Good Vibrations — Groovy Mechanical Sound Players
A look back at the all-mechanical marvels that made fun sounds for over 100 years.
Fun & Games
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
NXT-Based Brick Sorting Robot
This monster Lego sorting robot, built by Kenneth and Lasse of BrickIt, organizes bricks by size as well as color. It uses 28 motors, 7 NXT microcontroller bricks, 7 muxes, 22 sensors, and 37,500 Lego elements total. The NXT bricks communicate with each other via bluetooth and are programmed in leJOS, a Java-based firmware replacement […]
DIY Assassin’s Creed Arm Blade Prop
Prop building is engrained in Maker culture. Motion picture special effects, steampunk finery, live action role playing games, cosplay, historical reenactments, and the theater all rely on props to help tell the story. For the enthusiast, building a prop is a great way to channel enthusiasm for a particular subject and expand the user experience. The research and attention to detail poured into some prop building projects can even surpass the original inspiration in form and function.
Papercraft Gears of War Pistol
Graphic designer Matthew Milam of Dallas, TX, made this intricate pepakura model of the “snub” pistol from Epic Games’ popular Gears of War franchise. Unlike most papercraft designers today, Matt eschews the software-based approach and lays out the parts freehand! Bit of foam core are included, here and there, for strength, as well as a […]
DIY iPad Augmented Reality Cars
Waiting out an unfortunately lengthy shipment, Stockholm area maker Johan von Konow decided to build for his son a working set of augmented reality game pieces for the Cars 2 AppMATes game on his iPad. To achieve a faithful representation of the characters in the game, Johan modified a couple of PEZ dispenser tops approximately […]
Knock Down Pizza Oven From Bricks, Scrap Iron
Clever idea from Eric Rochow of GardenFork: [O]ur oven uses used clay brick and 24″ angle iron we cut from a old bed frame. You have to heat up the oven for an hour to get it up to temperature. The brick pizza oven has to be on sturdy sawhorses or cement blocks. We used […]
Replica HALO First Aid Kit Actually Is One
Shawn Thorsson’s HALO First Aid Kit is cooler than merely a replica — it actually serves as a first aid kit. So the other day (which was a Wednesday in this case) I was suffering from some time alone with my macabre imagination and decided that I needed my first aid kit to be more […]
