Green

Twelve-person tire swings

Twelve-person tire swings

Awesome party toy for dirt cheap, provided you’ve got the necessary outdoor space (and the, ah, secure 40-foot overhang). Made from used tires, wooden poles, and “a whole lot of metal bolts and cables” by Jan Köaut;rbes, these swings are suspended from the superstructure of the Mmabatho Sports Stadium in South Africa. [via Recyclart]

Shotgun shell candles

Shotgun shell candles

Here’s a great starting project for the rugged, outdoorsy, he-man type who is secretly candle-curious. The fact that it’s made with shotgun shells makes up for any girliness that might otherwise accrue to candle-crafting. Even if you use strawberry-scented wax. If you’re still feeling emasculated, try casting some beer bottle caps into the wax and/or mounting the finished candles on empty cans of SKOAL. From Instructables user Sunbanks.

Garden trowel from hot-formed PVC pipe

Garden trowel from hot-formed PVC pipe

A trowel is such an inexpensive tool, it’s hard for me to imagine making my own for anything besides the experience of making and having made it myself. Still, I can see why someone might want to make this one described by Instructables “PVC whisperer” Thinkenstein: It starts from ubiquitous scrap material, looks good, and is made using an unusual process that involves softening PVC pipe under heat (a delicate trick, safety wise) and forming it by hand.

Make a Rustic Mallet

This Rustic Mallet video and step-by-step how-to over on Borganic.net is amazing. The entire thing makes me want to go running into the woods, searching for the perfect sticks and logs. I’ve already asked my husband if we have a tenon cutter and have gone searching in the tool shed for a paddle bit. Borganic […]

CNCed greenhouse watering system

CNCed greenhouse watering system

Pierre Grand, an architect from Caussens, France, wrote in to share this interesting greenhouse watering system that he created in Sketchup. (B)ased on the fixing system developed by Bill Young (100kgarages.com), the GYRO green house recovers rainwater for broadcast in different vegetable bins arranged circular manner around the central axis. The system is under development […]

Micro-hydro-electric bucket project

Inspired by Sam Redfield’s rural alt.energy work in hydro-electric power, featured here on MAKE, “Fishboy,” working out of the Vancouver Hacker Space, created this micro-hydro plant in a plastic bucket. The power generator in the system is a Permanent Magnet Alternator (PMA) with a pelton wheel directly attached to the shaft. Water is sent through […]