If you’re sick of paying a mortgage, build your own home out of straw bales! Some of these are really impressive and get as large as 10,000 sq. feet. All the basic plans and ideas are here to build your own house out of straw. Just watch out for wolves who might want to huff and puff…
Technorati Tags: home, hay bale, construction
No, I’m not talking about the crappy television network - I’m talking about the Ultimate Pocket Notebook. This is another in a long line of poor man’s PDA/Hipster PDA/Personal Analog Assistants. There are some tips here for making protected photo pages and also how to use your ultimate pocket notebook.
Technorati Tags: PDA, hipster, planner
This Wolverine-obsessed kid went all out and built some retractable claws like the character from X-Men. The claws use a long piece of wood as the frame, and three aluminum claws on each hand. Details are a bit sparse and it is unclear if the claws are spring-loaded or manually extracted. Unfortunately the creator spent more time posing like Wolverine than giving us details on construction, but there is enough here to get your started on your own. Just in time for Halloween!
Technorati Tags: wolverine, X-men, claws, costumes
Turns out dishwashers are great for more than just washing dishes (and I’m talking about the machine, not your kids). Not only can your dishwasher cook salmon, it’s actually good at it! Of course, the fish should be sealed up tight so as not to get marinated in dirty dish water. Give it a try at your next party to boggle the minds of your friends and provide them with a tasty feast at the same time.
Technorati Tags: food, fish, dishwasher
These robots can’t bring you coffee or find Sarah Connor, but they just might be able to paint your wall. These little guys actually just use a paint roller as a wheel and will make a 10 foot circle when activated by a flashlight or other light source. So if you did load them up with a bit of paint, they’d only be able to make a big circle. Which actually might be kind of cool.
Technorati Tags: robotics, painting
Here is a new and interesting way to display your favorite photos. In fact, why limit it to photos? Throw in some scraps, art pieces, or whatever else you have lying around. This wall-sized display uses two custom cut pieces of plexi-glass as a frame. Pictures are mounted with double-sided sticky tape. No mention on how much a big piece of plexi like that costs, but whatever it is it’s probably less expensive than a “real” frame. [via]
Technorati Tags: art, framing, photogrpahy
Chances are you have a lot of sealed spinach cans lying around that you probably won’t be opening any time soon. Why not turn these cans of tainted Popeye food (or other bottles and cans) into a fresh art piece? Photojojo has some tips on turing cans and bottles into DIY photo frames. This involves just a bit more than simply printing out and image and wrapping it around a can - so check it out.
Technorati Tags: photogrpahy, art, framing
Some of you may remember Jason Bradbury’s original Back To The Future style hoverboard. Now Bradbury is at it again with a new version of his hoverboard that he claims will even hover on water (without anyone on it). This one looks to use four leaf-blower motors and an air filled bag underneath to accomplish its lift. This is something reminiscent of those “BUILD YOUR OWN HOVERCRAFT!” ads in the back of Boy’s Life many years ago - except you don’t have to send away with $5 and a SASE for these plans.
Note: Besides the schematic above and a bit of description, there doesn’t appear to be any in-depth how-to here.
Technorati Tags: hoverboard, hovering, transportation, boy’s life
Stilts are a fun way of seeing the world from a little bit different perspective. At 6′6″, I don’t really need them - I can already be the freakishly tall Uncle Sam guy at the parade. But for those of you not blessed with mutant-like height, try making yourself a set of these wooden stilts. Make another set for a friend and then try to knock each other off. [via]
Wow, that’s the biggest word ever on DIY:happy - magnetohydrodynamic. Basically it is a way of making your boat move without any sort of engine. This works by using the water underneath the boat as an engine itself. I think this is what they were using in the Hunt for Red October to have a completely silent propulsion system. These few projects will get you started in the wonderful world of magnetohydrodynamic propulsion. [via]
Technorati Tags: boats, toys, magnetohydrodynamic, propulsion, engines
For those of you who like to use your computers while on the john, check out this iMac Mac Classic that has been modded to dispense toilet paper through its disk drive slot. Too bad all the guts have been taken out of this computer or you could run some classic mac apps in the bathroom too.
Technorati Tags: iWpie, Toilet Paper, Bathroom
Here is a downloadable image which can be folded and taped into a real-life polaroid. It stays true to the original and even functions as long as by “functions” you mean “does nothing.” Still, it’s a fun model to have around. Use it to “take pictures” in no photography zones and you won’t have to worry about getting your camera confiscated. Better yet, hide a smaller camera inside just because you can.
Paper Polaroid. (Full Size Image). [via]
Technorati Tags: photography, models, camera
This fun little robot will walk around with its coat hanger legs all day. It is designed to be very simple and easy to build, requiring a servo motor, a single IC chip, and some other odds and ends. Instructions are given for breadboarding the circuit and free-forming it. The article is very in-depth and even gives some simple electronics education along the way.
Technorati Tags: robot, electronics, robotics
Here’s a fun one - how to open any car that has key code keyless entry. You know, the ones that have a little 5 button (10 number) keypad below the driver’s side door? This sequence of numbers will get you in, but will take about 20 minutes to enter. The huge number that you enter contains all 3125 possible key code combinations and is 3129 digits long. I thought those keypads had a timeout function, so YMMV. [via]
Technorati Tags: lock, lockpicking, keyless, code
The recent ghetto iPod dock creation has resulted in a flood of cheap DIY iPod docks. Most of these have not been worth mentioning, as they are even ghettoer (yes, that’s a word - I just made it up) than the originals. This iPod dock, however, is worth mentioning. It uses the iPod nano’s new packaging in a very aesthetically pleasing way. Here is a link to the original and here’s one for the imitation which has slightly better instructions.
Comments(2)