Alley Cat is Kinetic Trash Art
An “Alley Cat,” made entirely from would-be-trash wood, is an entrant in the Project Remake Contest. Do you upcycle, remake, or reuse components in your projects? Submit your project and you too could win!
Workshop
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the industrial arts from metal and woodworking to CNC machining and 3D printing.
How-To: Knock Down a Pallet with Simple Tools
If you don’t reclaim enough pallet lumber to justify a specialized prybar for the purpose, it is of course possible to knock down shipping pallets using everyday hand tools. But don’t pry – that’ll just split the wood. Instead, knock out the boards and nails from behind with a hammer. Or better yet, a pair of hammers. YouTuber miscpro shows us how it’s done.
Pallet Reclamation Bars
Each time I have to break down a pallet, I am surprised at how much work is involved. If I had to do it very often, I would spring for a purpose-made tool. Several commercial models can be found for sale online using Googlons like “pallet buster” and “deck wrecker,” but I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the maker-made Pallet Reclamation Bar from Cargo Cycles of Norwich, UK.
Chris Bathgate Has a Book Out
Chris first appeared on our radar last year. I like Rob Beschizza’s description of his works as “randomly-generated parts for high-performance machines that don’t work in our universe.” He has just released a self-published art book with photos of his catalog and beautiful plan drawings that are just as eye-catching.
Weekend Projects – BEAM Solar Chariots
Complete instructions for this Weekend Projects can be found at
http://makeprojects.com/Project/BEAM-Solar-Chariots/1939/1
BEAM is a type of robot design that allows you to create little robot/robot-like critters and vehicles mainly using basic analog components (resistors, transistors, capacitors, diodes, LEDs). The challenge is to try and get as much robot-like behavior using these components. BEAM is an acronym for “Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics” and these four elements serve as inspiration in all BEAM design.
For these two projects, we’ll use what’s known as a “solar engine” (Type 1 “FLED” variety), some store bought and scavenged electronics, and laser-cut and gold-leafed wheels to build some stylin’ little Solar Chariots. Let the build begin!
Arduino-Powered Wire Bending Machine
The DIWire Bender is a rapid prototype machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D or 3D shapes. Wire unwinds from a spool, passes through a series of wheels that straighten it, and then feeds through the bending head, which moves around in 3 dimensions to create the desired bends and curves. Vector files (e.g., […]
Interview with WikiHouse’s Alastair Parvin and Nick Ierodiaconou
WikiHouse is an open source construction set: a pool of 3D models of houses and a plugin to help convert them into CNC cutting files, shared under Creative Commons.
