Cutting a record… on a CD

CD

Vinyl records are an amazingly simple technology, but surprisingly we haven't seen many builds to capitalize on the ease of recording music onto a vinyl disk. [Seringson] made his own vinyl polycarbonate cutter to record his own records at home. The impressive thing is he did this with parts just lying around. Just like the professional and obsolete record cutters of yore, [Seringson]'s … [Read more...]

CD/DVD Polisher may save your backups someday

CD-Polisher

CD and DVD payers can often keep the music or movie going despite a small scratch. But occasionally you'll have to skip to the next chapter/track or the player will just give up. But with data back-ups, a scratch can bork a whole set of files. We think that most of the time these headaches can be cured with this simple polisher. [Wotboa's] thrift store finds yielded almost all of the … [Read more...]

Freedom Toaster dispenses FOSS… for free

freedom-toaster

The Seneca College Linux Club figured out a fantastic way to help promote Linux to a wider audience. They took some surplus hardware and made an Open Source software vending machine. That is and isn't a play on words. The project itself is an open source project, and the goal is to dispense other open source software in the form of CDs and DVDs. Their build page shares all of the details. They … [Read more...]

Automated CD ripper build from Lego and other parts

automated-cd-ripper

[Paul Rea] decided it was finally time to get rid his CD and DVD library by ripping the data onto a hard drive. He has a rather extensive collection of discs and didn't relish the thought of ripping them one at a time. So he set to work building his own automatic CD ripper/duplicator. Right off the bat he had several specifications for the build. He wanted it to be platform independent, … [Read more...]

Make Your Own Odometer from Scraps

Operation

For those out there who would enjoy a quick and interesting weekend project, this odometer made by [PeckLauros] is for you. Featured on Instructables it is made from the simplest of materials including some cardboard, a calculator, wires, glue, hot glue, magnetic drive key, an old CD and a reader, and a rubber band.  The magnets, when attached to the CD work in a calculation to add 0.11m to the … [Read more...]

Build a simple switch

a-simple-switch

Forget hacking an easy button, grab a couple of those outdated CD-Rs and build your own switch for that next project. This was developed with handicapped accessibility in mind; assembled easily with common products and it's fairly robust. In fact, our junk box has everything you need except the adhesive backed copper foil. Combine two old CD's, covered in copper on facing sides, separated by two … [Read more...]

Destroying optical media

destroying-optical-media

We got a tip about a USB CD destroyer. We found its methods amusing as it just scratches the CD as seen above on the left. If you really have data security issues, perhaps something more than scratched plastic should be used. There are a lot of paper shredders that can also shred CDs, what about taking that shredder with the burnt out motor and turning it into a hand-cranked shredder that doubles … [Read more...]