Tag Archives: Crafts and Mods

Open Casket Bar and Grill

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open casket grill Open Casket Bar and Grill
Creepiest barbecue ever! This very odd barbecue and cooler was made at TechShop for the Nightmare Cruisers hearse club. Somehow that makes it ok for me. Anyway, this thing was built from a showroom floor sample casket purchased off Craigslist (yes you really can get anything there), a trailer from Craigslist, a scratch and dent grill purchased from eBay, and various reclaimed parts from a freezer and sink. There’s both a grill and an insulated drink cooler built in there. Here’s a video showing how to make your own:

The whole thing was modified to be towed via hearse. It was designed to look seamless- like a regular casket (on a trailer) and not a janky mod. Well done on that end. It even has speakers and plays music (perhaps some Grateful Dead?) and has a skull bottle opener. Party time! (instructables)

Open Casket Bar and Grill
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Read an Email, Get an M&M

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email notifier Read an Email, Get an M&M
Ever wish you could be rewarded for reading your emails? With the DIY Edible Email Notifier, every time you read an email, you get an M&M. Candy! Who can resist a sweet little piece of chocolate? Nobody. Send me more emails! Created by Kathryn McElroy, the EEN was made using an Arduino processor, a stepper motor, and of course a wine bottle.
email notifier system Read an Email, Get an M&M
The Arduino runs a script to check the number of unread messages on your computer ever 20 seconds. If the number goes down it means you’ve read an email and the motor moves and drops a reward M&M into the glass.
mm email notifier Read an Email, Get an M&M
The EEN was presented at the Maker Faire 2013. Let’s see how it works in this video:

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Of course now you have a great excuse for not reading someone’s email to you- “sorry I couldn’t read your email, I’m on a diet”. With the amount of emails I get, I’d be a blimp by the end of the week. Heck, I’d start sending emails to myself just to get an M&M.

Read an Email, Get an M&M
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Read an Email, Get an M&M

Posted on by

email notifier Read an Email, Get an M&M
Ever wish you could be rewarded for reading your emails? With the DIY Edible Email Notifier, every time you read an email, you get an M&M. Candy! Who can resist a sweet little piece of chocolate? Nobody. Send me more emails! Created by Kathryn McElroy, the EEN was made using an Arduino processor, a stepper motor, and of course a wine bottle.
email notifier system Read an Email, Get an M&M
The Arduino runs a script to check the number of unread messages on your computer ever 20 seconds. If the number goes down it means you’ve read an email and the motor moves and drops a reward M&M into the glass.
mm email notifier Read an Email, Get an M&M
The EEN was presented at the Maker Faire 2013. Let’s see how it works in this video:

)

Of course now you have a great excuse for not reading someone’s email to you- “sorry I couldn’t read your email, I’m on a diet”. With the amount of emails I get, I’d be a blimp by the end of the week. Heck, I’d start sending emails to myself just to get an M&M.

Read an Email, Get an M&M
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DIY Led Light-Up Tardis Fascinator Hat

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light up tardis hat DIY Led Light Up Tardis Fascinator Hat
Kathryn McElroy made this really neat Doctor Who Tardis fascinator hat that lights up. You won’t believe what she used to make it. This DIY project was started with a bunch of recyclables and leftovers from other projects she had worked on. Take a look at the raw materials:
tardis hat materials DIY Led Light Up Tardis Fascinator Hat
As she outlines in the step by step Instructable, the base is made from a plastic container. To make the body of the Tardis, she hacksawed a plastic spice container in half, then sanded and GooGone’d the label off.
tardis hat base DIY Led Light Up Tardis Fascinator Hat
To top is also made of plastic. The lines all around the Tardis are simply drawn on.
tardis hat in progress DIY Led Light Up Tardis Fascinator Hat
She put a few button batteries and an tiny LED lamp inside, sealed it up and hot glued the whole thing onto a small comb to keep it in place on her head. The result is pretty sweet:
tardis hat lit up DIY Led Light Up Tardis Fascinator Hat
Excellent work and a great accessory to go along with her Doctor Who dress.

DIY Led Light-Up Tardis Fascinator Hat
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Real Life Playable Flappy Bird Game

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flappy bird irl Real Life Playable Flappy Bird Game
Flappy Bird might be inexplicably gone from the iTunes App Store but that tricky little flying bird still lives on- in real life. Fawn Qiu made this incredible working game in a weekend with an Arduino Duemilanove, 3 servo motors, 2 buttons, a speaker, a reed switch, and handful of rare earth magnets. Just like the video game, you move the bird up and down and try to avoid the pipes. Check out this video to see it in action:

It’s a Flappy Bird in a box hack. And it looks almost as (if not more) difficult than the real game. She’s even going for a Kickstarter to try to get these into production kit you can build yourself at home. Good luck with that!

Real Life Playable Flappy Bird Game
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Zombie Snowflakes

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zombie snowflakes Zombie Snowflakes
It might be snowing across huge swaths of the country right now but it could be worse- at least it’s not Zombie Snowflakes! Actually these zombie snowflakes are your standard issue cut paper snowflakes, except much cooler and hungrier for brains. Trapped inside by yet another snow storm? Keep the kids occupied by making zombie snowflakes. Pizza by the Slice has the pattern you can print out and make.

Zombie Snowflakes
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Mario Bros. Doorbell: Is the Princess in this Castle?

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mario doorbell Mario Bros. Doorbell: Is the Princess in this Castle?
Joseph Thai hacked together this incredible Mario Doorbell for his apartment. Not only does the doorbell make a coin sound from Mario every time the button is pressed, it also increases the digital counter displayed. Every 10 “coins” collected makes the life-up sound and every 100 makes the mushroom upgrade sound to be played. See and hear it in action here in this demo video:

As Gizmodo points out there is one HUGE fatal flaw in this otherwise awesome doorbell system- the doorbell rings. While normally you want a bell to ring to announce a guest at your door, when the guest has an incentive to press the doorbell over and over and over again, it might get sliiiiiightly annoying inside the house. My dog would go bonkers if someone rang the bell 100 times, just crazy.

Mario Bros. Doorbell: Is the Princess in this Castle?
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AT-AT Rocking Horse

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at at rocking horse AT AT Rocking Horse
From the “these kids are cooler than your kids” department comes this homemade AT-AT Walker rocking horse. Jen from Epbot created this awesome Star Wars piece with her husband. The AT-AT is made from 40 individually cut pieces of MDF. As pictured it’s only partially completed- it still needs handlebars, a seat, and a paint job. So cool and that’s one lucky geeky kid who gets to rock on that thing. (via nerd approved)

AT-AT Rocking Horse
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8 Foot Tall Cardboard AT-AT Sled

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cardboard atat 8 Foot Tall Cardboard AT AT Sled
The 8th annual Cardboard Classic was held last week in Lansing, MI and probably the coolest entry in the event was this giant AT-AT Walker. Contestants can build any type of sled they want, as long as it’s made only of cardboard and tape or glue. A few awesome dudes went above and beyond the standard flat sled and built a huge 7 foot 8 inch tall homage to the Battle on Hoth entirely out of cardboard. Closeup:
cardboard at at sled 8 Foot Tall Cardboard AT AT Sled
It took them over 70 hours to create this Star Wars masterpiece. One man actually sat down underneath as it sledded down the hill. Unfortunately the ride down the hill was about as successful as the AT-AT’s were in the Battle of Hoth but this time it didn’t take Luke Skywalker and his merry band of Rebels to take it down- just a little gravity. Check out the video of this cardboard creation heading down the hill:

The Emperor will be most displeased with this apparent lack of progress. (via cnet)

8 Foot Tall Cardboard AT-AT Sled
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Playable Lego Star Wars Pinball Machine

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lego pinball starwars Playable Lego Star Wars Pinball Machine
This is by far the best use of Legos we’ve seen all year! Someone name Jimmy from France (who is way cooler than you or me) built a working Star Wars themed pinball machine entirely of Lego. The details are great on this too- from the R2-D2 spinner thing (that’s probably not the technical term, correct me please pinball geeks!), to the Death Star bumper, to the clear piece covering Jabba the Hutt’s underground lair.
lego pinball starwars closeup Playable Lego Star Wars Pinball Machine
It’s got Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Obi Wan, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, everyone you’d want and nobody you don’t (*cough* Jar Jar *cough*). The whole thing is outfitted with flashing lights all over the place and is actually playable as you can see in this video demo below:

Well Jimmy is certainly a better Lego creator and builder than he is pinball player. This is really so cool, why don’t they sell a real Lego kit just like this? (h/t)

Playable Lego Star Wars Pinball Machine
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