The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
Santa’s got the coolest tools. How else could he and his elves build all those gifts in time? Now, thanks to custom fabrication services, we can all get access to the Santa Claus Machines. From bespoke action figures, to interplanetary terrain models, from one-of-a-kind sneakers, to tailor-made machine parts, there has never been a better time to harness advanced fabrication tools to build objects of your own design!
I just discovered the Replica Prop Forum, and it has me on a bit of a Star Wars kick. This replica holochess table from Star Wars Episode IV was built by Philip Wise of Dallas, Texas:
J44 outlines his steps for converting a basic gaming light gun into a custom Laser Tag-like system, including gun and head mounted ‘hit’ detectors (a la Photon) – I hope many of you will find this instructable useful and will go on to build your own duino taggers. There is much scope for improving and […]
Interesting article from MacArthur fellow Erik Demaine covering the history of origami-style models that include curved folds. Shown above is “Concentric Circular Tower” by late UCSC Professor and noted computer scientist David A. Huffman (Wikipedia), whose curved-origami work was covered posthumously by the New York Times in 2004. The Flickr curved fold pool is chock-a-block with fascinating models of this type.
There’s a funny thing about dads’ toys. Very often, kids borrow dad’s supposedly grown-up toys and dad plays with toys designed for a much younger demographic. With that in mind, we present the Gifts for Dads list, filled with stuff that may appeal to more than one generation in your household.
LEGO minifig patent from 1979! [via @grantimahara] Update: A reader writes in with this clarification: Its not a patent but a design, in the legal sense (and practical). The difference is subtle, a patent is protects something like an apparatus (thing), a method of doing this apparatus and possibly how to operate said apparatus (let’s […]
Korean product design firm MintPass came up with these great concept designs for real calculators that imitate their software implementations. [via Boing Boing]
