Author: Caleb Kraft

1567 Articles

Make A Plasma Cutter

January 6, 2009 by 22 Comments

plasma

For those unfortunate few of you who don’t already have a plasma cutter sitting around, [jandgse812] is here to help. He walks you through the process of building your own plasma cutter from scratch. Adding up the list of parts brings the total project to roughly $300.  He has included visual diagrams for all the wiring as well as specific part numbers and where to get them. Be careful, this is potentially very dangerous, but also very cool. You may need to get a copy of the mission impossible theme to play whenever you use it. At least, that’s what [jandgse812] recommends. You can see a video of it in action after the break.

Continue reading “Make A Plasma Cutter” →

7 Color Hand Held Laser Projector

January 5, 2009 by 20 Comments

7color_laser

[rog8811] sent in this really cool hack where he used the optics sled from a PS3 as a foundation for a 7 color hand held laser projector. Combining a green laser, a blue ray laser, and a red laser, he is able to produce a variety of color  including white. There are step by step instructions on how to make a multicolored laser. He then goes even further, showing how to integrate this into a hand held projector with pre programmed patterns. You can see some examples of the different colors and patterns in this video.

Washing Machine Generator

January 3, 2009 by 32 Comments

stator

Building a generator can be a fun and fairly simple project. Getting a large DC motor however can sometimes be difficult. Here is a writeup on how to make a generator from an old washing machine drive. It looks like you might need to find a specific machine called the “Smart Drive” to follow their directions exactly though. If you happen to find one, or know of a unit with a similar motor, you can follow these directions to end up with a fairly decent wind powered generator.

[thanks TripleB]

Microwave Timer Switch

January 3, 2009 by 9 Comments

microwave

[Koil_1] knows he’s forgetful. In order to save himself from any undue harm, or possibly to keep from burning his house down, he felt he needed a timed power switch to run his soldering iron from. He realized he could harvest the relays and timer circuit from a microwave. This allows him to have presets for specific tasks. Considering the fact that you can get a used microwave for free or close to it most of the time, this was a great re use of something that might just go wasted otherwise. Great job [Koil_1].

Twittering Washing Machine

January 2, 2009 by 34 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkMXpKmRXvU&fmt=18]

If you don’t have at least one twittering appliance in your household, you’re getting behind. The latest addition to the spread is a twittering washing machine. [Ryan] tells us that he kept accidentally forgetting to retrieve his clothing from the washing machine, resulting in smelly mildewy clothes. Now, his washing machine twitters to announce it is done. It also has a sign in the house that displays its status to help him remember. We’ve seen unborn babies and toasters twitter, what’s left? Remember those refrigerators that were supposed to let you know that you’re out of certain food? Why don’t we see a twittering fridge yet?