If you’ve ever found flash photography to be too harsh, but often wondered how the pros get those evenly lit studio shots, you should check out a ring flash. Shooting through a ring flash will get you smooth, even lighting, and that perfect twinkle in the eye. You’ll also lose the harsh shadows that usually accompany a flash.
Sure, the world’s full of unusual clocks, both analog and digital, but this unusual design from Instructables user duckcrazy caught my eye for the many clever ways in which it makes the most of some common materials. The case is made from carefully-chosen 2-liter soda bottles, and the clock itself from a pair of CDs, a couple of print-and-fold paper cylinders, and an inexpensive analog clock movement. It’s an entry in Instructables currently-ongoing Clocks Challenge.
Cool vid from our pals at TAP Plastics showing how to build a strip heater, which is commonly referred to as a “plastic bender,” but really doesn’t do any bending in and of itself: It’s just a long skinny heating element that makes it easy to soften a sheet of plastic along a straight line, so you can bend it with your hands to an arbitrary angle, and/or against a jig for more precise control of the bend.
Interesting homemade tool from Instructables user Random_Canadian. The melt chamber consists of a length of 3/4″ iron pipe, the piston head is an off-the-shelf socket wrench, and the piston rod is a socket extension. A temperature controller, a couple of eBay cartridge heaters, a few tufts of fiberglass insulation, and some odds ‘n’ ends make for a heating system. And a brass hose barb serves as the extrusion nozzle
Good-looking clear plastic version of Matthias Wandel’s wooden Jenga pistol, from Instructables user Jayefuu. Jayefuu uses a laser cutter to make the flat parts, and the vector art is freely available.
Laurent Laveder is a landscape astrophotographer. No, really. That’s his job! OK, he’s also an astronomy journalist, if that makes you feel any better. But it’s his amazing astrophotography, especially his series called Moon Games, that really inspires awe… and lots of FB/G+ reposting.
Instructables: “As of today, all steps view and secondary images are available to everyone, logged in or not”
