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Awesome The Hacksmith

Making a Life-Size Fallout Radroach

Making a Life-Size Fallout Radroach

There are lots of awful things that happen in the wasteland of Fallout, but it’s the gigantic mutant cockroaches that freak us out the most. With some sponsorship bucks from Prime Video, The Hacksmith set out to create a life-size robotic Radroach. Or five. Two of the remote-controlled creepy crawlers roll on wheels, and they’re all filled with nasty green goo.

Handyman in Your Pocket Reference Book

Handyman in Your Pocket Reference Book
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We love Hacksmith Industries’ YouTube channel. They also have a store that sells gadgets, toys, brand merch, and books. The Handyman Pocket Reference Book belongs in every home, workshop, and work site. It’s packed with facts and figures used in carpentry, construction, and repairs, info about hardware, wiring, building techniques, and more.

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Flying Like Thor on a Motorized Zipline

Flying Like Thor on a Motorized Zipline

Gravity makes it easy to glide down a zipline, but traveling uphill requires additional energy. The guys from Hacksmith Industries built a motorized ziplining rig that allows riders to fly up to 81 km/h up the line. To make it look like Thor’s mighty Mjolnir, they hid the mechanism inside a machined hammer shell and connected a harness to its handle.

Overpowering an Electric Skateboard

Overpowering an Electric Skateboard

The team at Hacksmith Industries specializes in over-the-top builds. In this video, mechanical engineer Jeff got his hands on an off-road capable electric skateboard and upgraded its motors, battery pack, and circuitry to produce way more power than most people would feel comfortable with beneath their feet.

Making a Retractable Battle Axe

Making a Retractable Battle Axe

After getting their hands on a switchblade axe, the guys at Hacksmith Enterprises were inspired to create a larger and more powerful version. So they got to work reverse engineering its mechanism, supersized it, and gave it dual blades. The prototype wasn’t particularly strong, but they achieved their goal by upgrading to high-strength steel.

Building a Cordless Plasma Lightsaber

Building a Cordless Plasma Lightsaber

Hacksmith Industries has made plasma lightsabers in the past, but they all required a bulky external energy source to function. Now they’ve figured out a way to go cordless. Their latest design produces a face-melting 4500ºF beam, but its fuel and power source fit inside its (very long) handle. The 11,000-watt torch runs for 3 minutes per refill.

Making Iron Man’s Laser Gauntlet in Real Life

Making Iron Man’s Laser Gauntlet in Real Life

In the Avengers movies, Iron Man’s armor packs laser gauntlets powerful enough to cut through steel. Hacksmith Industries wanted to know if they could make a real-life version that works just as well. The heart of the build is a 1500-watt fiber laser from a laser welder. They also used lasers to do all the fabrication.

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Superman’s Heat Vision IRL

Superman’s Heat Vision IRL

Superman and Homelander both have heat vision. Whether they use their laser eyes for good or evil, it’s quite the spectacle. Hacksmith Industries replicated heat vision in real life by building a wearable rig with high-power lasers and eye-tracking. Of course, they couldn’t resist the urge to use them to burn stuff.

Working Halo Rail Gun

Working Halo Rail Gun

Inspired by Halo Infinite, Charles from Hacksmith Industries was enlisted to build a weapon that looks like the game’s MA5 assault rifle. Their real-world version uses electromagnetic coils to accelerate and launch projectiles, much like the U.S. Navy’s railgun system. It’s worth watching just for the coil-winding montage.

Working Halo Energy Sword

Working Halo Energy Sword

The energy sword is one of our go-to weapons in the Halo series. We’ve seen lots of cool replicas of the sword over the years, but they’re usually toys made from plastic. Hacksmith Industries went above and beyond with their working version of the iconic sword, which is basically a quad-blade version of their plasma lightsaber.

Aliens Power Loader IRL

Aliens Power Loader IRL

It’s taken three years, but the guys at Hacksmith Industries have finally completed their working replica of the Power Loader from Aliens. In this final build video, they tidy up the cabling and put on finishing touches before taking it for an all-too-brief spin. We can’t wait to see them take down a xenomorph with this thing.

Building an Unbreakable Tesseract Cube

Building an Unbreakable Tesseract Cube

After defeating JustDustin’s “unbreakable” box, the guys from Hacksmith Industries decided it might be fun to build their own incredibly strong see-through enclosure to send back to Dustin. But first, Hacksmith conducted their own durability testing – including a beatdown by a forklift and an entire crossfit class.

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Hacksmith vs Mandalorian

Hacksmith vs Mandalorian

It took James and the guys from Hacksmith Industries months to complete their arsenal of props and costume armor inspired by The Mandalorian. They’ve now released a short film to celebrate their achievement, showing off everything they built and then some.

Testing an Unbreakable Box

Testing an Unbreakable Box

YouTuber JustDustin built a D20-shaped container from steel and Lexan to see if anyone could break into it. Among those he challenged to open the “unbreakable” box was Hacksmith Industries, who attacked the box with all kinds of weapons, including Captain America’s shield and their plasma-powered lightsaber.

Giant Plasma Cannon

Giant Plasma Cannon

If you’ve never seen one, a plasma popper is an awesome-looking device that directs a ball of propane gas through a series of twisted tubes. Charles over at Hacksmith Industries was asked to build a plasma popper, then leveled up the challenge with bigger and bigger versions, culminating with a massive fireball maker.

Portable Baseball Pitching Machine

Portable Baseball Pitching Machine

Microsoft asked Hacksmith Industries to help promote the addition of MLB The Show 21 to Xbox Game Pass. So they got to work building a shoulder-mounted pitching machine with the goal of firing balls at pro pitcher speeds. The sound it makes when it revs up is quite terrifying.

Rapid-fire CD Launcher

Rapid-fire CD Launcher

In Far Cry 6, you’ll be able to craft weapons from junk. Among the possibilities is a gun that fires CDs as projectiles. The guys over at Hacksmith Industries teamed up with UbiSoft to build a real-world replica of the dangerous device and finally gives us a use for all of those old AOL CD-ROMs.

Lightsaber vs. Hand

Lightsaber vs. Hand

A while back, Hacksmith Industries built a working lightsaber with a terrifying 4000º plasma blade. Now James is here to test whether there’s a safe way to put his hand into its beam, along with a lesson on the physics of heat transfer.

Building The Mandalorian’s Jet Pack

Building The Mandalorian’s Jet Pack

Hacksmith Industries continues to build out its collection of replica props and costumes inspired by The Mandalorian. Their latest project is an impressive recreation of Mando’s jet pack. It has mechanical nozzles that fire real flames, but sadly it doesn’t fly.

Working Baby Yoda’s Floating Cradle

Working Baby Yoda’s Floating Cradle

The guys at Hacksmith Industries have been building out a collection of replica armor and props inspired by The Mandalorian. Among them is a version of Grogu’s floating cradle. The trick to making it hover is that it’s basically a lightweight aluminum drone with a vinyl skin.

Jet-powered Snowboard 2.0

Jet-powered Snowboard 2.0

Now that Hacksmith Industries is done playing around with their jet-powered canoe, they’re ready for something better suited to winter sports. Rather than start from scratch, they swiped one of the jet engines from the boat and attached it to the rear end of a snowboard. If the idea seems familiar, it’s because it’s a remake.

Working Back to the Future Hoverboard

Working Back to the Future Hoverboard

A few years back, Lexus created a working prototype of a Hoverboard. But it required a special supercooled track. Hacksmith Industries worked with engineer Jimmy Zhou to create a version that uses rapidly-spinning magnets. Plus it looks like the board that Marty McFly rode in the movie. Check out part one of the build here.

Making the World’s Brightest Flashlight

Making the World’s Brightest Flashlight

After playing around with the insane 100,000 lumen Imalent MS-18 flashlight, the guys at The Hacksmith wanted to see if they could make something even brighter. Using 300 ultra-bright LEDs, they created a giant, blinding light that kicks out more than 1.4 million lumens. It isn’t particularly portable though.

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