Awesome Making

The Hacksmith spent more than the cost of Tesla Model S to make the world’s largest Thor’s hammer. His team fabricated the enormous Mjolnir by painstakingly welding numerous sheets of steel. It measures more than 15 feet tall when standing on its head. Watching it get dipped into the galvanizing tanks was amazing.

Inspired by the antique fractal jaw vise that Hand Tool Rescue restored, Teaching Tech created a 3D-printed version of the fascinating workbench tool. Like the original, it can hold irregularly-shaped objects with its rotating grippers. Grab the STL files to print your own at Thingiverse, or play with the CAD file at OnShape.

A drill press is a large piece of workshop equipment mounted to a heavy base to provide a steady work surface for drilling through objects. Hands on Table thought it might be fun to make a miniature replica of a drill press and did an outstanding job building the tiny, working tool from scrap metal and some old motorcycle parts.

The Q typically spends his time building things that aren’t particularly useful. But this time out, he came up with a design for a saw that can cut through tree limbs twice as fast as usual. The saw uses a pair of blades and a spring to clamp down against the wood to double cutting speed.

A typical electric guitar body measures just under 2″ thick. Burls Art wanted to build the thinnest guitar he could out of wood. He used black limba wood for the body, which he cut and planed down to about half the regular thickness. He had to use special low-profile pickups due to the height limitations.

Hammers typically have a solid metal or wood handle and a solid metal head. But this unique hand tool by Hassan Abu-Izmero (with the help of his trainee Damian) conceals that structure under dozens of stainless steel washers welded together. The washers appear to be purely aesthetic, but they sure look cool.

With enough skill and epoxy resin, you can make a guitar out of just about anything. Maker Noe Hervas shows off a colorful electric guitar he built by cutting a custom wood mold, filling it with stacks of guitar picks bathed in clear resin. At least he saved one pick to play it with.

Woodworker and artist Blake Weber shows us the incredible and laborious process behind making this beautiful cabinet. The most remarkable feature is the set of curved doors he built by bending different colors of wood. He actually made two of these – one for himself and he sold the other one on his website.

Combination padlocks aren’t necessarily the most secure locks, but there’s a certain appeal to not needing a key to unlock them. In this video from Maker B, they show us how they machined pieces of stainless steel bolts and assembled them to form a working combo lock that looks like it came right off the store shelf.

After seeing Studson Studios’ model of Howl’s Moving Castle, the guys from Nerdforge were inspired to build a similarly complex new cover for their basic black Xbox Series X. After building a form-fitting wood wrap for the game console, Martina used foam, junk, and toys to create the structure. Hopefully it won’t overheat.

A triple-decker crossbow seems like an odd idea, though we guess it could improve your chances of hitting your target. The video game Hood: Outlaws & Legends features a wrist-mounted version of such a device, and now, thanks to Black Beard Projects we have a working, real-world version of this unusual weapon.

One of the most useful blocks in Minecraft is the furnace. It can smelt blocks and items, and works as a light source. After building a real-life mine cart, Joel Creates wanted to make a working replica of the game’s furnace. It has thermoelectric cells to convert heat to electricity with the ultimate goal of powering the cart.

Every bed we’ve ever slept on had visible legs or a platform to hold it up. But HomeMadeModern created an amazing bed that appears to float off of the ground. It has a tubular steel frame with its legs inset substantially from its edges. Its headboard is made from live-edge cedar and has small built-in shelves.

We recently saw some unusual axes, but they didn’t include one made by inflating metal. Maker Connor Holland is back with another very cool project – a lightweight axe he created by welding pieces of sheet metal, then expanding them with air into a pillow-like axe and handle. He attached bent steel blades to give it a sharp edge.

There’s already a Mjolnir toolbox but it’s made from plastic and filled with junky tools. To celebrate the release of Thor: Love and Thunder, Jonathan at ShadowFoam built a much better version. He made the toolbox from a pair of metal cases, filled it with foam liners and quality tools and a sawed-off sledgehammer for its handle.

A chakram is a throwing weapon that first appeared in the 5th-century BCE in India. The original weapons were simply a sharpened circle, but video game versions have evolved to add deadly spikes around their circumference. In this video, DIYer The S shows off an awesome retractable-spike chakram made from popsicle sticks.

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.

A properly sharpened kitchen knife can slice through just about any food, but a dull blade can’t even get through a tomato. Experimental Fun created a unique kitchen knife that uses replaceable utility blades instead of its own blade edge. Is it really necessary? No? But it certainly is unique.

After being ignored by too many distracted drivers and joggers, Cody Hovland decided to give his bicycle an upgrade. He built an enormous bell to mount on its frame in hopes that they might actually pay attention. He built its main body from a Weber BBQ grill, but it’s the mechanism inside that really gets the job done.

Paul Jackman often makes things from reclaimed pallet wood. This time, he used the wood to craft 100 screwdrivers for his sponsor ISOTunes. He first milled the pieces down into sticks, cut and milled them into hexagons, then shaped them into their final form on a lathe. He also put a hidden compartment into each handle.

Given how soft copper is, it seems like an unlikely material for a sledgehammer. But it sure looks pretty, so that’s probably why Robinson Foundry decided to make one out of the eye-catching metal. To fabricate it, he first created a 3D-printed form for a sand mold, then filled it with molten copper and machined its final shape.

We always enjoy watching rusty metal objects being reworked into new ones. In this satisfying blacksmithing video from Faraway Forge, they start off with a big old industrial hook, get it fiery hot, and hammer it into a bar shape. From there, it takes huge amounts of handwork to shape and hone it into a blade for a katana.

Modelmaker Excessively Sentimental shows off the painstaking process of building a 1/48-scale diorama of a rickety old barn. The level of detail is astounding in the balsa wood model and its surroundings, from the distressing on each wood plank to the individual blades of grass and leaves. (Thanks, Orion!)