DIY Projects

HOW TO – Building a better Tall Bike

HOW TO – Building a better Tall Bike

E2Efcf7Ad8Ee10D760A002D9.ThumbGreat bike hack on Instructables from Maxwell – “How to Build a Tall Bike, one that you can stop safely, and could be construed as street legal in most places. With this method, you’ll be able to stand over the bike, allowing you to hop down easily, have two brakes, a full complement of gears, And have a better riding position than two bikes stacked on top of eachother. You’ll only destroy one bike, The top portion is bolted to the bottom bike, so if it breaks, or you get tired of it, the bottom bike can be reverted to normal. All in all I think this makes for a suprisingly sane tall bike. Not that you’ll look any less the madman riding it through traffic.” Link.

Making Red Lights for Astronomical Observing

Making Red Lights for Astronomical Observing

523 ThumbMike writes “While LED circuits are pretty simple by Make standards, they are essential to amateur astronomers. This is because red light affects the human eye less than other colors, allowing astronomers to see their gear without destroying their night vision. This article shows how easy it is to create red LED light sources and give some examples of how to use them, including map readers, flash lights and interior lights for an eyepiece case.” Link.

Make a “book wall hanging”

Make a “book wall hanging”

WallGreat Instructable on making your own book wall hanging. I saw this in person a couple weeks ago, and I’m making a few as gifts for the holidays! – “Take one of the many beautiful books available at project Gutenberg and convert it into a wall sized readable book. Makes great gifts for the literary types in your life. This is the complete text of Flatlands, and how to generate and print it, at 60 x 42 inches. That’s huge! Take a look at the PDF.” Link.

Building a marble shooting airgun

Building a marble shooting airgun

Barrel EndInteresting page documenting a homemade air rifle (also check out the potato cannon) – “Air guns are normally small air powered rifles that shoot relatively small projectiles, primarily used for target practice. Usually, they are pumped up with an internal cylinder, activated by hinging the barrel towards the stock. My home made air guns experiments however take their lineage more from potato gun technology than target practice rifles.” [via] Link.

Making Felt

Making Felt

Felting
Felting is the art of matting wool. Any kind of knit that you want more durable can be done through felting. The process of felting can sometimes seem intimidating or complicated. I love this complete feltmaking process with photos for every step from the Handweavers Guild of America. You can use the felting technique for creating ipod cozies, bags, bookcovers, you name it! Link.