Fresh hacks every day
Our mouth is still agape after digging through [Tom's] watchmaking blog. This gentleman spent several years designing and machining his own mechanical wristwatch. A dozen years ago or so [Tom] answered an ad for an apprentice watchmaker. He worked on watches and came across a book that detailed how timepieces are made. He was told that no-one does it like that anymore, which only fed his … [Read more...]
[Martin] just sent in a project he's been working on that takes Donkey Kong out of the realm of pixels and sprites and puts our hero Mario into a world made of laser cut plywood. This mechanical version of Donkey Kong uses an Arduino stuffed into an old NES to control Mario jumping over ball bearing 'barrels.' The game starts with 12 of these barrels ready to be thrown by our favorite gorilla … [Read more...]
We don't really know what to say. This Skeeball cabinet is built entirely from Knex. It works exactly how you'd expect Skeeball to work. You plug in quarter and it dispenses balls and keeps score. [Shadowman39] worked on the build for more than a year. Everything that went into it is a Knex part with the exception of a few rubber bands, and the paper numbers that are used on the scoreboard. … [Read more...]
The decision to use electronics for our calculating machines has long been decided. However, that doesn't mean that mechanical engineers didn't put up a valiant, if ultimately futile, fight. [Dvice.com] has an interesting article comparing the calculating technology of the 1960s, such as the [Haman 505], to today's iPad. This comparison and pictures were made possible by [Mark Glusker]'s … [Read more...]
You probably weren't expecting a project based on [Nikola Tesla's] work to show up during the Engine Hacks theme. Most people know of him because of his pioneering work with high voltage equipment. Never the less, [Tesla] designed a device that later became known as the Tesla Turbine. Tesla turbines are made out of a series of thin disks attached to a central rotor. Air or steam is injected … [Read more...]
[Alexey] wrote in to share a mechanical claw (Google Translation) he has been hard at work on for quite some time. While a lot of people will turn to some sort of 3D plastic printer such as the MakerBot if they need plastic parts built, [Alexey] didn’t have access to one. Instead, he carefully crafted the entire mechanism from polycaprolactone, or as it’s more commonly known, … [Read more...]
[M-byte] wrote in to tell us about the Lego Synchro Drive. Although not a new hack, this autonomous vehicle is quite amazing in it's simplicity. Using only one motor turning at a constant speed, this device is able to navigate obstacles by simply turning. As [m-byte] was quick to point out, this is a simple task using modern electronics, but this drive is made using only Lego Technic parts. … [Read more...]
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