Trash Bag And Foam Board Hovercraft Doesn’t Fail To Succeed. Or Fail.

December 5, 2022 by Ryan Flowers 23 Comments

When you think of a vehicle that can do it all- water, land, ice, snow and more- the hovercraft often comes to mind. And while they might not be ubiquitous, hovercraft catch the imagination of many a hacker just as it has for [JamesWhomsley] of [ProjectAir]. [James] has built a small, but just big enough hovercraft as you can see in the video below the break.

Starting with a small RC proof of concept, [James] tested out some of his favorite construction materials: foam board, trash bags, duct tape, and our personal favorite: hot glue! After a successful run with the radio controlled model, [James] set out to build a hovercraft big enough to carry a human.

The resulting hovercraft was definitely enough to take a human for a spin, despite still using RC airplane parts for power. Sure, there were a couple of instances of parts going flying, foamboard being shredded, and loss of control. Even so, the trash bag air skirt stayed intact, and the aforementioned damage was nothing some tape and hot glue couldn’t fix. [James] was back on the air in no time.

Of course, some of the very reasons that we don’t see hovercraft roaming the streets come up in the video, namely off-camber paths. But the build itself is quite good, and for those of us who’ve wondered what it takes to make a hovercraft, this video shows how the sausage is made.

This isn’t the first garbage bag based hovercraft, and we featured another RC/Arduino controlled version just a while back.

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How To Keep Your Head Warm With A Skirt

January 26, 2021 by Kristina Panos 58 Comments

We’re not sure what we like better about this upcycled trapper hat — that [ellygibson] made it as a tribute to Holden Caulfield, the anti-hero of the classic teen angst novel The Catcher in the Rye, or the fact that she made it out of a skirt that cost a dollar from the thrift store. Oddly enough, one dollar is exactly what Holden paid for his hat in the book.

To make this hat, [elly] started by measuring the circumference of her head, then used math to figure out the radius of the circle for the top part. She made a prototype first to get the fit right, then cut the pieces from the skirt and the lining pieces from black flannel. We love that [elly] used the tiny pocket from the skirt in one of the ear flaps, because it will surely come in handy one day.

[elly] doesn’t provide pattern pieces, but that’s okay — between the explanation of how she arrived at the hat band circumference and the step-by-step instructions, it should be easy to make one of these for yourself from whatever fabric you’ve got.

Before you go cutting up an old coat, consider whether it could be fixed. Remember when [Ted Yapo] fixed the zipper box on his son’s winter coat by printing a replacement? Or how about the time [Gerrit Coetzee] cast his own pea coat buttons?

LED Skirt Is Stealth By Day, Party By Night

October 23, 2019 by Lewin Day 6 Comments

Versatility is always a boon in any outfit. [Mikaela Holmes] wanted to create a skirt that could be unassuming by day, but be the life of the party when the lights go down. Her Day-To-Night Light Skirt achieves just that!

The build is one that should be achievable by anyone with basic dressmaking skills. White and lavender tutus are combined to form the base of the skirt, with a lace outer layer sewn on to create an attractive silhouette for the lights. A USB battery pack is hidden in a pocket in the back to power the show. A WS2812B LED strip is then attached to the skirt, and hidden behind an additional layer of white faux-fur to help diffuse the light.

A pre-programmed LED controller from Cool Neon is used to run the strip, meaning no microcontroller code is required. It also allows the skirt’s lighting effects to be controlled by remote. Such controllers can make getting a glowable project up and running more quickly, particularly for those with less experience in the microcontroller space. Plus, the project can always be upgraded with a fancier controller later. For the most part, the vast majority of glowable projects use similar flashing and fading animations anyway; there’s really no need to reinvent the wheel every time.

[Mikaela] does a great job of showing the necessary steps to produce a skirt that is both attractive and functional. We’ve seen other great projects in this space before, too – like this awesome fibre optic piece. If you’re sewing up your own impressive glowable fashions, be sure to let us know! Video after the break.

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A Better Dust Skirt For Your CNC Mill

March 14, 2012 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

[Joshendy] wanted to get a better look at the cutting head on his CNC mill when it was running. The problem is that the rotating blades throw up a lot of junk which you don’t want flying around the shop so they’re usually surrounded with a shroud connected to a shopvac. He just milled is own transparent dust skirt to solve the problem.

The original dust skirt uses black bristle brushes to contain the waste from the cut. In addition to obscuring your view of the cutter this didn’t do a very good job of containing bits and pieces. The solution seen on the right uses clear, flexible PVC as the skirt. The video after the break details the build process. [Joshendy] cut out a replacement plate which is then fitted with magnets to connect to the cutter. The skirt is affixed to that plate with a series of screws, making it easy to replace if it ever wears out.

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