Here’s a simple and clever way to build a motorized cart for kids: power it with two 18V cordless drills. The drills friction-drive the cart’s front wheels via two 3/4-inch sanding drums, and you drive and steer the thing by pulling the drills’ triggers, one with each hand. Two fully charged drill batteries will run the cart for about 45 minutes of play time. Thanks Paul! Link.
How to make a war driving box – “It’s very easy, but this is not a step by step HOWTO, only a guide to build your own box. To start, you need a small up and running OpenBSD System on an Intel based System. This Sytem can run on in VMWare or on a older PC System (I use a 500 Mhz Pentuim System with 4 GB HD and 128 MB Ram)” – Thanks Jason! Link.
MAKE subscriber John writes “I started this site because of the importance, to ma at least, of vehicles that get good mileage. You don’t necessarily need an overly complicated hybrid (though I’m a fan of hybrids) to get good mileage. My goal is to get at least 40 mpg out of my Nissan pickup simply by making the engine more efficient and improving the aerdynamics while not taking away from its utility. This is important to me because of the environmental impact of cars and because of national security. We are all impacted by the environment but I’m in the Navy, have been deployed to the Middle East four times and so have a keen interest in our nation weening itself from oil as much as possible.” Link.
More soap box derby action – “A lot has changed since the first Soap Box Derby in 1934. More girls are racing, wind-tunnel technology and computer modeling are the norm, and the cars are made mainly of plastic from easy-to-build kits…Over the last decade, Soap Box Derby racing has come barreling back thanks to a blend of tenacity, adaptation, renewed interest from national sponsors – including Nascar – and a yearning for nostalgia.” [via] Link.
Here’s a Flickr photo set of a working raft made out of 120 2 liter soda bottles. The bottles are held together with duct tape and strapped to some wood. Thanks Bentheo! Link.
For those of you who have Pocket PC, specifically the iPAQ – here’s a good how to on mounting your iPAQ in the car with washing line pegs in the ventilation outlet. I’ve seen versions of these sell for $30+ and this looks like it will work better. Link.
