Want to try your luck drilling out a PCB with this mouth-powered drill? [Cheng Guo] shows off one of his many mouth-powered tools above. It’s a tiny drill which spins with the opening and closing of your jaw. The concept may seem a bit silly, but his ability to fabricate these machines is fantastic.
The clip after the break starts off with the drilling demo seen above. From there he shows off several different tools. One is a molding machine that uses your breathing to spin a mold, thereby forcing the material inside to conform to its shape. There’s also a wood lathe. You hold the cutting tool in the your mouth and spin the mechanism with a bow and string setup. If you’re good at sucking, his vacuum former is right up your alley. Just heat up the plastic stock in the microwave and suck with all your might. Finally he shows off an extruder. We’re not quite sure how that one works.
[via Make]
“Cheng, I need to use your dremel real quick… Aw dude! It’s wet! Why is it wet!? All of your tools are wet! … Why have they all been in your mouth!?”
On the other hand, I can’t wait to see him make a table saw…
These are impressive, but I have a sneaking suspicion that everyone wonders what it would be to see the inventions that he doesn’t publish.
That aside, I suspect he may have prosthetic talents that are as yet untapped – lots of people missing parts out there, and this level of ingenuity might go far. Our last little fling in asia brought back lots of willing recipients for such technology.
This reminds me of SAW in so many ways… Nightmares to come…
totally disturbing
wtf on so many levels
I guess he never realized that most of these things can be done more efficiently with a hand tool. Extruder = bag with hole in one corner etc. Even his lathe could be done better with his hands. I’m all for making things just to try something new but if there is already a better way to do it than I am not sure if the time being used is not wasted. The devices are very well made though. I wish he had some kind of build log. I do think it is a great idea to try and make more “power tools” that run off of human power. I would love to see more “human powered tools”.
Consider that possibly the person that uses these might not be able to use their hands.
For those the tools are even less practical, as they need to be put in place and configured by hand. Plus, none of them seems to be able to come up with anthing close to usable work quality. Whats the use of a drill hole, if head motion totally ruins its shape?
Yeah I’d have to kinda agree with Steve there. Electric power tools require way less pressure control and can be locked into staying on. I applaud this person for their interest in the area, but I can’t find much practical use for most of the things he builds outside of a Nat Geo special like the guy in Africa that builds things with his feet :)
Hmm…..After a long day of building cabinets using his mouth powered tools, Joe finds that he can no longer open his mouth and go’s on a liquid diet.
Should make mouth powered sex toys imho.
Use the tongue Luke.
WTF is wrong with this guy?
OM-effin-G!
Cracked me right up! tears in my eyes, sides hurt. With a pretentious artsy video, no less.
Best thing on HaD in some time, if borderline off-topic.
Sweet. Thanks for this.
I sense a “paraplegic toolset” in the works at Milwaukee Tools or Snap-On…
I think your thinking quadriplegic…
Don’t you use your feet to run power tools?
for the extruder operation think sample size toothpaste tube in your mouth. Trying to get the material inside might be that proverbial trying to put toothpaste back in the tube, but I’m guessing Cheng has a mouth powered tool for that as well :) Go easy on the man. Chances are the first person to demonstrate glass blowing had conservative types saying what’s that going to be good for? A one for current practicability, off the chart for creativity.Perhaps Cheng can be an additional Ben Heck in creating assistive technology for brain and spinal injury survivors and amputees as well.
You use yer mouth real purdy boy!
Come on guys! It seems that there are quite a few people around here that have never heard of ‘Chindōgu’.
Google is your friend.. ;^)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu
My first Chindōgu encounter was the 360 degree camera hat.
I love that the Japanese have a word for this.
WTH is he extruding and why is he putting it on that long roll of paper?
OMG! Really?
Having a root canal yesterday this is no less than horrifying
I don’t know what it looks like, but the idea of using your mouth (leaving your hands free to do other tasks at the same time) might have interesting possibilities in building your stuff… he could, of course, make it electric powered and only concentrate on making the “handle” fit nicely on your teeth so it would be practical.