To help get your creative juices flowing, here we look at 10 DIY projects that fall somewhere between remarkable and ridiculous. MacGyver would be proud.
1) Telecommuter Stand-in
To pay for our do-it-yourself (DIY) components and others, most of us need a job. One of the downsides of having a job is the time-consuming and expensive commute. Enter IvanAnywhere, an office robot designed to occupy computer programmer Ivan Bowman’s spot at the office while he lounges at home. Instead of simply chatting online with coworkers, Bowman’s IvanAnywhere is equipped with a camera and touch-screen computer so that he can video-chat in real time. The robot is fully mobile and moves through the office via remote control, The Record reports. Software interface aside, IvanAnywhere is fairly simple to create. In addition to the Webcam and computer, it has speakers and a motorized wheelbase emanating from a metal rod.
IvanAnywhere has even attended company parties, according to MAKE.
Credit: Peter Lee/The Record
2) Baseball Deglosser
The regular season has come to an end for Major League Baseball fans. If you’re really into the game, you know that a new baseball needs to be scuffed up before you can pitch it successfully. Roughing up the surface seemed too boring and not uniform enough for17-year-old Cameron Kruse, according to an article posted at MinorLeagueBaseball.com. So he built a machine to degloss, or muddy up, baseballs. According to Lindsey Korsick’s article:
The machine, made with components of the Lego Robotics set, is a series of micro computers, sensors and wheels. The ball is set in the middle of the machine and a pre-mudded shell is placed on top of it. The sensors trip the microcomputers and the ball is spun on three different axis for 10 seconds each, yielding a game-ready baseball.
The gadget uses lasers, motors and wheels to apply an even coating of mud on new baseballs. A bonus: the machine leaves the processed baseballs with a uniform color. (Lighter-colored baseballs are easier to see.) With CAD drawings and communication with machine shops, his invention is on its way to becoming a machine that can be mass-produced. He is currently working to get a patent.
4) DIY Hoverboard
Then there’s “UK TV gadget maestro” Jason Bradbury, who, as recounted by UK’s The Gadget Show on Five used a gasoline-powered leaf-blower motor, a board, grommets, screws, piping and connectors, duct tape and heavy plastic sheeting (like pool lining) to create a hoverboard. Total cost:
Great article. Though I can only do the basics, I do enjoy seeing what others are doing. Some of my favorite DIY projects are from ‘Make Magazine’, and they include building a timed pet feeder out of an old VCR.
There’s an old Boy Scout survival trick called a Solar Still. Dig a hole; put a cup at the center of the bottom; lay clear plastic over the hole, leaving enough to hang down to the cup in the center; put a rock in the center of the plastic to weigh it down and hold it over the cup; seal the edges at the top with dirt. Now just sit back and wait for the sun to shine through the plastic and heat the dirt, which will evaporate the water from it; the water will then condense on the (colder) plastic and run down the plastic into the cup.
The food industry is struggling to cope with market fluctuations. In this Expert’s Corner, Jonathan Daiker, a partner at CFO services firm the Interlochen Group, identifies strategies to stabilize costs and boost profits.
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Great article. Though I can only do the basics, I do enjoy seeing what others are doing. Some of my favorite DIY projects are from ‘Make Magazine’, and they include building a timed pet feeder out of an old VCR.
RE: the WatAir dew collector.
There is nothing new under the sun! ;-)
There’s an old Boy Scout survival trick called a Solar Still. Dig a hole; put a cup at the center of the bottom; lay clear plastic over the hole, leaving enough to hang down to the cup in the center; put a rock in the center of the plastic to weigh it down and hold it over the cup; seal the edges at the top with dirt. Now just sit back and wait for the sun to shine through the plastic and heat the dirt, which will evaporate the water from it; the water will then condense on the (colder) plastic and run down the plastic into the cup.