Awesome Making

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

People who keep fish as pets can go overboard with their aquariums. Not one to ever be subtle, The Q got to work building a custom aquarium that looks like an actual house. The two-story home has art on the walls, glass tanks with a connecting tube, and a garage with a tiny BMW in case any fish learn how to drive.

Burls Art has made a name for himself by creating guitars out of unusual materials. This time, he laminated 700 sheets of newspaper to form a wood-like block. The result is an incredibly cool instrument with a vintage look, visible paper layers along its edge and neck, and historical newspaper headlines on its front and back.

We’ve seen how Japanese Kumiko lattice is made. Now, watch Yamanaka Kumiki Works create a different kind of wood pattern called Yosegi. The process involves applying thin wood veneers to boards, cutting them into small pieces, arranging and gluing them into a pattern, and slicing them back into a veneer. Here’s another unique Yosegi pattern being made.

The Tumbler from The Dark Knight trilogy is our favorite Batmobile. After making a version of Tim Burton’s Batmobile, Minimaus Crafts shows us how he cut up soda cans, folded them, and glued them together to form a metal model of Bruce Wayne’s awesome Bat-vehicle. You can download a free template to build your own if you’re up for the challenge.

Since The Home Depot sells lumber, you’d think it would be relatively easy to piece together a guitar from stuff they sell. But, as BeBeau Builds shows us, the wood could be better, and you can’t find things like strings and tuning pegs there. Still, he and his buddy gave it the old college try and built a fully functional acoustic guitar with nails for frets.

Despite advancements in 3D visualization tech, architects sometimes still need to show physical models of buildings. MonsterKook is an expert at making this type of miniature, and his YouTube channel is filled with these tiny houses, including this impressive creation featuring structural walls he made by filling foamboard forms with cement.

While he could have just bought a cheap jigsaw, Hassan Abu-Izmero enjoys a challenge, so he got to building himself a fully-functional jigsaw that’s driven by the rotating action of a power drill. It took a simple yet clever bit of engineering to convert the drill’s circular motion into the saw’s longitudinal motion.

Make It Extreme has a thing for building unique single-passenger vehicles. Their latest creation is a motorized bike that rolls on a single tread. It’s powered by what appears to be a moped engine. The motor is rigged up to spin a custom-milled drive wheel that pulls the tread extracted from a car tire along a set of rollers. It’s even equipped with a full suspension.

A typical cabinet might be made from 15 or 20 pieces of wood. Blacktail Studio built this incredible-looking cabinet from about 20 times that many pieces. He started with 300 walnut wood blocks, which he stacked, glued, clamped, and shaped into a unique work of functional art. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out the best way to carve and smooth it.

You can pick up a bubble-blowing machine for about $20. But if you prefer to DIY all the things, CrazyScience has got you covered. In this video, they show how they built a simple bubble machine by drilling holes in a compact disc, attaching it to a motor and battery, adding a small fan, and using a water bottle as a reservoir. Read the full build guide on Instructables.

If you’re going to live somewhere that’s already cold enough to keep ice frozen, we’re not sure you really need a freezer. But that didn’t stop Zhang Zhilei from making one outside of his home in Mongolia. Rather than going with a store-bought electric freezer, he froze water in baking sheets, then glued the pieces together with water to form a literal ice box.

A fire basket (aka “brazier”) is exactly what it sounds like – a metal basket that holds a bunch of flaming logs. Blacksmith Torbjörn Åhman walks us through the process of creating one of these, which involves cutting, stamping, bending, forging, and welding multiple matching pieces of metal. Also, hot riveting never gets old.

After making a computer desk with a terrarium inside, Tanner from SerpaDesign went all-out with his latest creation. He built this waterfall-edge coffee table from live-edge pine boards and incorporated a terrarium with living plants and a working waterfall. Hopefully, the epoxy and fiberglass will hold up to the moisture and plant life for a long time.

Cristiana Felgueiras of Get Hands Dirty shows off an awesome piece of furniture she designed for efficiency in a tiny apartment she’s building out. The desk has a floating design and a built-in electronic piano that slides out from underneath its work surface. She also built a matching rolling cabinet with a secret drawer.

Hexagons are the bestagons, so it only makes sense that they could make one of the most versatile DIY storage systems we’ve seen. Fix This Build That needed a place to store loose items in his workshop, so he 3D printed a honeycomb-shaped grid to hang on the wall, and that can accept custom modules like shelves, tool bins, and hooks.

We love the look of this custom-built table by Germany’s Marmota Works. It’s made from recycled wooden beams that were cut and sanded into curved shapes to fit together like puzzle pieces, then bathed in clear epoxy. The outer pieces have flat sides, so they form a perfect rectangle.

We’ve seen how a skilled carpenter can create a traditional Japanese Kumiko lattice. Neil from Pask Makes wanted to see if the same sort of pattern could be created using another material – steel nails. He started with a wooden template to hold the nails in place, then welded them together and smoothed out the rough bits.