Awesome Making

Jackman Works shows us how he transforms old cargo pallets into sweet drink coasters by sanding, stacking, cutting, and laminating strips of their varied wooden slats into grid patterns. Show your appreciation for his craftsmanship, and buy a set of the coasters here.

Go inside a factory where they manufacture polyurethane skateboard wheels. After using CAD tools, metal molds are milled for the liquid plastic, which is baked, polished, and printed with a design. As one commenter suggested, aluminum wheels would look pretty sweet.

Ripping apart old batteries can be dangerous, but that didn’t stop shurap from tearing into a bunch of them in search of usable metal. He then fused the bits together with some steel blades, and crafted a sweet damascus knife with a handle made from a MagLite.

Miller Knives shows us how to take an ordinary stainless steel bolt and transform it into a nifty little tomahawk. It’s a time-consuming process to flatten out the heated hardware, but once it’s squashed, it’s just a matter of cutting and finishing the piece into the right shape.

Cath of The Square to Spare shows off a fun little project for guitar players and anyone who appreciates a good musical instrument. In the first clip, she shows us how to make tiny electric guitars using popsicle clips, and in the second, she crafts a mini acoustic.

Kiwami Japan takes a break from creating knives out of really unusual materials, and makes one out of one of the oldest knifemaking materials. He goes full caveman, handcrafting a blade from a piece of river rock he found. Headphones recommended for optimal ASMR.

Looking for a project to put basic welding skills to use? Check out this DIY idea from Ollari’s – a lamp with a shade made by welding a bunch of steel nuts around a curved form, and a base made out of the same. It’s a cool enough design that we’ll forgive his spelling of “baking soda.”

Maker and destroyer of things Giaco Whatever lives up to his name with a truly random project. He recently decided to build himself a replica of the galley from an airplane so he had a place to put his coffee maker in his shop. Of course, it helps that he had all the trolleys and bins.

You already know kiwami japan as the Iron Chef of knife making. Today’s secret ingredient is… POTATOES!!! First he turned a potato into a starchy powder, then mixed it with glycerin and vinegar to make a putty. After drying and cutting the putty, he sharpened it into a blade.

Make It Extreme lives up to their name with this impressive build – a hula hoop inspired hubless vehicle much like the ones that famously appeared in the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics – though in this case, the bike is motorized instead of pedal-driven.

Woodworker Ollari’s shows us how – with enough talent and creativity – something as mundane as a hunk of old firewood can be transformed into a beautiful piece of art. We got a little nervous when he started drilling the holes, but it turned out brilliantly.

Aircraft maker Airbus presents video footage of its funky looking A330-based jumbo jet as the first plane makes its way through the factory. The BelugaXL’s unusual shape is designed to provide cargo capacity for large airplane parts like wings. Watch it take flight here.

The King of Random shows off a build that should be standard-issue for every household with kids. Its a customized vacuum cleaner accessory designed for sucking up and storing the countless LEGO bricks all over your floor. Somebody needs to put these into production.

Just when we thought Kiwami Japan had run out of unusual materials to make knives from, he’s come up with another. He ironed then shaped several pairs of boxers into a sharp, functional blade. It helps that they contain synthetics. This wouldn’t work with 100% cotton.

While we prefer our candy to be edible, there’s still something wonderfully satisfying about watching carsandwater pouring molten copper into a sand cast in the shape of America’s most iconic chocolate bar. You’ll definitely chip a tooth on this one though.

Japanese artist Wakuneco shows us how she transforms wool into an intricate, nearly photorealistic sculptural portrait of a cat’s head. Anyone can learn the art of needle-felting, but it requires tremendous precision and persistence to get these sort of results. More here.

Those of you who spend any time at the gym will be more than familiar with the sight of the good old weightlifter’s bench. Well if you’d like one at home, you could buy one from Amazon, or you could build one from trees, like Hudson and Duke White from Buff Dudes.

3D Sanago usually uses his skills to create incredible sculptures using a 3D doodling pen. But this time out, he decided to do something completely different, and crafted a piece of armor for his hand and wrist using soda cans and aluminum brads.

Woodworker Frank Howarth has a thing for spheres, so it only makes sense that he would craft a wooden replica of the iconic, pixel-patterned adidas Telstar 18 football used in the 2018 World Cup. We don’t recommend kicking or heading this ball, though.

Among Batman’s many wonderful toys is the Baterang – a gadget that sports the bat logo and works as a returnable boomerang. While real-world would physics prevent the original design from working, The Q shows us how to make a wooden version that really does fly.

The guys from Lofty Pursuits got their hands on a rusty old candymaking machine from the 1800s, and fully restored it so they could use it to crank out some strawberry shaped candies before returning it to the museum that found it. Buy the actual candies they made here.

After doing her best to make her own Skittles, Bon Appétit’s Claire Saffitz once again is determined to make a gourmet version of a popular food – and nobody better mess with her Lucky Charms! Of course our method for getting those marshmallows is a bit simpler.

Kiwami Japan is back with another ridiculously improbable knife construction – an impressively-sharp kitchen blade made from pressed cardboard. We weren’t quite sure what he was up to for the first few minutes and thought we were watching HowtoBasic.