Metal

DaveHax shows us how to use silicone LEGO molds to create replicas of minifigs and other bricks using gallium, a very soft metal which is solid at room temperature, but turns back to liquid at about 30ºC (86ºF). He needs to mold a T-1000 figure from Terminator 2.

For Inventables’ fidget spinner challenge, Giaco Whatever decided to see if he could make one that could float in mid air. After a bunch of experimentation, he was able to get it to work by placing it between two opposing magnetic fields, and spinning it for stabilization.

Transform your basic black Apple Watch into a wearable piece of neo-futurist art with one of Joy Complex’s metal covers. They’re available in cast bronze or silver with a patina finsh, or shiny or distressed cast copper. You can find the watch bands shown over on Amazon.

Designer Paul Braddock of the Mold3D Channel demonstrates how to use objects made with a 3D printer to create silicone molds for casting items from a mix of metal powder and resin, giving them a sturdy and substantial part with a weathered metallic look with actual rust.

In a scene that plays out like the end of Terminator 2, watch as these disused aluminum car rims are melted down in a hot furnace, so they can be reincarnated into other products. We kept waiting for those screaming heads to start popping out of the molten metal.

Those fidget spinner thingies are starting to turn up everywhere, but rather than buy some cheap mass-produced toy, our old pal Engineer BrunS decided to make some of his own. There are few things more satisfying than watching metal shavings go flying as it’s milled.

Appropriately named metalsmith Alec Steele starts out by welding 31 layers of steel together, then heats and repeatedly hammers them together so many times that he eventually hits one million layers. He later turned the resulting Damascus steel cube into a karambit knife.

One of the few self-illuminating materials to find its way in front of The Slow Mo Guys‘ lens is this liquid copper being poured at more than 1200ºF. We’re sure glad they didn’t splash any on their schmancy high-speed camera.

Truly unique six-sided dice which have an open void in their centers. They’re precision machined from anodized aluminum, and weigh just 1.5 grams each. Their unique pip design and balanced weight distribution ensures statistically fair rolls too.

This cocktail glass is virtually indestructible. The folks at Wolfram Manufacturing individually mill each one from a 25 pound billet of solid 303 stainless steel, resulting in a beautiful, substantial, and quite expensive vessel for your martinis, margaritas, or ice cream sundaes.

Over the years, YouTuber NurdRage has demonstrated how pouring liquid gallium onto aluminum can cause catastrophic failure of the normally durable, lightweight metal. Watch as the stuff causes a heat sink, sheet metal, and even a baseball bat lose its strength.

Each of Craighill’s metal desk puzzles does double duty as a pint-sized work of art and a brain-teaser. The six-piece puzzle measures 3″ x 3″ x 3″, weighs about a pound, and is milled from solid cartridge brass in Massachusetts.

Engineer BrunS takes his metalworking skills to the world of Fallout, meticuously crafting this bronze, duralumin, brass, ebonite, and luminofor model of the Red Rocket from the wasteland’s #1 diesel fusion filling stations. Available from his Etsy shop for about $500.

Watch the Dark Lord come to life via modern machining tech, as an Okuma MU-5000V 5-axis mill completes milling a perfect metal bust of Star Wars’ baddie, courtesy of Morris Midwest. We’d love to see the sculpt from the beginning, but we’ll settle for metal Vader on our desk.

Owen & Fred’s stainless steel shot glasses each hold 2oz of your favorite spirit, and are die stamped with an appropriate cheer of “Bottoms Up” in the bottom that you can read as you prepare to gulp down your drink.

If you’ve ever wondered how they make those giant springs used in the suspension systems of cars, check out this footage of a molten hot rod of steel as it’s bent around a moving cylinder, then quenched in a vat of oil to harden it.

Thailand sculptor Mari9art’s incredible build is made from recycled car parts and scrap steel. It measures 2.2m tall (~7.2 ft), and includes free door-to-port shipping, though getting it to your house might be a challenge from there. His lifesize T-Rex is even more mindblowing.

Poligon’s etched metal calendars not only look cool, but offer a satisfying feature – the ability to punch out each day as it passes. Choose from a foldable triangular design or a flat version with hidden magnets for fridge mounting.

Music label INDUSTRIAL JP presents a hypnotic, close-up look at the metal bending machines at Goko Spring Co. which take spools or stiff wire and convert them into tiny springs. We could seriously put this on repeat and watch it all day long. The track is Goko Bane by Sountrive.

Progressive Products uses precision machining to create these perfectly smooth desktop spheres from brass, copper, stainless steel, and titanium. Each one unscrews at its equator to reveal a small storage space inside.

We love the simplicity of FutureRelic’s rod-shaped bottle opener. Its shape reminds us of keychain flashlights, but this tool is perfect for opening a cold brew. Available in copper-finish bronze, brass, or stainless steel, with a knurled grip. Measured 2.25″ long.

Metal is home to some of the most genre-blurring artists, but Boston-based quintet Astronoid takes the bar and throws it to space. Blood Music calls the band’s product “dream thrash” – melodic vocals rising over thick shredding, like emo aged to perfection.

This unique timepiece from Y. Kimura and Seahope Ltd. features a display which tells time using blobs of liquid metal. The metal moves freely, then magnets under its face pull them into place to display the current hours and minutes. Comes in silver, black, or gold.

Sure, you could go to the store and buy a skillet for about 10 bucks, but you won’t get the satisfaction that Tito4re got when he made his own from scratch, using a sand mold and some molten aluminum. Though he did need another skillet to make the mold too.

Check out this footage of the DMG MORI Lasertec 65 3D, an amazing marvel of modern engineering which is capable of first building up rough metal forms using laser deposition welding, then switching heads to precisely mill and drill them into finished parts.