Programmable drum machine

drumssette-magnetic-tape-sequencer

This sequencer, called Drumssette, uses audio tape to churn out some beats. [Mike Walters] built this around a Tascam four track cassette recorder. The tape inside has a different drum sound on each of the tracks, with a corresponding row of red buttons. Pushing a button adds the drum sound to the loop on that beat. He's using a series of digital logic gates to patch through the sounds as well as … [Read more...]

Perfect spiral, every time

final

[Carmine] let us know about his team's Automated Football Launcher. Their goal was to combine a football launcher with motion tracking, to allow a player to practice running and catching with the perfect throw. Unfortunately, and we're not quite sure when, they ended up changing out the Jugs machine for an air cannon, which resulted in the use of foam footballs and the loss of throwing factors … [Read more...]

Halloween prop: DIY fog machine

diy-fog-machine

Reader [Daniel] told us about a video detailing how to make your own fog machine. This project uses two disposable roasting pans to create a fog chamber. Inside you will find an upside-down clothes iron to convert fog liquid into a gas. The liquid is gravity-fed from a water-bottle reservoir on top, converted to smoke by the hot iron, then the newly created smoke is directed out of the chamber by … [Read more...]

Show us your most useless machine

We were fortunate enough to StumbleUpon the most useless machine ever. Delightful! Eclipsed perhaps by the world's most useless machine copy. We say that because the doll arm looks more realistic which creeps us out in a very entertaining way. So these machines aren't useless, they provide entertainment. We, on the other hand, have had some projects that really fell on their faces. With that in … [Read more...]

Home injection molding

homeinjection-mold

[Kenneth Maxon] is a wizard who only does things one way, beautifully. While out of the average hacker’s production capabilities, his injection molding machine is amazing to behold. The machine has all features a commercial model would. It heats and cools the mold, produces over a ton of pressure to inject plastic with, and ejects parts automatically to name a few. … [Read more...]