When I saw the subject line “homebuilt Wimshurst Machine” I was thinking “sausage maker?” Turns out that a Wimshurst machine was an early electrostatic generator design. It is more efficient than its friction based predecessors. The one featured here was built in 1976, but the site has a ton of other designs. If you just want to learn the principle behind the Wimshurst, that’s there too.
I was reading The Red Ferret Journal yesterday and thought the Ultimate Water Gun looked familiar. Well [-Pat] had sent this flamethrower build in the day before. It is the same build, but the red ferret link was to a super soaker forum, so it doesn’t shoot flames. The forum post is a little more detailed on the construction. Just read both and prepare to remove yourself from this planet. In all seriousness, please be careful if you are playing with fire or just pressure testing PVC.
We’ve talked about using Asterisk as a home PBX, but what if you hand built your own PBX? It is an interesting read covering how a home phone system works. There is an example situation of how this system would be used. The hand drawn schematics are cute too. I doubt anyone would try this now, but it is neat to see how a nonsoftware based system would work.
[thanks joelanders]
Want to make one of those gaudy pc cases everyone has sporting lately? A good first step is probably building an acrylic bender. It will save you $200 which you’ll feel better about after you screw up your tenth bend in a row.
[thanks rui maldonado]
So, did you hear about those Girl Scouts kicking ass with their home built telescope? [via] Here I thought they were only about overpriced cookies. The telescope is a “Dobsonian”; a design over 50 years old and named for creator John Dobson. People have been building these long before commercial telescopes were available. Here is a link to a pdf describing how-to build one of these monsters.
[thanks marc melcher]
This is a change of pace for us. Probably because this day next week I’ll be in sin city at DEF CON 13 and
It’s official: build anything with a display tube or a rat’s nest of wires and I’m in love. The project uses a CRT intended for an oscilloscope, but it may be even easier to build if you’ve already got an old CRT scope. Full plans are on the site. Check out the other projects too. He’s got a few Nixie tube clocks with links to board suppliers; very cool.
[thanks yair]
