The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the kitchen, garage and backyard from food to furniture to fun & games for your family.
If you’re in DC this Thursday, Feb 4th, please stop by HacDC and catch this month’s Dorkbot DC gathering. We have two amazing presenters this month, Andy Holtin and Atau Tanka. Those involved with Maker Faire Austin may remember Andy’s involvement there (and my recent piece about his work here on the site). Atau is […]
Although the “look” of this dancing-girl automaton by English toymaker Ron Fuller is not personally to my taste, I could not resist the fact that it is powered by a stream of falling sand, which is a trick I’ve never seen before. Thanks to YouTuber greninmotion for the video. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]
YouTuber bluworm took on the task of making a great big octopus puppet for stop-motion animation in a film by his friend Daniel Lennéer. Along the way he produced this informative and entertaining video describing the casting, sculpting, and armature-work that went into it, as well as showing off some of the finished animation (starting around 5:00). Besides the cool propcasting info, I gotta give it up to bluworm for his video editing chops–this is definitely one of the most watchable how-to videos I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a bunch of them. [via Propnomicon]
MacArthur fellow and MIT Media Lab alumnus Karl Sims brings us this great tutorial on how to build your own complex harmonograph (Wikipedia) for making cool…um…”geometric figures?” I’m looking for a 50-cent mathematician’s word (which may or may not exist) for these periodic spirally figures. Can anybody help me out? [Thanks, David!]
Need a way to help the youth around you learn about flight? Try out some paper airplanes! Most people know how t make a basic paper airplane, but there are other designs out there. Inside the Dangerous Book for Boys is a two page section on paper airplanes with a few alternate designs you may have not tried.
Jeri’s Star Trek Next Generation Pinball Modifications – Trouble with Tribbles. Nice! Modifications to a Williams Star Trek Next Generation pinball. Added lasers to the cannons, custom-etched flipper bats and added animatronic tribble for replays. The end of the video has some great tribble action.
Tom Wilksch’s Portable Gliding Simulator offers two improvements over a traditional simulator installed in a fixed location. Built on a trailer base, this can be towed to public events to serve as a recruiting tool – offering a taste of soaring to many more people. And since it folds up tidily, it doesn’t require dedicated […]
