The Egg-Bot Gets A Little Wax Stabby

April 15, 2014 by James Hobson 13 Comments

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With Easter just around the corner, [Windell and Lenore] over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have come out with a new upgrade for their Egg-Bot. It’s called the Electro-Kistka and it allows your Egg-Bot to do wax-resist egg dying — in the same style as Ukranian Pysanky.

This isn’t the first time someone’s strapped a kistka to an Egg-Bot, but after seeing how much fun their customers were having, [Windell and Lenore] decided to make their own. It consists of two main components, a heater assembly that attaches to the Egg-Bot’s arm, and a power control board. To apply the wax they are using a kistka tip (looks like a soldering iron tip with a hole through it) which feeds molten wax onto the egg through capillary action.

It works almost exactly the same as the regular Egg-Bot arm, but allows you to dye your eggs with a very stark contrast as the wax repels dye perfectly. Just take a look at the following intricate designs.

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Smart Microwave Shows You How It’s Done

April 14, 2014 by James Hobson 26 Comments

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Do you still have technical difficulties with your microwave? Never know how long to put that half eaten hot-pocket in for? With the nextWAVE (trademark pending) you don’t need to know! Simply scan the bar code and let the nextWave do its thing — wirelessly!

[Kashev Dalmia], [Dario Aranguiz], [Brady Salz] and [Ahmed Suhyl] just competed in the HackIllinois Hackathon 2014, and their project was this awesome smart microwave. It uses a Spark Core Microcontroller to control the microwave and communicate wirelessly over Wi-Fi. They’ve developed an Android app to allow you to scan bar codes, which are then looked up in a Firebase Database to determine the optimum (crowd sourced) cook time. To make it easy for anyone to use, an app link NFC tag is placed on the microwave for easy installation.

It even automatically opens the door when it’s done — and plays Funky Town! Oh and it also has a Pebble app to show you the time remaining on your food. We think this Raspberry Pi microwave might give it a run for its money though…

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Happiness Is Just A Flaming Oxy-Fuel Torch Away

April 2, 2014 by Kristina Panos 13 Comments

The Egg-Bot is pretty awesome, we must say. But if you have one, you end up with lot of delicate, round things rolling around your abode and getting underfoot. Warmer weather is just around the corner, so segue from spring gaiety to hot fun in the summertime with the MarshMallowMatic kit from [Evil Mad Scientist].

The MarshMallowMatic is a CNC oxy-fuel precision marshmallow toaster based on the Ostrich Egg-Bot design. Constructed from flame-retardant plywood, it is sure to add an element of delicious danger to children’s birthday parties and weekend wingdings alike. You don’t have to get too specific with those BYOM invitations because this bad boy will torch standard and jumbo marshmallows like a boss.

The kit includes a 5000°F oxy-fuel torch and a 20 ft³ oxygen tank, but the tank comes empty and you’ll have to supply your own propane, acetylene, or hydrogen. It comes with adapters to fit disposable propane and MAPP cylinders, which are also not included. However, you will receive a fine selection of sample marshmallows to get you started. Watch the MarshMallowMatic fire up some happiness after the break. You could toast a special message and load it into this face-tracking confectionery cannon to show how much you care.

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Fetching Etchings For Stainless Steel

March 9, 2014 by Kristina Panos 25 Comments

What do you do when you have a 10-gallon brew kettle (or any other stainless steel or aluminium thing) with no volume markings (or Hack a Day logos)? If you’re [Itsgus], you use science to etch some markings with a few household items and a 9V and you call it a day.

[Itsgus] used 1/4c vinegar and 1/4tsp of salt to form an electro-etchant and applied it with a Q-tip connected to the negative terminal of a 9V. He used tape to connect a wire between the positive terminal and the kettle. The vinegar dissolves the salt, creating negatively charged ions. Connected correctly to a 9V, the process removes metal where the current flows. If you were to connect it in reverse, you would add a small amount of metal.

The process only takes a few seconds. When the etchant starts to sizzle and bubble, Bob’s your uncle. Even though the stainless steel’s natural coat re-oxidizes over the etches, you should probably wash that thing before you brew. If you prefer adding metal to removing it, try electroplating copper on the cheap.

This Little Piggy Stayed Home And Became A Stove

February 25, 2014 by James Hobson 11 Comments

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This little piggy probably should have gone to the market. Instead, its become an extremely decorative, and cute, wood burning stove!

After being inspired by a similar Instructable that guides you through the creation of a wood stove using an expired gas cylinder, [Ruudvande] had to try it himself. The problem was — he didn’t have a gas tank. Luckily for him, he found someone who did, but as it turned out, they wanted to turn it into a barbecue! So, slightly sidetracked, he built them a barbecue using the center of the cylinder, and got to keep the ends and enough steel to make Mr. Piggy himself.

Almost the entire wood burning stove is made of scrap bits and pieces of steel, and various pieces of mounting hardware. Armed with just a MIG welder, [Ruudvande] welded it together all by hand, and we think it turned out great! He’s not quite happy with it yet though and plans to upgrade the chimney, put a larger grill inside, paint it, and even add a glass window to the door.

Solar Hot Dog Cooker Does It With Parabolic Mirrors

January 24, 2014 by James Hobson 26 Comments

For a university project [Adam Libert] decided to make his very own parabolic hot dog cooker. Now, we must say, this is a project that could probably be cobbled together in a weekend from scraps, but since it was for a lab, [Adam] decided to go all out — complete with a perfect laser cut frame.

The objective of the lab was to design a project that can use solar radiation to accomplish a task, and being partial to hot dogs, the hot dog cooker was a natural choice. He designed the parabolic mirror to focus 1/5th of a square meter of sunlight directly at a hot dog. To do this, he laser cut the frame out of MDF, and using tinfoil, toothpicks, and poster paper, assembled the mirror. The whole thing cost less than $5 (ignoring laser time) and can be setup in a matter of minutes.

He determined the heat output of the cooker to be around 10W at the hot dog, which means he was able to bring the hot dog to 150°F in about 10 minutes — which was surprisingly close to his original calculations, because let’s face it, tin foil is hardly an ideal mirror.

Interested in other solar cookers? Why not cover a satellite dish in foil tape? Or if you want a quicker-cooked-hot-dog, why not plug it directly into the wall?