The 3 Most Bizarro Builds from Makerspaces

The 3 Most Bizarro Builds from Makerspaces
This article appeared in Make: Vol. 40.
This article appeared in Make: Vol. 40.

Anything is possible with the right mix of brains and brawn. And we all know that when we get together with our best buds, things often take a hilarious turn towards the ludicrous. Some of the oversized, outlandish projects coming out of makerspaces prove just how true — and fun — that is.

2014-04-20 17.31.26

STOMPY THE HEXAPOD

One of the flagship projects at Artisan’s Asylum, this two-ton, six-legged metal beast will be able to carry two riders above its 18′ footprint, through almost any type of terrain. Kickstarted to the tune of nearly $100,000, construction is underway.

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Dorito1

WORLD’S LARGEST VENDING MACHINE

For the 2014 SXSW music festival, North Street Labs, based in Portsmouth, Virginia, designed and built this six-story interactive stage installation to hold 800 bags of Doritos (the full-size variety). An equivalent number of custom release pegs, controlled by an array of Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards, dropped the snacks to hungry attendees through tweeted commands.

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alien autopsy

ALIEN AUTOPSY

Louisville’s LVL1 Hackerspace created this knockoff of the classic home game Operation, but to a much larger scale and with an extraterrestrial twist. The 3’x6′ space-alien board uses hemostats connected to buzzer circuits to sound an alarm if an amateur pathologist incorrectly removes any of the internals from the specimen chambers.


 

What’s the craziest project you’ve seen come out of a gathering of like-minded makers? Let us know in the comments!

 

0 thoughts on “The 3 Most Bizarro Builds from Makerspaces

  1. mazzmn says:

    how about the Wall-O-Tron minesweeper video game combined with a rock climbing wall http://hackaday.com/2013/06/26/wall-o-tron-the-interactive-rock-climbing-wall/

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Mike Senese

Mike Senese is a content producer with a focus on technology, science, and engineering. He served as Executive Editor of Make: magazine for nearly a decade, and previously was a senior editor at Wired. Mike has also starred in engineering and science shows for Discovery Channel, including Punkin Chunkin, How Stuff Works, and Catch It Keep It.

An avid maker, Mike spends his spare time tinkering with electronics, fixing cars, and attempting to cook the perfect pizza. You might spot him at his local skatepark in the SF Bay Area.

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