a precision scan of an object, then cuts and folds a custom box that fits perfectly, reducing waste.

The Green Tomato Kicker

The Green Tomato Kicker

When it comes to tomatoes, you generally don’t want to mix the unripe green ones with the ripe red ones. In this episode of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, they visited Weco to see a machine that uses light, optics, and computers to figure out which tomatoes are which color and kicks the green ones out.

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Machining a 10-Ton Gear

Machining a 10-Ton Gear

The guys from the Beyond the Press channel take a moment away from destroying stuff to show us how something is made. Starting out with a 10-ton steel wheel, Finland’s ATA Gears used their DMG MORI CNC milling machine to gradually whittle its way around its edge to create the grooves in a massive gear.

HoMedics Drift Sandscape Garden

HoMedics Drift Sandscape Garden

The HoMedics Drift is a production version of those sand drawing machines we’ve seen before. This soothing and meditative gizmo uses a ball bearing to draw endless geometric patterns in the sand. It also has colorful RGB lighting, and its designs can be controlled via a companion mobile app. Available in 16″ and 21″ sizes.

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.

LEGO Essential Worker MOC

LEGO Essential Worker MOC

Expert LEGO builder JK Brickworks shows off another incredible automaton from his collection. This motorized machine features a LEGO worker whose only job is to retrieve balls from the lower bin and deliver them to the upper bin. The video shows the mechanism on the backside so you can see how it works.

LEGO Motorcycle Suspension Tester

LEGO Motorcycle Suspension Tester

When engineers want to test a vehicle’s suspension, they use a variety of methods, including test tracks, hydraulic posts, and treadmills. Brick Technology built a miniature version of the treadmill test using LEGO Technic components and used it to see how different motorcycle suspension setups absorb shocks.

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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.

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.

LEGO Digger Experiments

LEGO Digger Experiments

LEGO Technics and Mindstorms geek Munimuni Bekkan shows off a series of unusual devices they built trying to figure out the most efficient design for a machine which could drill itself into a bin of bricks. Drill-kun no. 6 works the best, but the one with all the gears looks the coolest.

Blow-Molding a Boat

Blow-Molding a Boat

This fascinating video from GWIN TECH shows how a factory quickly cranks out lightweight plastic boats. The blow molding process involves filling a plastic bladder with hot air and then stamping them together with giant dies while the plastic is still pliable.

DIY Chain-Link Fence Machine

DIY Chain-Link Fence Machine

We’ve seen how industrial machines are used to make large sections of chain-link fencing quickly. The Q built a tabletop version of such a device, but his machine is hand-cranked and makes only one zig-zag of wire at a time, so we imagine fencing in his whole backyard this way could take some time.

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Carving Wooden Balls

Carving Wooden Balls

This short, but highly satisfying video takes us inside a workshop for a look at how to make perfect spheres from wood. The process involves using a curved cutting blade against a dowel that’s been attached to one end of a lathe. Be sure to check out tesssxkiersten82’s TikTok for more hypnotic woodworking videos.

Tennis Balls vs. Razor Racket

Tennis Balls vs. Razor Racket

A normal tennis racket has gut, nylon, or polyester strings. But what if you replaced those strings with razor blades and then fired the ball at the racket with a powerful air cannon at 500+ MPH? Tyler Bell demonstrates exactly that, dicing up tennis balls in a fraction of a second with his deadly looking rig.

Machine Cuts the Cheese

Machine Cuts the Cheese

Your local deli can slice cheese for you, but it’s done one slice at a time. This industrial machine from TEXTOR is designed to cut entire bricks of cheese in seconds. It uses a conveyor belt to push cheese through a rapidly-spinning circular blade. Here’s another one of their machines making quick work of pepperoni and bacon.

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.

Ammo Up Ammunition Picker Uppers

Ammo Up Ammunition Picker Uppers

Designed for cleaning up firing ranges and paintball fields, the Ammo-Up makes quick work of spent shell casing and paintball pellets. The machine rolls along and snatches up ammo with “fingers” and deposits them into a bin for easy disposal or recycling. They also make a compact model which you poke at the ground.

How Steam Engines Are Made

How Steam Engines Are Made

The way that steam engines can propel things using boiling water is pretty amazing. This video from How It’s Made takes us inside a factory that makes radial steam engines and shows not only how they come together, but how they work.

Battle of the Titans

Battle of the Titans

For more than 20 years, theater company La Machine has been building massive mechanical puppets that they march through the streets. During an April 2022 performance in Toulouse, France, their fire-breathing dragon-horse Long Ma Jing Shen teamed up with Asterion the minotaur to stare down a giant spider.

Waterjet Glass Spiral

Waterjet Glass Spiral

With enough power to cut through glass or even metal, industrial waterjets can be incredibly impressive. In this video from WARDJet, they show how one of their computer-controlled machines can slice a spiral so precisely in a sheet of glass that the glass can be stretched out into a dome after cutting.

Strandbeest Evolution

Strandbeest Evolution

Since 1990, artist Theo Jansen has created numerous walking and moving machines. Each year, he heads to the beach with a new one of his Strandbeests and lets it able about along the, powered solely by the wind. This video compilation shows off some of the many amazing and amusing creatures as they march across the beach.

Link

Link

Setting up a Rube Goldberg machine and getting it to all work perfectly can be quite difficult. Filmmaker Tomohiro Okazaki took a different approach to making their machine, building an impossible chain-reaction sequence using stop-motion animation.

Making a Spark Wheel

Making a Spark Wheel

Builder Laura Kampf designed and created this dangerous but awesome looking machine which generates a huge stream of sparks for creating epic long-exposure photos. When she got stumped about the ignition system, she turned to her pal Adam Savage to help come up with a creative solution.

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