models

“World’s Smallest” Working V-12 Motor

“World’s Smallest” Working V-12 Motor

A Spanish craftsman named Patelo skillfully designed and fabricated this tiny working V-12 motor from stock stainless steel, aluminum, and bronze for his grandchildren Sara, Carmen, Jose and Pablo. It took more than 1200 hours of work. Not counting the 222 screws, he machined all 261 pieces himself. The engine operates via compressed-air injection, has 12cm3 total displacement, 11.3mm cylinder heads, and a 10mm stroke on each piston.

Lego gunge

Lego gunge

Searching Flickr groups for “Lego” returns over four-thousand hits. Among the interesting oddities I’ve discovered so far is the LEGO Life-Size weapons group, which has 160 items. Shown here is M4 v5 by The Dawg’s Guns. There are also Lego knives, Lego bombs–even a wearable Lego Boba Fett get-up.

Impressive laser-cut wooden Mars rover model

Impressive laser-cut wooden Mars rover model

Back in April I blogged about the plans and kits for this and other elaborate laser-cut wooden models available from WoodMarvels.com. At the time, I snarked a bit about how all the images on their website are actually CG renderings, implying that, with models that complicated, it’d be nice to have some reassurance that somebody, somewhere, had put together a real physical version in the real physical world before giving up the green. Well, MAKE pal and dynamite CNC contractor Angus Hines sprung for a set of plans, cut the parts on his own equipment, and took these cool photos of the assembled model on red clay to suggest the Martian surface. [Thanks, Angus!]