One piece, 3D printed crossbow

bow

Centuries ago, craftsmen and smiths of all sort spent hundreds of hours crafting a crossbow. From the fine craftsmanship that went into making the bow to the impeccable smithing a windlass requires, a lot of effort went into building a machine of war. Since [Chris] has a 3D printer, he figured he could do just as well as these long-dead … Read the rest

Prison inmates: The world’s least admirable hackers

prison_makers_diy_radio_transmitter_bug

One thing that always amazes us is the ingenuity displayed by prison inmates, as demonstrated in the tools and weapons they create while under the watchful eye of the law. Unlike most people however, these individuals have nothing but time on their side, which lends to the wide range of implements they inevitably dream up.

[Marc Steinmetz] took some time … Read the rest

Libyan rebels turn toys into weapons of war

scrapyard_weaponry

They say all’s fair in love and war – trust us, you don’t have to tell these guys twice.

With the war in Libya raging on, the rebels have turned to anything and everything to help give them the upper hand. Engineers and engineering students have put aside their work and studies to become the architects of the Libyan … Read the rest

electromagnetic aluminum can crushing


This has been around for a while, but we never covered it – and it’s friggin’ awesome. [jesse] sent in this crusher, but I featured this one due to a sort of draconian copyright notice on the former. The latter also uses some easier to find, hackable parts. They’re both built on similar concepts – use a large bank of … Read the rest

Cakebot: mindstorm cake slicer

[Per Elmdahl] sent along this one. I usually go for weaponized Legos, but who doesn’t like cake?… Read the rest