Homemade Tank Joins The Battle In Syria

December 10, 2012 by Mike Szczys 107 Comments

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What does a hacker do when going into battle for the freedom of their country? He builds a tank from scratch, of course. It’s a little bit of a stretch calling it a tank as it lacks treads. But it’s got a high-caliber gun mounted on top and has been heavily armored.

There is room enough inside for two people. What may look low tech in this picture is a different story from the cockpit. A pair of LCD monitors display images from five different cameras. You can see the shrouds that protect three of them on the front of the vehicle with a fourth acting as the rear view. A fifth camera mounted on the gun gives the passenger a look at where he’s aiming. A PS1 controller can rotate it and we assume has a fire feature as well. Check out the demonstration video embedded after the break.

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DIY Armor Starts With This Gauntlet Tutorial

October 4, 2012 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

This is not photoshopped, it’s a real gauntlet made of brass. [David Guyton] crafted it for some promotional photos for his book. But he also took the time to put together a step-by-step build tutorial.

The process starts with paper templates. These are much easier to work with than metal stock so [David] spends quite a bit of time trimming each piece to fit correctly. They are hinged together using thumb tacks which he crimps with a pair of pliers. With all the templates tuned to perfection he uses an awl to scratch the outline in his brass stock (you can use the metal of your choice). All of the holes are drilled and a bit of hammering flattens the parts before he heads to the grinder to smooth the cut edges.

To make the curves [David] fabricated his own jigs from pieces of pipe and carved wood squeezed together with a bench vice. It’s time-consuming, but the skills needed should be rather easy to develop with a little practice. You can catch his entire build in the video after the break.

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Grizzly Suit Up For Auction

July 7, 2008 by Juan Aguilar 5 Comments

Do you have a burning desire to fight grizzly bears? If you do, We can’t guarantee that the first bear you face will win, but we really can’t imagine another outcome unless you use [Troy Hurtubise]’s Mk IV suit, which is currently up for auction. We have discussed the suit before along with several other high-tech power suits, but this is the only one with bear-resistance in mind. The suit features several safety features, including layers of chainmail and titanium.The suit was also featured in the film “Project Grizzly.” [Hurtubise] is hoping to sell the suit for $40,000 or more to offset his personal costs, and judging by the current price, he may well make it.

[via Engadget]