Awesome Making

Steelpan drums are made from the bottom of an oil drum. Filmmaker Chas Sheppard met artist Jimi Phillip to see how they’re made. He starts by pounding a concave shape, then sketches each pan and hammers them before heating, tempering, and tuning by ear. This BTS footage from Sounds Like Steel stands on its own.

Ilya from That Works has made some impressive historical weapons, but this is the first time he’s built a samurai helmet. He created the headgear with inspiration from the character Takeda in the game Naraka Bladepoint. The steel helmet is made from five pieces, with a two-piece Mempo mask and layered neck armor.

After artist Kayakasaurus saw a photo of a colorful slug caterpillar, he wanted to make a larger-than-life version. He started by sculpting a digital model of the blue and yellow creature’s body, then output it on a Elegoo Jupiter resin 3D printer. His application of transparent paint and fuzzy flocking really bring it to life.

Maker Peter Brown once made a handle for an ice cream scoop out of moldable thermoplastic, but it didn’t last. So he decided to retrofit his brass scoop with something more appropriate. He took a big batch of colorful sprinkles, submerged them in resin, then turned the block on a lathe to form the handle.

From the “just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done” file comes this fully-functional washing machine that’s not even big enough to hold a single sock. But this is the internet, and Inventus thought he’d show off by building a tiny appliance using Coca-Cola cans, straws, popsicle sticks, and a USB-powered motor.

Moscow mules are served in a copper mug for a reason. Not only does copper look awesome, it helps keep cold drinks cool. Not content with storebought mugs, Robinson Foundry decided to make his own. In this video, he shows how he made a pair of beautiful mugs using ceramic molds he created from 3D-printed forms.

Olivier Gomis created this impressive piece of furniture – a table that looks like it has a wormhole that connects two points of space and time. He built the table from rough walnut planks he cut into sticks and glued into grids. He then assembled them into rough shapes, turned the rounded pieces, then assembled and finished them.

Mayku’s FormBox brings the power of vacu-forming to your desktop. It connects to an ordinary vacuum cleaner and heats thermoplastic sheets to create objects and molds. Its can mold objects up to 150mm x 150mm (~5.9″ x 5.9″) and can mold objects up to 130mm tall (~5.11″). It works with a various plastics in from 0.25 – 1.5mm thick.

We’ve seen knives made from some unusual materials before. Knives Project took a box of metal arc welding electrodes, sanded off the slag layer, then forged them into a block which he hammered, cut, and polished into a knife blade. The finished piece is unique work of art – and incredibly sharp.

Metal is such a wondrous material because it can be melted down over and over to make new things. In this video from domicscpy7h, they show how they melted some gold charms into an ingot, cast it into a bar, then shaped and refined it into what is basically the world’s smallest functional kitchen knife.

Mortal Kombat’s Kung Lau wears one of the deadliest articles of clothing ever. Not only is his hat made out of metal, but it also has a razor-sharp brim that can slice his opponents into pieces. Koss shows us how he made a real-world replica of the killer hat using a jumbo circular saw blade as a starting point.

Most clothing buttons are made from plastic. But the Tomoi factory in Japan still makes their buttons from a traditional material – seashells. Process X takes us for a tour and a look at the satisfying process of cutting, polishing, drilling, and laser-engraving thousands of shells into buttons each day.

Making waffle cones at home is pretty darned easy. But when you need to churn out millions of these tasty treats every month, you need some serious industrial equipment. In this classic video from How It’s Made, they show us just how factories mass-produce waffle, sugar, and cake cones.

Arcade machines are lots of fun, but they aren’t typically living room friendly. Bob from I Like to Make Stuff shows off a piece of furniture that combines a storage unit with a Raspberry Pi arcade, and four sets of arcade controls in a hidden, slide-out shelf. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can buy the plans to build your own.

Maker Handy Geng was tired of being unproductive while sitting in traffic, so he got the idea to modify an old minivan and turn it into a gym on wheels. The driver and passengers can all work out at the same time, and the energy they generate powers the van’s drivetrain. Turn on captions.

You can find all sorts of great household items and furniture at IKEA. But if you ignore the assembly instructions and make up your own, it’s possible to hack together stuff that’s not in their catalog. Tchiks guitars shows us how he used wood from various things from IKEA and turned them into a great-sounding electric guitar.

The head of an old bolt doesn’t seem like it would make a very nice piece of jewelry. But in the capable hands of artist Anif G, this ordinary piece of brass hardware is transformed into an impressive knight-themed pendant with a hinged door and storage compartment for a photo or pills.

The zombie-slaying game Dying Light 2 Stay Human encourages players to improvise weapons to take down the undead. Thanks to Integza, we have a real-world, 2-for-1 weapon that combines the reach of a sword with the power of a chainsaw. The finished chainsword is driven by an 8 horsepower brushless DC motor.

We weren’t familiar with the Japanese manga and anime Jujutsu Kaisen, but now that we’ve seen that one character wields a sword with a human hand for a handle, we want to know more. Bladesmith and prop maker Tetrahymena created a knife inspired by the unusual weapon, and we’d like to shake his hand for a job well done.

Hand Tool Rescue loves to take old patent drawings of unusual tools and recreate them in his workshop. This time, he made a wrench unlike any we’d seen before. It features a rotating jaw with grooves to help grip and turn tapered, smooth, and standard fasteners. The Canadian snow quench was a nice touch.

The Creative Channel shows us how he built a rugged little tank-like vehicle that rolls around on wheels wrapped in car tire treads, letting it roll along with ease on rough terrain. Controlling the motorized tank uses a pair of joysticks for engaging its treads in forward or reverse, and another for applying throttle.

Hermit crabs are known for their ability to reside in the abandoned shells of other sea creatures. I did a thing wanted to know if one of these crustaceans would wear a shell made out of metal, like a tiny suit of armor. So he got to work casting some metal seashells and put them in a tank to see if a crab would put one on.

If you’ve visited a Costco lately, you might have seen some chairs made from Polywood, a durable material produced by chopping up and melting down plastic, then extruding it into a weight-bearing and weatherproof lumber for making furniture. Popular Mechanics takes us inside the Polywood factory to see how they do it.