The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
This would have been so fun to have as a kid. I even had a little plastic tractor with a detachable pull-cart! A multi-colored and leveled carpet made to look like aerial views of farm land. I bet you could make something like this with carpet squares and an X-Acto.
Joel of Made by Joel strikes with his beautiful simplicity again. This time, he’s adding style to a favorite science toy: the oscillating woodpecker. Watch his video to see it in action, and then download the image and follow the step-by-step instructions on his blog to make your own!
Neal Tew combined some surplus touch panel displays and his regular-sized Nintendo DS to create the super-sized Jumbotron DS.
Lego fan Jason, aka Doctor Moebius, created these cool Lego beetles… but they have a trick up their sleeves (shells?)
Giant for a model, anyway. At 4′ tall it’s only 1/20th the size of a “real” one, and still not even close to Disney World’s “almost life size” version. Still, just try offering Disney what eBay seller komonac is asking for his and see what they say. [via Boing & Boing, LLP]
Those interested in mechanisms and horology will probably enjoy watching the hypnotic action of this single-pin escapement executed in Lego by YouTuber horolophile. An “escapement,” FYI, is the mechanism in a timepiece that converts continuous rotational motion into oscillating “back and forth” motion and makes it go tick-tock.
In point of fact, this “Kid’s Walker” from Japanese firm Sakakibara Kikai, like every real-world mecha prototype I’ve ever seen, is considerably more impressive when standing still than when in motion. There’s embedded video here. If you are actually concerned about the possibility of the world being stomped to rubble beneath the armored galoshes of a Pokémech revolution, you should watch it and put your mind at ease. If, like me, however, you were excited by the photo and are enjoying dreaming about buying or making one of these for your own outer or inner child, you may want to keep that dream alive and pass on the vid. [via gizmag]
