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Awesome Making

How Bowling Pins are Made

How Bowling Pins are Made

Bowling pins look so smooth and perfect that you’d think they were made by casting them. But this clip from the UK edition of How It’s Made shows how each one is made by gluing together wood boards and turning them on a lathe before coating them in a plastic shell.

DIY Iron Man Nano Gauntlet

DIY Iron Man Nano Gauntlet

Prop maker David Guyton made a replica of Iron Man’s Nano Gauntlet from Avengers: Endgame. Rather than cheap materials, he built it out of steel, brass, and glass. But he will upload a template on his website so you can make it out of different materials if you want.

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Bowling Ball into Bowling Bowl

Bowling Ball into Bowling Bowl

Woodworker Carl Jacobsen made quite the mess in his shop for this experiment, in which he decided to turn a bowling ball on his lathe, chiseling away the ball’s outer surface and inner core to produce a surprisingly pleasing bowl. Carl says the biggest issue was the smell its core made.

How to Make a Mirror

How to Make a Mirror

While most mirrors today are made in big factories, UK ornamental glass artist David Smith shows us how to do it the old school way. It’s done by taking a clean sheet of glass, pouring silver nitrite on one side, then carefully moving it to evenly coat its surface.

Tabletop Spectrum Analyzer

Tabletop Spectrum Analyzer

Spectrum analyzers are a nifty way to visualize music. But maker Platinum Kit decided the displays that come with graphic equalizers were too small, so he built a jumbo version with colorful LEDs placed behind acrylic blocks. He reversed the lows and highs, but it’s still super cool.

Cardboard Iron Man Helmet

Cardboard Iron Man Helmet

Like many other makers, SKM loves to build things from cardboard. This time, he used what appears to be an off-the-shelf template to create a model of Iron Man’s iconic helmet, though this one is guaranteed to offer absolutely no level of protection to its wearer.

Colored Pencil Ukulele

Colored Pencil Ukulele

After watching Nick Zammeti make a gigantic pencil out of colored pencils, we figured he was out of pencils. But Nick is back to wow us with another build – a working ukulele made from the same stuff. We were wondering how he was gonna hollow out the body. Now we get it.

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Making Carl Fredrickson

Making Carl Fredrickson

SugarCharm Shop creates intricate figurines from polymer clay. In this time-lapse clip, she shows off her picture perfect sculpt of the curmudgeonly Mr. Carl Fredricksen from Pixar’s classic Up. Every detail is there, down to his tufty eyebrows and tennis balls on his walker.

DIY Magnetic Web Shooters

DIY Magnetic Web Shooters

HeroTech’s DIY take on Spider-Man’s web shooters. Instead of being sticky, the thread from each shooter has a magnet attached at the end. They’re great for taking down evil sheet music holders. Seriously though we love how clean they look. Build video here.

Great Balls of Steel

Great Balls of Steel

Footage from Shandong Iraeta’s factory where they manufacture steel grinding balls. Watch as tubes of metal are heated, then forged into molten orbs which roll down an assembly line before landing in a cooling vat. The music makes it just that much more dramatic.

Making a Giant Pencil from Pencils

Making a Giant Pencil from Pencils

For no reason other than to see if he could do it, artist Nick Zammeti made a gigantic coloring pencil out of thousands of individual coloring pencils. He adhered the pencils together with resin, turned them on a lathe, then carved it into shape. Its giant lead means it can actually draw.

Forging a Knife from Drill Shavings

Forging a Knife from Drill Shavings

Bladesmith Green Beetle has been collecting spiral shavings left over from the production of damascus steel blades, and decided to see if he could create a knife by melting down the excess bits with some powdered steel. We always enjoy the warm glow of molten metal.

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Airsoft Machine Gun Briefcase

Airsoft Machine Gun Briefcase

Colin Furze made an airsoft replica of the briefcase machine gun in Kingsman 2. It’s also remote-controlled, but the real trick was figuring out how to cock and trigger the gun with one switch. Believe it or not, there’s actually a lethal version of this setup from decades ago.

How to Install a Car Kill Switch

How to Install a Car Kill Switch

YouTube’s premiere mechanic ChrisFix shows us how to make a hidden kill switch for your vehicle. When switched on, it interrupts the flow of electricity to the vehicle’s fuel pump relay, preventing it from starting, even with a key. It takes a bit of fiddling, but it costs only $10 in parts.

Real Life Fortnite Boom Bow

Real Life Fortnite Boom Bow

Fortnite‘s Boom Bow shoots shotgun shell-tipped arrows. It sounds ridiculous, but The Backyard Scientist shows how relatively easy it is to actually make the arrows. The resulting projectile doesn’t quite explode theatrically, but it’s loud and lethal.

Cardboard Robot Arm

Cardboard Robot Arm

The Q show off another one of their awesome low-budget builds, a robot arm that’s made primarily from cardboard and popsicle sticks, and controlled by plastic syringes filled with colored liquid. If there’s anyone we’d want to be stranded on a desert island with, it’s these guys.

How Kettle Grills Are Made

How Kettle Grills Are Made

A look inside the Illinois factory where Weber makes their iconic kettle grills. They take sheets of steel, and press them into the familiar spherical shape that barbeque fanatics know and love. Then see how another factory makes the charcoal briquettes that go inside of them.

Making Fired Clay Bricks

Making Fired Clay Bricks

Primitive Technology made durable, permanent and water-resistant clay bricks by firing them on a kiln. The hardened bricks can then be used to make a larger kiln, like a primitive self-replicating factory.

Making a Chair with Zip Ties

Making a Chair with Zip Ties

Ben Uyeda of Homemade Modern shows us how to build a modern, geometric chair using nothing more than plywood, a drill, and zipties. Check out the full build guide and templates here. He recommends using 1/2″ ply instead of 1/4″ ply for maximum durability.

Making Thanos’ Sword

Making Thanos’ Sword

Odin Makes built a replica of Thanos’ sick double-bladed sword from Avengers: Endgame out of his usual craft and found materials. He used PVC pipes, an old fiberglass rod and of course craft foam to make a lightweight 7ft sword.

Making a Wooden Pizza

Making a Wooden Pizza

While we prefer pizzas that we can actually eat, we still enjoyed watching woodworker Kyle Toth as he created a pizza that only a termite or carpenter ant could enjoy. The pepperoni is made from bloodwood, the cheese is yellowheart, and the crust is hickory.

Cardboard Manual Transmission

Cardboard Manual Transmission

Using not much more than cardboard, ball bearings, popsicle sticks, and glue, V. Idea created a working model of a manual transmission. While its not likely to drive a Corvette, its offers seven forward gears, and one reverse gear, just like the current generation of Chevy’s sports car.

Making Giant Scissors

Making Giant Scissors

(PG-13: Language) “I like making big versions of small things… and I like sharp objects.” Simone Giertz and her pals built a gigantic pair of scissors just because she felt like it. They’re made from sturdy sheet metal, and just sharp enough to cut paper.

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