Awesome Making

A few years back, Nike made a working version of its MAG sneakers from Back to the Future II. After a couple of guys from Hacksmith Industries figured out that their leader might not know how to tie his own laces, they engineered a pair of self-lacing Vessi sneakers which are a bit more subtle in style than the ones from the movie.

You’d think that slicing up resin blocks filled with nails on your table saw and then grinding them down on a lathe might be a bad idea for the well-being of your tools (and your body), but that didn’t stop maker R Humphrey from testing out the idea. The resulting bowl he created has some really cool textures and patterns.

Maker Ross The Random loves to turn ordinary items into works of art. In this video, he shows us how he transformed a simple brass bolt into a shiny metal phoenix through a series of heating, bending, hammering, filing, and cutting with basic hand tools.

Season two of The Mandalorian has been quite a thrill so far, though the Razor Crest has seen more than its share of abuse along the way. ILM looks back at the creation of Mando’s ship, from its earliest conceptual designs through its production as both a digital object and an intricate real-world model for in-camera shots.

A classic segment from How It’s Made which shows the process of transforming latex rubber into condoms. Obviously, it’s important that they don’t break, but we’re not sure what real world scenario they’re trying to simulate with that inflation test. We’re thinking they just do that one for fun.

We’ve seen how cymbals are made, now find out how the drumsticks that are used to play them are born. Vic Firth shares footage from inside their factory, where they transform sticks of freshly-cut wood into their premium 5A American Classic sticks, then precision matches them for weight and pitch to ensure perfect pairs.

After getting his hands on a foam cylinder that looks like a gigantic NERF dart, Ivan Miranda did what any enterprising geek would do, and built himself a weapon to launch his oversize ammo. He built his bazooka from PVC drain pipe, 3D-printed parts, rubber surgical tubing, and paracord to reset its plunger.

While the war hammers you see in video games are enormous, the real ones were actually about the size of an ordinary axe, with a deadly point on the back end. This made them way more agile and deadly than the fantasy version. That Works walks us through the process of building a historically-accurate replica.

The standard version of Catan comes with a thick paper playing surface and tiles. Kevlar DIY shows off a much more impressive Catan set that he built using black walnut wood, resin, and a variety of objects to create the game’s iconic hexagonal playing pieces.

Inspired by a table design he saw from Slovenian Woodworker, builder John Malecki decided he wanted to build an even cooler looking version that uses a combination of laminated wood boards and crystal-clear acrylic to make it look like its top is floating in the air.

Normally, bowling balls are made from a mix of chemicals. But The Q shows us how it’s possible to make one by cutting out 60 identical plywood triangles, gluing them into a sphere, filling it with foam and a weight, then sanding the structure smoothly. We’d like to play with that low-poly bowling ball before he sanded it.

How It’s Made takes us inside of the Baby-Foot Sulpie factory, where they make premium foosball tables. Watch as the players are cast from molten metal, then painted before being assembled onto stainless steel rods and placed into their permanent places on a handcrafted wooden foosball field.

Once Upon a Workbench worked with his friends to build his kids one of the coolest playhouses we’ve ever seen. The build was inspired by Link’s house in the Nintendo Switch game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If you have similar ambitions, you can purchase the plans for $60.

We’ve seen what the insides of a bowling ball look like. Now see those balls get that way in this clip from How It’s Made, starting out with a soupy goo for its core, wrapped in polymer and polyurethane layers, and then sanded. We were most surprised by the odd shape of the core.

Model maker Boylei Hobby Time loves to incorporate light into his dioramas. In this clip he shows us how he took an off-the-shelf 1/12th-scale model of Darth Vader and took it to the next level with a backlit metal base and a bright red lightsaber that runs on a flexible LED filament set inside of a cocktail straw.

Burls Art has built some pretty interesting guitars. His latest creation incorporates a series of LED lights and mirrors into its body, creating a disco-inspired infinite mirror effect. It really gives the guitar the illusion of a tremendous amount of depth.

It wouldn’t be Halloween without some creepy, crawly spiders, and when it comes to scary arachnids, the bigger the better. Paul Jones of Dead and Daughter shows us how he built a massive spider for his lawn using PVC pipe, bendy hair rollers, a bike helmet, duct tape, and wig hair among other things.

You would think lighting anything around your on fire would be a bad idea, but that didn’t stop The Hacksmith from doing just that. In this insanely cool build, they created a version of Ghost Rider’s fiery helmet that burns propane fuel. As a bonus, they threw in a flaming chain.

With the help of Amazon Alexa and various smart home tech, Josh of MAKE. ART. NOW. built a studio packed with automation. The space incorporates smart power strips, smart light bulbs, and a security system that can all be remotely controlled. Using Alexa to turn off noisy appliances while recording is a really smart idea.

Kamui Cosplay created one of the most amazing game weapon replicas we’ve seen – a detailed, lightweight version of Bolvar Fordragon’s Hammer from Shadowlands. It has 451 LEDs inside, plays game sounds, and even makes smoke. It also changes from orange to blue Lich King mode when shaken. Check out the full build video too.

With the help of Pikus Concrete, Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything managed to have a gigantic 3D-printed statue created in his own image. The 12-foot-tall concrete sculpture weighs in at 6,000 pounds, and Jerry had it dropped next to his buddy’s swimming pool as a prank. We’re sure it will soon get sliced open by What’s Inside.

See-through computer screens are a staple of sci-fi design. While they look really cool, they’re not the most practical way to view content. Still, makers Evan and Katelyn wanted to give it a try, set to building their own by modding a standard LCD screen, removing its LED backlight and polarizing filter, then building a new frame for it.

I Like To Make Stuff teamed up with The Smugglers Room to build a piece of custom Star Wars-inspired furniture that holds a large TV and server rack filled with audio and video equipment. The finished piece looks like something from inside of the Echo Base control room and would make a great design for an arcade cabinet.