Yes, folks, this is a way to open a bottle with a piece of paper. We’re not kidding at all. DIY:happy just tested it thirty seconds ago and it works. Get an 8.5×11 piece of paper and fold it until you can’t any more, wedge it under your bottle and snap it off. Amazing, simple, easy, free, and you can ‘wow’ your friends.
36 Instructionals until contest details are revealed!
Ah, microcontroller hobbyists. If you’ve ever been a microcontroller fan or you’d like to get into such bountiful and interesting scenes, here’s a good start for making this very commonly-used adaptor. The article illustrates the usage of the adaptor and also tells you how to make it out of salvaged parts (buying minimal components). Once you master this, you can graduate to a surface mount MAX3221. Who knew.
[note!] Adapter, adaptor… tomato, tomahto.
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37 more Instructional posts until the contest details are released!
It’s almost summer and it’s time for some pic-a-nic baskets, as a certain bear tells us. Whether you like to pretend you’re Little Red Riding Hood bringing your ailing grandmother a basket, or you’re just trying out being a picnic Scenester, here are a few helpful links to get you started:
Do’s and Don’ts: The proper picnic etiquette. Note there’s nothing about stealing baskets, eyy BooBoo? Okay, we’re done with Yogi jokes.
Picnic Essentials: How to plan and execute a proper one, without any social or executive faux pas. Doesn’t really list manners, sorry.
Picnic Tables: This teaches you how to be a hardcore picnic fanatic - make your own table!
Wikihow Picnic Checklist: Make sure you don’t miss anything!
Many of you probably noticed that DIY:happy was down most of Sunday and Monday morning. It seems it’s summertime and the script kiddies are out of school and bored. According to our host, they see all sorts of these problems around June of every year.
We took steps to ensure that we can respond quicker next time, and hope to continue smooth operations in the future. Let’s just see this as a sign of how big and awesome we are - DIY:happy got targeted by a script kiddie!
P.S. This is unrelated and top secret. DIY:happy is now rewarding regular commenters by removing the nofollow tag from links in their comments after they have reached a certain number of comments. We will try this out, but if it attracts more spam we will shut it off. Shhhh!!! Don’t tell anyone and don’t abuse it!
A few posts ago, we showed you how to make a homopolar rail gun. Using the same(ish) principals, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories will show you how to make the easiest of all homopolar junk - the homopolar motor. Using a battery, screw, magnet and some wire, you can make this cute little motor that works like magic, and pretend you’re Criss Angel to a group of third graders. Hey, they may give you their lunch money.
You mean there is another way besides using lighter fluid? Apparently, by using a charcoal chimney you can not only get your coals hotter, but you can light up your BBQ the old fashioned way - without using lighter fluid/gasoline/rocket fuel/etc.
This guide takes you through the simple usage of a charcoal chimney. Your belly will thank you when you have a fine, evenly cooked steak.
For anyone who has ever lived in an apartment and a stray roach has weaseled his little disgusting way into your abode from under a door that goes to the hallway - or from another door to the outside - you’ve been stricken with terror. “Did it lay eggs on my floor? Are there 160,235,263,678,432 more of them? Are they hiding? Where are they all?” It’s a very scary thing, and extermination’s a hefty price for only one visible roach, killed on sight, so here’s a recipe for DIY roach extermination powder!
[note!] #2 site!
This site deals with a variety of different DIY areas of life, and covers most bases. 43folders (wiki-style) is the grown-up version of parenthacks, and can be equally as useful. One would think the adult version of parenthacks would be lifehacker, but this is more everyday business than software and productivity. Unless you’re a computer, then everyday business IS software and productivity. Don’t worry, we don’t judge.
[note!] There are a variety of sites on the web that are similar to this. Please send us some! Kristi #a.t.# diyhappy #d.o.t.# com.
To us, “doing the laundry” means grabbing the trusty bottle of Febreze and going to town. It’s quick, it’s easy, and if it smells okay that means it’s clean, right? The only time you run into problems is when your clothes are all wrinkled. Usually, this means putting them in the dryer for 15 minutes (what’s an iron?), but if you don’t have the time or you’re just lazy there is spray-on wrinkle releaser.
My local store didn’t have any wrinkle release (is it still available? Last time I bought it was several years ago. So I began searching the internets to see where I could buy some. Well guess what? In true DIY fashion, you can make your own wrinkle releaser. Why didn’t I think of that?
If you’re interested, there are also several websites showing how to make your own laundry machine febreeze wanna-be.
This can work for any printable book, but for the purpose of this instructable, Cinelerra - the open-source video editing software (for GNU/Linux) - is used. All you need for this book is some MDF or other light-density wood, denim (or substitute), glue, and the printed paper. Available en français et anglais, pour les francophiles du tout le monde.
[note] Then - admirez le travail et bonne lecture!
This can work for cats or dogs, we don’t descriminate. Fitting a cat(/dog/ostrich?) flap is something that some people get others to install professionally, but here’s how to do it all by your lonesome! Videojug has a wealthy repertoire of other videos to offer in all home and garden DIY areas, and they dropped us a tip - we accepted - and now we’re plugging them right here in our corner of the web. Thanks to all who give us tips!
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We’ve featured makeshift soda can stoves before, but none like this. This is the optimal soda can stove design. With this stove, you should be able to bring 500ml of water to a rolling boil in about 6 minutes.
This article about constructing a bike trailer from Mother Earth News is not exactly an instructional or a how-to, but more like a suggestion/nudge in the right direction. It does have a good picture gallery, and it basically tells you everything you need to know, but it doesn’t give exact instructions in list form. Nice challenge, good payoff.
Instructables is one of the best sites that has ever graced the internet. This particular instructable uses hooks and hangers (fused together actually), so a modified tie rack is built. This allows for a lot more ties to be hung together, even organized, and they won’t be crumpled or rolled. This can hang upwards of a hundred ties, for visibility and easy access. Sweet! The author of this particular instructable has several cool, very household DIY projects available, so browse his other stuff too!
[note!] We’re done sounding like salesmen now.
DIY:happy is gearing up for two things in the near future, and we need your help (yes you, our darling, wonderful, attractive, loyal, beautiful reader).
Soon DIY:happy’s going to be hosting a contest for a logo that ladyada.net (the brains behind the MAKE kits!) has designated a $20 gift coupon code for the winner (good for anything in her store - adafruit.com - check it out, it’s seriously amazing and we’re very glad that she made this donation)! Start warming up your photoshop skills again! Look around for inspiration! Or if you know someone who’s creative and good with vector drawing, tell them to check with us! More details later.
The second order of business is that DIY:happy’s going to be setting up a tag system with a tag cloud page - to make our little corner of the web more organized. We’ll be setting that up sometime in the next week or two.
A few more things and we can let you go back to searching for iPod mods: we’ve been getting some tips lately, and that makes us (diy)happy (oh, the puns). We appreciate the folk who drop us a line! I’m guilty of not writing up a how-to, as I made diaper cakes (not for consumption, don’t worry!) last night and neglected to take pictures. BAD Kristi. So, thank you to the wonderful people who have and will submit tips to us [ kristi #at# diyhappy #daht# com is where you should drop us a line]. Our last thing is that we over here have been looking over the site lately and have noticed that [Ask DIY:happy] is looking a little lonely. If you have any questions (and we know you do) about existing projects, why we haven’t hauled ass putting specific projects up, how things work, or anything of the sort, DO NOT HESITATE TO EMAIL US!
In short, we would just like to see more involvement from our readers (our traffic is awesome, so we know you’re out there!), which is why we came up with the LOGO CONTEST, TAG CLOUD PAGE, and we’re asking for TIPS and QUESTIONS.
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