Awesome Making

Leaf springs from cars and trucks might not offer the best ride quality, but they make some pretty awesome weapons when recycled by a skilled bladesmith. Faraway Forge crafted a beautiful Japanese tanto-style knife from one such rusty piece of metal. We love how he kept the pitted texture as part of the finished piece.

If you want to keep people from breaking into your workshop, a big steel door can certainly be a deterrent. Builder Paul Pinto shows off the impressive 400-pound door that he built for his shop with the help of a CNC plasma cutting table. Those rivet heads and wheel mechanism make it look even more impenetrable.

Several years back, metalworker Ron Covell walked through the process of bending metal to create a cool bomber-style metal seat. Its construction proved intimidating for most, so he came up with a simpler design that uses a single sheet of steel, and might actually be feasible if you have the proper tools in your shop.

There’s a musical instrument called a steel guitar, but it’s named for its metal slide, and not the material it’s made from. But metalsmith Paul Pinto decided to actually make a guitar out of the weighty metal. Watch as he cuts, welds, forges, and grinds a steel plate into a beautiful chrome-plated instrument. Now how does it sound?

CNC plasma cutters are big and expensive, but this tabletop robot lets anyone add a computer-controlled metal cutter to their workshop. While it can be used with CAD software, it requires no external computer for operation. Its arm can also be used to trace cutting templates. It can cut an area up to 26” x 15”. Plasma torch not included.

While it might look really cool to have a coffee table made of molten lava, it wouldn’t last long, and your house would surely burn down. On the other hand, this table from Positive Couple looks the part, without the deadly heat and fumes. They built it using backlit crystals, oak, and epoxy, set onto an aluminum base.

When you buy saw blades from the hardware store, you can expect them to be made from steel. But maker Ivan Miranda wanted to see if it would be possible to make his own saw blades from other materials. He tested out a few designs using 3D-printed plastic and laser-cut aluminum with some very mixed results.

Hydroforming is the process of shaping metal structures by inflating them with pressurized water or air. Maker Connor Holland has been experimenting with the technique, and shared this compilation of some of the more interesting and satisfying results. The pillow one looks like a metal whoopee cushion.

Clamps are usually made from metal for a good reason. After all, they need to be able to withstand a decent amount of stress as they’re tightened. While it might not be the most practical of workbench tools, we do love the craft and engineering of this plywood vise grip clamp built by carpenter John Heisz.

Burls Art and his pal went camping in search of wood and other materials they could build a guitar from. In addition, they built the instrument in the forest entirely using hand tools. It didn’t take long to forage the supplies, but it took nearly a week in the woods to create the guitar.

Fans of This Is Spinal Tap will immediately get a giggle out of this even smaller version of Stonehenge created by model artist Luke Towan. He created the detailed replica of the ancient monument with the help of an Anycubic Photon Ultra resin 3D printer.

Maker Laura Kampf wanted an overland-style trailer to carry items behind her bike. Rather than going with an off-the-lot model, she built her own by taking the shells from two wheelbarrows and hinging them together atop an axle and wheels. The spare tire on the back is a nice touch.

Most of the time when you see a leather bag, it’s stitched and maybe glued together. But builder Jimmy Diresta is used to working with more substantial hardware than that, so he set about handcrafting a rugged, squared-off bag using metal rivets to hold it together.

After winning more eBay auctions than he expected to, modder Peter Knetter had some extra Nintendo Switch handhelds lying around. So he took one of them and gave it a complete makeover – covering its plastic case and buttons with wood ones. It’s definitely thicker and heavier than the original, but it’s certainly unique.

After turning himself into an ostrich, Bobby Duke took a rusty railroad spike and transformed it into an mini fighting knife inspired by a design by Kyle Royer. Towards the end of the video, the normally ebullient Duke opens up about his struggles with depression, reminding us that mental health issues can affect anyone.

After defeating JustDustin’s “unbreakable” box, the guys from Hacksmith Industries decided it might be fun to build their own incredibly strong see-through enclosure to send back to Dustin. But first, Hacksmith conducted their own durability testing – including a beatdown by a forklift and an entire crossfit class.

DanCreator / Cardboard Crafts built this full-size vending machine mostly out of cardboard. When a user inserts a coin, it dispenses a Cup Noodle instant ramen cup of their choice and then pours the right amount of hot water into the cup with the push of a button.

Velcro and other similar fasteners are made using an interlocking pattern of tiny hooks and loops. Builder Kurahito wanted to see if the same technique could be applied to wood, allowing for two pieces to stick together without glue or other hardware. The results are mixed, but we can see the potential for this to work.

A while back, Shadow Foam built a custom-cut foam tool organizer for their Makita power tools. After moving to a new workshop, they built an upgraded version using their new and improved foam, and incorporating feedback from followers. You can purchase Shadow Foam for your own projects here.

Inspired by those mechanical boxing gloves which turn up in comics and cartoons, JBV Creative wanted to replicate the idea using 3D printing. He initially built a couple of small ones which deploy with the push of a trigger, then upgraded it with a ridiculously long scissor mechanism. 3D print files available here.

Robinson Foundry crafted this useful brass kitchen gadget using a 3D printed measuring cube as a starting point. Like some of his other creations, he used the “Lost PLA” method to create a ceramic mold around the 3D print and then melted away the plastic. We wonder how accurate it is compared to the original.

Artist Ray Whitby shows how he created a unique cylindrical jigsaw puzzle. He first designed and 3D printed the pieces using wood PLA filament, sealed them with superglue, and filled them with blue resin. He then attached the pieces and turned them on a lathe. Using latex to protect the pieces from excess resin was key.

Over the past two years, engineer JT of Built IRL has been trying to figure out how to swing like Spider-Man. He eventually arrived at a compact web-shooter that uses compressed propane to fire cables, then realized he needed to wear several of them if he wanted to swing more than once. We love how he did his thesis on this.