Awesome Making

Industrial Studio’s build video features the construction of a stand for his workshop’s anvil, and shows off one of the more satisfying methods of joining together steel – using molten hot rivets and an industrial press to smush them into place.

We’ve seen how individual blacksmiths and blademakers painstakingly handcraft knives one at a time. This factory footage from Sweden’s Morakniv shows us the opposite – how robots and other machines crank out thousands of knives each day. Humans are still involved in the assembly and quality assurance processes.

Glassblower Tim Drier creates test tubes, flasks, beakers, and other scientific glassware as his day job. In this video from Wired, he shows us how he uses those specialized skills to make truly unique drinking glasses that incorporate the twists and turns he’s used to creating.

You can approximate the look of neon with LED or electroluminescent lights, but there’s nothing like the warm glow and high-voltage buzz of a real glass neon sign. Eater’s Katie Pickens takes us on a tour of Brooklyn Glass to learn how they make these colorful signs for restaurants and other businesses around New York City.

Woodworker Jonathan Katz-Moses shows off a really cool piece of furniture he built that seems to defy logic and gravity. Its structure was tricky to engineer and build, but the result is something we’d be thrilled to have in our living room.

A normal tricycle has one wheel in the front and two in the back for balance. But nobody says the three wheels have to be arranged that way. So builder The Q got to work putting together a tricycle that has all three wheels arranged in parallel. It looks harder to ride than a regular bicycle, but it sure is unique.

A normal compass uses the Earth’s magnetism to point North. But wouldn’t it be useful if compasses could point to more specific things? WIRED challenged maker Joe Grand to build a compass that sniffs out places that serve pizza and points its user in the right direction for a pepperoni fix no matter where they are.

Builder Laura Kampf got her hands on an old neon letter and decided to make it the centerpiece of a custom-built bookcase. She used a technique called kerf bending to give the unit curved corners and routed several holes into its sides for a light and airy look. We’re impressed that this is her first foray into kerf bending.

Watch as a solid block of copper is magically transformed into a set of linking rings with the help of talented metalsmith Viktor Leontiev and his trusty milling machine. The finished piece looks great set onto its hand-turned wooden base.

With a little practice, tossing a boomerang can be a fun and rewarding outdoor activity. In this clip, boomerang expert Victor Poulin shows us how to make a boomerang that’s safe to toss indoors thanks to its paper origami construction. If you want a handmade wooden boomerang, be sure to check out Vic’s shop.

We’ve seen how chains are made and learned about of the different kinds of chain. In this short video, The Q shows an unconventional use for chain by building a bicycle entirely from the stuff. The main trick is to weld the chain links together to form a stiff structure for the frame. We’re not sure we’d trust it off-road though.

After proving it’s feasible to create web-like fibers from liquid, Built IRL uses an off-the-shelf woven fiber to test the ability for it to work like Spider-Man’s webs. The main engineering feat is the multi grappling hook design he came up with. He first uses the web to take down a bad guy, then swings from it after tossing it over a bar.

YouTuber Mr. Inventor shows us how he made a unique axe-shaped tool by bending, cutting, and welding together lengths of rusty old steel rebar. It might not be the most practical tool, but it would make a neat decorative piece.

We’ve seen a table that incorporates LEGO into its center before. But rather than using concrete, builder Nick Zametti made his table from two large slabs of burled wood and filled its center with LEGO bricks and a river of resin to hold them in place. We like how he created scenes and didn’t just pour in a bunch of random bricks.

While walking along the riverfront in Cologne, Germany, maker Laura Kampf spotted a park bench that was in really bad shape. Rather than ignore it, she headed back to her shop and fabricated a new seat using scrap pallet wood from her neighbor’s trash. We love Laura’s idea of “guerilla making” to improve public spaces.

With an appropriately R-rated Mortal Kombat movie dropping on April 23, HBO Max enlisted the help of Hacksmith Industries to build a working replica of one of the franchise’s more recognizable weapons. Scorpion’s unique gauntlet lets him fire a kunai-style projectile at his victims, then retract them with a chain.

WorksByaHurst asks his followers to send in random items for him to build things from. When he received a box full of old bicycle parts, the idea that struck him was to turn the chains into the tentacles and body of an octopus. While he was working on it, all we could think of was those creepy Sentinels from The Matrix.

Awesome Woodcraft builds some amazing miniature wood vehicles. In this video, they take on the biggest SUV they could think of, the boxy, gas-guzzling Hummer H1. The detailed model includes wheels that turn and steer, a spring suspension, and a hinged hood and doors.

Burls Art has built some really interesting and unusual guitars over the years. His latest design features a body made by laminating together used skateboard decks, then assembling sections into a batwing design. The colorful cross-sections remind us of his jawbreaker guitar.

We always enjoy watching craftspeople turn objects intended for one thing into something entirely different. In this clip from My Mechanics, offers up one off the more impressive transformations we’ve seen, reworking an ordinary stainless steel bolt and a brass rod into a working combination lock.

Hacksmith Industries continues to build out its collection of replica props and costumes inspired by The Mandalorian. Their latest project is an impressive recreation of Mando’s jet pack. It has mechanical nozzles that fire real flames, but sadly it doesn’t fly.

With enough skill and patience, you can build some impressive structures with Jenga blocks. But if you’re actually playing the game by the rules, you need to remove blocks as you build. You could use your finger, or you could make a wooden mini Uzi that flicks individual bricks out using a rubber band-powered firing mechanism.

Using parts from a 3D printer, custom laser-cut components, and LED lighting RCLifeOn created this mechanical table that uses a magnet and a ball bearing to draw complex patterns in sand, only to erase everything it doodles. On the plus side, as soon as it wipes out an image, it gets to work on another.