The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the manufacture of metal, wood, plastic, ceramic and composites. We talk about machining, using a lathe to machine metals like steel, brass, and aluminium. We make chips fly!
Designing and machining things in 3D can be difficult to wrap your brain around, but there are a few great ways to learn. Tune in at 2pm PST/5pm EST on the +MAKE page so we can tell you all about them, or catch the show later on the MAKE YouTube page.
Etsy user Adam Gray of Hella Slingshots makes wooden slingshots like this wooden one featuring a bear’s head.
Inspired by the bow-and-arrow use in Legend of Zelda games, Cornell students Mohamed Abdellatif and Michael Ross created a Virtual Archery game as their Cornell University ECE 4760 Final Project.
The folks over at Defense Distributed, the home of the Wiki Weapon Project, have successfully fired an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with a 3D-printed lower receiver. They were able to fire off only six rounds before the part failed, but some would consider that a pretty decent outcome considering it’s composed of printed plastic. Now, the entire gun is not printed–just the lower receiver (the regulated part), but it’s a good first step. Regardless of you stance on gun control (or conceptual lack thereof), this project is worth keeping an eye on.
Built using simple materials like bamboo and biodegradable plastic, Massoud Hassani’s Mine Kafons are kinetic sculptures that save lives. Carried by the wind, the tumbling dandelion-shaped orbs cover large swaths of land scattered with abandoned land mines. As the plastic pads that cover its outer surface detonates the ordnance, the device absorbs the impact of the blast with minimal damage.
It can be cocked, rendered safe, loaded, cycled, field-stripped, and even fired, so long as the load is no stronger than a bit of homemade primer. And though it’s clear that the coil springs, at least, are actually metal parts, the rest of it is nothing more than carefully cut, laminated, glued, shaped, and painted paper.
An ancient method of lost wax casting is still used today in making carillon bells. Today, carillons have become so well tuned and sophisticated that entire melodies can be played on them.
