DIY Hacks and How Tos

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Haunted TV Prank

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Haunted TV Prank

Halloween is just around the corner. So it’s time to start building projects to scare and prank your friends. I decided to start off this year by making a haunted TV. In this project I show you how to use a cheap pair of walkie talkies to make strange and eerie sounds come from your […]

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DIY Hacks & How To’s: Remote Tripwire Alarm

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Remote Tripwire Alarm

A tripwire is one of the most basic ways to set up a simple security system. You run a line across a pathway. Then when someone walks through the line, it activates an alarm. This kind of system is easy to set up and is fairly effective. But there is always room for improvement.

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DIY Hacks & How To’s: Giant Dinosaur Skeleton Puzzle

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Giant Dinosaur Skeleton Puzzle

In this project I show you how to make giant dinosaur skeleton puzzles out of cardboard. The process is really simple.

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DIY Hacks & How To’s: Developing Fingerprints With Super Glue

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Developing Fingerprints With Super Glue

Fingerprinting is an important element of crime scene investigation. You may have heard that Superglue (cyanoacrylate) can be used to develop finger prints. But you might not be aware that this technique can easily be performed at home with everyday materials. So in this project, I am going to teach you how to develop fingerprints with the Super Glue fuming method.

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Digital Magic 8 Ball

Digital Magic 8 Ball

The Magic 8 Ball is a fun toy that answers yes or no questions in a variety of ways. There are 20 different responses that it can give (10 positive, 5 non-committal, and 5 negative). A different answer is written on each face of a 20 sided die that floats in a blue liquid.

Each time you turn over the 8 ball it randomly displays one of the answers. This can be an amusing way to speculate about life’s many questions, but it lacks versatility. So I decided to augment my Magic 8 Ball with a digital picture keychain. This let me store up to 60 picture responses and I can change them whenever I want. So in this project, I am going to show you how to make a digital picture Magic 8 Ball.

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DIY Hacks & How To’s: Glove Box

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Glove Box

A glove box is a piece of safety equipment that lets you perform work on something while keeping it in isolation. It is most commonly used to protect operators working with hazardous materials, but it can also be used to protect sensitive materials from the outside atmosphere. In this project, I show you how to make a simplified DIY glove box to help contain your next messy, smelly, or sensitive project. Since different applications require different degrees of isolation, I demonstrate a variety of design features and how to implement them. You can then choose which features you want to use in your glove box.

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DIY Hacks & How To’s: Pocket-Sized Power Supply

DIY Hacks & How To’s: Pocket-Sized Power Supply

I am a big fan of garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. They are great places to find used parts and materials for your next project. But one problem that I often run into is not being able to test battery powered electronics to see if they work. Because there are so many different combinations of batteries that are used in portable electronics, it isn’t really practical to carry around batteries for testing. One device may need 6 AA’s and another may require 4 D’s. So I came up with this simple pocket-sized variable power supply.

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