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Awesome Making

DIY Floating Hot Tub Boat

DIY Floating Hot Tub Boat

Hot tubs are great, but the view you get while soaking remains static. If you want to see more of the world while you warm up, you need a hot tub boat. While you could spend thousands on one of Yacht Tubs’ professionally-built boats, David Rule shows us how it’s possible to build your own with stuff you can buy at the hardware store.

Making a Knife from Sparklers

Making a Knife from Sparklers

Our ability to reclaim and reuse metal means it’s possible to make knives and tools out of all kinds of stuff. Knives Project shows us how they burnt the explosive coating off a bunch of sparklers, then twisted and forged the remaining metal rods to create a uniquely patterned blade.

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Building a Wood Stove from Dog Bowls

Building a Wood Stove from Dog Bowls

Quiet Nerd was looking for a way to add some warmth outdoors. Rather than buy an off-the-shelf heater or stove, he decided to build his own. He started out with four stainless steel dog bowls, which he cut and assembled to form the body of the wood-burning stove. It stands on four tall threaded rods.

Turning Nail Clippers Into a Knife

Turning Nail Clippers Into a Knife

Like most metals, steel is an easily recyclable material. In this video from Handyman Restoration, he shows us how he took a pile of steel nail clippers, forged them into a block which he hammered flat to form a fixed blade with a unique damascus pattern. It was interesting to see how he made the wooden handle too.

How Trumpets Are Made

How Trumpets Are Made

Take a look inside the Vincent Bach factory, where they handcraft premium brass instruments. In this video, you’ll see craftspeople transform stamped sheets of brass into a variety of precision trumpets for professional musicians. Along the way, you’ll learn about how a trumpet works, too.

World’s Smallest Hydraulic Jack

World’s Smallest Hydraulic Jack

We can’t think of any practical reason you’d need a car jack that fits in the palm of your hand. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Maker B took the time to craft a 1/5th-scale hydraulic jack from steel, brass, and copper. It not only looks amazing, but the tiny jack is fully functional. Maybe he can use it to change tires on an R/C car.

Building a Giant Marble Machine Clock

Building a Giant Marble Machine Clock

Maker Ivan Miranda wanted to build a mechanical clock that uses marbles to show the time. He created an elevator that lifts marbles and drops them into a track. He used light sensors to detect white marbles and solenoids to release the right ones to display dot-matrix digits. It’s a work in progress, but it’s already impressive. Watch part one of the build here.

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Bluetooth Speaker in a Walnut

Bluetooth Speaker in a Walnut

You can buy very small Bluetooth speakers already, but we’ve never seen one embedded inside a walnut. Penguin DIY nibbled on the nutmeat inside before outfitting the shell with a tiny amplifier and Bluetooth circuits, a minuscule speaker, and a rechargeable battery. We worried he would crack it while drilling holes, but the shell remained intact.

Turning Rulers Into a Damascus Meat Cleaver

Turning Rulers Into a Damascus Meat Cleaver

Random Hands shows how they turned a stack of stainless steel rulers into a unique Damascus pattern, which he sandwiched around high-carbon steel to make a beautiful Japanese-style meat cleaver. He fitted it with a hexagonal wood handle and a hand-stitched leather sheath. We’d love this knife in our kitchen, but sadly, this one isn’t for sale.

Making a Metal Feather Knife

Making a Metal Feather Knife

Most knives have an uninterrupted cutting edge, but this unique blade has a serrated edge that makes it look like a metal feather. Knives Project shows us how they created the knife by forging a hunk of steel, cutting and grinding its edge, and then etching a pattern into its blade. The shiny brass handle gives it a truly elegant look.

110 Film Cartridge Coffee Table

110 Film Cartridge Coffee Table

If you were around in the 1970s, you might recall those compact cameras that used 110 film cartridges. Maker Wesley Treat shows us how he made a coffee table based on the popular (but grainy) film format. He built the super-size Kodacolor cartridge from wood using kerf bending techniques to make the curved sides. Also, his wooden Gonk Droid is awesome.

Making an Air-powered R/C Airplane

Making an Air-powered R/C Airplane

Aerospace engineer Tom Stanton has built a few R/C airplanes powered by compressed air. He’s continued to work on refining the design by reducing weight and increasing thrust. Tom’s latest pneumatic aircraft is the best yet, offering the best flight time of the bunch thanks to improved aerodynamics, a larger air chamber, and an efficient new engine,

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Making Crystal Balls from “Volcanic” Glass

Making Crystal Balls from “Volcanic” Glass

This video from TEKNIQ shows how factory workers take man-made “volcanic” glass and transform it into perfect spheres. The labor-intensive process starts by slicing large sections with a circular saw, and then hammering away the outer layers until they get a rough ball shape. Using other rotary tools, they refine the shape until it’s round, then polish it.

All-Terrain Tank Boots

All-Terrain Tank Boots

While an all-terrain personal mobility device sounds like a good idea, we’re not sure that boots that drive like tanks are the best way to get around. Joel Creates shows off his design for a wearable off-road vehicle that’s totally impractical yet extraordinarily cool to see in action. They’d balance way better if they had longer tracks.

Making Synthetic Hair by Hand

Making Synthetic Hair by Hand

With Halloween coming up, you might wear a wig as part of your costume. Chances are that it has synthetic hair made from thin strands of plastic. While most fake hair is made by machines in factories, this one artist shows how he makes the stuff from scratch, using nothing more than some plastic, a toaster oven, a wire brush, and his hands.

Casting a Bronze Skull Mask

Casting a Bronze Skull Mask

Like some of his previous projects, metalsmith Seth Robinson made this bronze skull mask using lost PLA casting. He started with a 3D model by Zane Rogers, which he 3D printed, coated in ceramic slurry, and baked in a kiln to remove the plastic. After that, he filled the shell with a mix of copper/tin, cracked off the coating, then cleaned up the excess metal.

Making an R/C Flying Alien Ship

Making an R/C Flying Alien Ship

The guys from FliteTest created a small aircraft called the Orbit. They have since been commissioned to build a much larger version of the round-winged aircraft. In this video, you’ll see how they took the design and scaled it up using foam and curved plywood ribs to reinforce its unconventional wing.

Making a Cardboard Parts Organizer

Making a Cardboard Parts Organizer

Carpenter John Heisz of I Build It typically makes things out of wood. However, with the high price of lumber these days, he decided to use cardboard boxes to build this parts organizer. We appreciate the attention to detail he put into crafting this multi-drawer parts storage unit.

Machining a Steel + Copper Pool Ball

Machining a Steel + Copper Pool Ball

Inspired by the stainless steel pool ball made by MyMechanics, Cool Again Restoration set out to make their own. They used different techniques to set their pool ball apart and incorporated copper and epoxy resin. They started by machining cylindrical sections, gradually refining into a spherical shape. We’d love to see a whole rack filled with these.

Making Damascus from Calligraphy Pen Nibs

Making Damascus from Calligraphy Pen Nibs

On his quest to make damascus out of every kind of metal object he can find, Shurap is back with another satisfying blacksmithing project. After arranging hundreds of individual calligraphy pen nibs into steel tubing, he forged, hammered, and twisted the molten metal to form a beautifully-patterned dagger.

Making a Folding Metal Staircase

Making a Folding Metal Staircase

Woodworker Bourbon Moth asked his pal Rainfall Projects if he could help him build a custom staircase for his new workshop. He came up with a tubular steel structure with wooden steps that can fold flat against the wall when not in use. That giant plywood jig he created was genius. It could use a handrail, though.

Flat Track Bicycle

Flat Track Bicycle

To follow up on his bicycle that runs on diagonally-mounted tracks instead of wheels, The Q is showing off another unusual bike design. This one rolls along the ground on tracks that lie flat on the surface. It looks more stable than the first design – but there’s more rolling resistance, so it needed a huge center gear to provide enough torque to move it.

Pesticide Mech Suit

Pesticide Mech Suit

Handling pesticides can be quite dangerous. To help protect himself, inventor Handy Geng decided to fabricate a mech suit he can wear while spraying for insects. The winged metal armor has built-in spray tips and keeps overspray off his skin, while a mask in the helmet filters out chemical vapors. (Turn captions on.)

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