Neat idea from Instructables user Random_Canadian, whose mini metal lathe and homemade plastics extruder we have recently featured. His take on the classic physics toy uses five glass marbles, each illuminated by an attached LED and suspended by the wires that power it.
LeoneLabs on Instructables posted this fantastic how-to on adding 14 lasers to a regular tennis ball to make a Laser Ball. Why? He says that it’s fun to build, it can be done in an afternoon, and “lasers are cool.” The lasers are driven by a Teensy USB Development Board, which is stuffed inside the ball and controlled from outside with an infrared remote control. The Instructable shows you how to make your own in painstaking detail, but you can also follow the build step-by-step in this fun video.
Karol Łuszcz is studying electronics at Poland’s Gdańsk University of Technology. I’d say he’s on-track for an impressive career. This vector-graphics laser projector, his third prototype, includes three laser modules at 650, 532, and 405 nm wavelengths (making it more of an RGV projector, really). Many parts were salvaged, for instance, from a DVD burner, a printer, and a “disco ball.”
Back in Plastics Month, we featured a simple shop-made plastics extruder built by Instructables user Random_Canadian. Now the arbitrary Canuck returns with this pint-sized metal lathe built with a 14″ piece of precision aluminum T-slot extrusion, and some characteristically resourceful salvage including an electric motor from a cordless weed trimmer, a variable speed switch from a cordless drill, and a tailstock center improvised from a countersink.
Scares off wildlife, starts campfires, melts ice, burns weeds, and works wonders on nose hair. What could possibly go wrong? The grip is built up from laminated laser-cut 1/8″ ply. Nice design from Instructables user PDRWLSN.
The countdown has begun! You have until 11:59pm PST TONIGHT to submit your spook-tacular project to our 2011 Halloween Contest.
No power rings are involved, here, just boric acid, methanol, and a homemade spirit lamp. It’s all nicely explained by Instructables user The Green Gentleman.
