DIY Projects

Rubbermaid 300 Gallon Tank…

Rubbermaid 300 Gallon Tank…

172830654Klyakd PhBook of Joe has a handy overview of things you can do with a Rubbermaid 300 Gallon tank: “I happened on a photo of San Diego Chargers tackle Wesley Britt happily sitting in one in the latest (August 8) issue of Sports Illustrated. The caption describes him as catching up on the headlines in the shade and ice water as he comfortably reads the paper and soaks in one of these giant grey tubs (above). Rubbermaid got about a zillion dollars worth of free advertising from that magazine photo. I asked my crack research team to find out more about this sturdy-looking tub, which the Chargers have in multiples at their training headquarters. Turns out that those whose hobby is “ponding” — creating and maintaining your own pond at home — swear by these Rubbermaid tanks.” Link.

Air Cooled Mouse Pad

OverviewmainTom sent in this fun how to from Jared and Dan “The idea for this project evolved out of necessity. Dan and I are both avid gamers. After a few hours of gaming with our normal high-end mouse pads you get a build up of sweat. The mouse and mouse pad becomes slippery and you start to loose your competitive advantage due to the loss of precision. While there are a couple mice on the market that have small fans in them to dry out your palm, they all have major failings in precision and accuracy. So after some thought and discussion we chose to build out our own custom mouse pad with a blower in it to suck the air down through the pad and away from the gamer’s hand. The result is astonishing!” Link.

Courier Bag LED Light

Courier Bag LED Light

Img413 09It’s LED day today it seems – “Want to make a neat courier bag light? This light goes through the straps on a timbuk 2 bag and blinks in really cool patterns using a BS2. You’ll need: 16 x 470 ohm Resistors, 16 x LEDs 24 Pin IC Socket on/off switch, 9v Battery 9v Battery connector, 9 x Molex KK Connectors, 18″ 3/4″ Flat webbing, Breadboard, Wire… oh you’ll need some wire.” Link.

DIY Ring Light from Christmas LEDs

DIY Ring Light from Christmas LEDs

Mr NikonJohn writes “Did you run out and buy a big old string of white LED Christmas lights because you just knew that they were of the sweetest hackability? I know I did, and I’m going to build one of these right lights and keep it with my camera gear. You never know when your going to need a bit of fill light when doing a closeup, shooting a macro image, or just need somthing to make retroreflective things come alive.” Link.

The Electronic Peasant’s LED Color Organ…

The Electronic Peasant’s LED Color Organ…

Ledcorg8Francisco writes – “Amazing electronic DIY projects and absolutely incredible craftmanship. The Peasant is dedicated to inexpensive, easy, and fun Do-It-Yourself electronics projects, particularly those which involve music production and reproduction as well as alternative energy. The color organ stars shown are built point to point, using a technique that I had never seen before. A MUST to check out if you’ve ever soldered anything!” Link.

HOW TO – Make a LED tank top

HOW TO – Make a LED tank top

Img413 08Make your own LED tank top “84 LEDs, a microcontroller and battery were sewn onto a tank top with conductive thread to create a wearable LED matrix display…the shirt is initialized with a glider on the back of the shirt and a blinker on the front. Periodically, a new glider is added to the back of the shirt. The tank top “board” for the Game of Life is a torus; the cells on the top row of the tank top are neighbors to the cells on the bottom row and vice versa.” Link.