Brilliant project that uses a lava lamp to send randomly changing MIDI continuous controller signals. The creator uses it as a synthesizer controller on Reason and create some wonderfully unique sounds.
The basis of the project is a standard lava lamp (a large one will be easier to work with) and 12 light dependent resistors (“photocells”). I don’t even know what resistence mine are – they were cheap off ebay – the important thing is you can make pairs of the same resistance.
Growing collection of surfboards starting to clog your garage or hallway? Jeff at El Porto Fridays solved this problem in an elegant, quick and cheap manner, with easy to find materials from your corner hardware store. Check out the full how-to and get your board collection organized!
Best of all, you can pull this off for next to nothing using stuff lying around the house/garage. However, I did spend some cash, which I’ll price out for you later on. (Had I been more diligent though, I could have cut the price down even further!) Price really depends on how many board you are building for and how deluxe you want the rack. (I went deluxe.) But look around your house and garage for materials to use, be creative. Chances are you have much of the supplies you’ll need at the ready. (This whole project could fall under the Reuse portion of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ethos!)
I’ve been meaning to post about the new Canon camera for a couple months, and this parasailing video finally me to do so. The recently released Canon 7D is the current pinnacle of video-enabled digital SLR cameras. Perhaps because they’ve got a history in the video segment, and understand it better than Nikon does, Canon has made some desirable moves in video functionality on their cameras with each new release.
The 7D finally gives video makers a range of framerates: 23.97, 29.97 50 and 60
An impressive bitrate of 50 mbps
Manual exposure control
And the price is totally reasonable: just under/around $2000 (check it on Amazon)
This camera is a filmmaker’s dream. The APS-C sized sensor does tasty things with the background blur, and works great with older Canon lenses by dropping the fringy edges from the shots – something that a full frame sensor would pick up.
Take two anvils, a couple steel plates, a cardboard gasket, a length of fuse and a lot of black powder. Voila: anvil launching. Watch as Gay Wilkinson, champion anvil launcher, blasts his solid iron anvils 200′ in the air with this setup.
Note: Please do not take this post as a recommendation that you should attempt to launch your own anvil (or anything else, for that matter). Black powder is terrifyingly explosive – even the hardiest professionals are frightened by it.
Sunnan Synth. The solar powered strobe-opto-theremin-synth-thing. Made with an Ikea Sunnan solar lamp ($20, available in-store only), photoresistors, potentiometers and a cmos 556 integrated circuit ($2). Not too pricey nor complex, and it sounds awesome.
I’m hosting the upcoming special episodes on this year’s Punkin Chunkin competition alongside my Catch It Keep It pal Zach Selwyn. During the preliminary filming, one of the teams we’re following let me fire their custom-made catapult. I’ve never seen anything like watching a bowling ball (used for testing) whip through the air with so much backspin that it produces lift like a perfectly hit golfball at the driving range. Watch the speed on this thing–and it’s only at 70% power.
Every year in Delaware, a group of backyard engineers gathers with a single goal of seeing who can launch a pumpkin the furthest. The event is called Punkin Chunkin, and in the early years, the machines slowly pushed into the hundreds of feet. In short time the flying pumpkins passed the 1000′ mark, then the 2000′ mark, and are now closing in on the “holy grail” of Chunkin’: one mile.
Calling these catapults “homemade” is something of a tease–the machines that the entrants mastermind for this event are all entirely custom built. Some of them laugh that every year someone asks “Wow where did you buy that?” – a testament to the years of perfecting that goes into crafting each and every part of the machines, giving them such amazing throwing power. The event itself has become a gathering of the world’s foremost experts in the realm of catapult and trebuchet technology, and the innovations happening are pushing past anything that’s been imagined.
This is a great, low-cost project for someone who wants to test out the ins-and-outs of brick oven cooking. Super fast and easy to build, and with minor modifications, it can be assembled semi-permanently and get you through a season of baking delicious breads and pizzas.
I attended a fantastic pizza making event at Machine Project (instructor: Michael O’Malley) that included the construction and firing of a DIY temporary brick pizza oven – the ultimate in pizza cooking. Hugely educational and inspiring, even for a committed pizza fanatic such as myself. The oven, built, fired up, and torn down over the course of an afternoon, worked amazingly well – I cooked the best pizza I’ve ever made, by far.
Here’s a basic rundown on how the pizza oven was assembled. Firebricks and fireclay are available at kiln and pottery supply stores. Use these over standard red bricks as the red bricks tend to pop or explode when reaching extreme temperatures. The metal table might be the most challenging/expensive component used – watch Craigslist for used welding tables. Pavers are found cheaply at Home Depot, Lowes, or gardening/hardware stores.
(Note: bricks are heavy, and brick ovens generate a lot of heat. Please use proper precautions to ensure that you don’t burn or crush yourself while making or using your oven.)
Firebricks, pavers, and a heavy metal table. All the materials needed for our oven.
Make sure the table is strong enough to hold the weight of the bricks and pavers, and can withstand the heat. Lay out the pavers first to create an insulating buffer.
This is the jig that will be used to form the archway.
On top of the pavers, lay down a tight-fitting pad of fire bricks. Keep them as even as possible–this will be the floor of the oven.
Build up the back wall, using half-sized bricks along the sides to keep everything fairly even.
With the back wall set, place a length of angle iron along what will become the side walls. The angle iron pieces are pre-drilled for threaded rod to extend across and keep the side walls fitting snug.
The side walls shouldn’t be too tall – you want to keep the internal heat contained in a low area. A standing brick is the right size. Continue these all the way forward on both sides, keeping the bricks as tight as possible.
With the side and back walls finished, it’s now possible to start sealing. A mix of fire clay and sand will keep in the smoke and some heat, but isn’t weather proof – this allows you to clean and disassemble the oven easily.
Apply the mix to the corners and all seams. Use a liberal amount of it to make sure no gaps form when it dries.
The archway is formed on top of the jig, starting from the back. Put the bricks on from both outside edges, moving inwards.
A small shard of broken brick helps maintain the spaces that occur by the curvature of the arch.
Before removing the jig, place another layer of bricks onto the sidewalls and lock them in place with angle iron, as done on bottom. Once done, the jig can be shimmied out to let the brick arch settle into place.
Three layers of bricks gives a fairly sizeable pizza area. You can see how they stack tightly.
Another piece of angle iron bridges the bricks on the side of the opening (large enough for a peel but not too large). Bricks on top leave a space for the chimney to vent from. Keep the chimney in front, to help pull the heat forward from the burning wood at the back of the oven.
Here is the front of the pizza with the bricked-in chimney and walls.
A healthy slathering of the sand/fireclay mix on the roof and chimney areas help seal everything from escaping heat and smoke.
The chimney and walls are now sealed.
Firing up! Start the fire small to let the heat build gradually, without blowing a ton of smoke out the top.
As the fire continues, soot collects on the interior of the dome. After the heat raises, the soot cooks off.
This design doesn’t have the same heat retention as a multi-thousand dollar commercial unit, so reaching the idea temperature can take 60-90 minutes or more. Once it’s hot enough, sweep the embers to the back and use a wet toweled stick to mop the bricks.
This is my pizza, about 2 minutes into cooking. The crust had a crispy exterior and a soft chewey interior, with the perfect char. Tastiest pizza I’ve ever made.
Finally, here’s a video of the oven we built in action. Enjoy!
Don’t forget, you’ll need to get a pizza peel and a decent slicer. I like to use a wood peel for preparation and inserting (dough doesn’t stick as much to wood), and a metal peel to take the pizza out. This design doesn’t need a very long handle, but larger ovens will warrant it.
The Mario Batali pizza slicer is the best slicer I’ve found. Cleaver-like satisfying heft, oversized sharp, smooth wheel and comfortable handle. It cuts through anything without dragging the pizza across the plate. I actually bring this with me to friends’ pizza parties now–it’s spoiled me.
If you have any questions, comments discoveries or discoveries, please post them in the comments.
Monthly Giveaway! Every month I’m giving away a nice prize for helping support DO IT and spreading the DIY love. Here’s how to get in on the action.
Hi, I'm Mike. I’m the co-host of Science channel’s Punkin' Chunkin' and Catch It Keep It. I work on TV shows explaining and building the crazy machines that crush stuff, blow things up, shoot fire, all in the name of science.
You may have seen me on fuse TV's Rock and Roll Acid Test, where I helped put some of rock's biggest legends and lore to the test.
I'm a former staffer and current contributor to Wired and ReadyMade, two awesome magazines that focus on technology and diy living.
This site is where I keep a list of instructions for fun projects I've done or am working on. I encourage everyone to get involved - get up and make something!
