Category: Make

In-Ground Scissor Lift Workbench

This project is cool. It's just cool. It's also involved. Very involved. The results speak for themselves, however. Member TomBuilder at HomemadeTool.net built this pneumatic-powered scissor lift table right in his garage. He even dug out a section of the concrete and installed the table in the ground so it sat flush with the floor when not in use. Genius. TomBuilder | YouTube As you can see the build requires a fair bit of metalworking. Made mostly of angle iron and steel plating, the frame was constructed before any digging was done. The lift functions on pneumatic actuators and can be operated via a remote…

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Cast Your Own Vinyl Records

Before we even get into this one, we do NOT condone the copying and selling of another artists work. This project is for fun, not a way to illegally copy music. It seems like vinyl, despite being older than cassette tapes and CDs, is the one physical music storage system that will never go out of style. Some audiophiles swear by vinyl's quality (though empirical evidence may sometimes disagree), but like most things it all comes down to personal preference. It may not be "better" sound, but there is something distinctly unique about a vinyl recording. One thing a lot of vinyl records are not…

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Spooky Jack-O-Lantern TV

It's almost that time of year. The best time of year. Halloween! Even if you aren't a Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan, Halloween is still the best holiday. It allows for a lot more creativity when decorating than some other holidays (looking at you, Christmas... all those houses look the same!). Just like last week we're bringing you a relatively simple but really cool project, this time from Amanda Formaro and her blog, Crafts by Amanda. This week we're turning an old CRT TV set into an awesome-looking white noise Jack-O-Lantern. Crafts by Amanda It's a fairly simple process. You start by spray painting your TV (don't…

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Light-up Jack O’ Lantern Totem

It's almost time for everyone's favorite holiday. No, not Christmas. I'm talking about Halloween! The one day of the year that it's socially acceptable to dress in ridiculous costumes and collect exorbitant amounts of candy from strangers. The only thing more fun than going out on Halloween is decorating for it. Whether you like to keep it light and breezy with smiling jack-o-lanterns, or go hardcore with a (hopefully) staged murder scene, Halloween lets us flex our creative muscles more than any other holiday. In keeping with a more family-friendly decorating process, Cathi over at Scratch and Stitch created this awesome totem pole of glowing…

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Let’s Upgrade To A Sci-Fi Man Cave

Have you been thinking about upgrading your man cave? There are so many options out there that it can be hard to decide what you want to do. Instructables user Lance70 turned his old man cave into a flashy new sci-fi space station using only plexi glass, medium-density fiberglass panels, framing wood, and some LED lights. Lance70 | Instructables For this project, the author started with a pretty bare room. You can, of course, repaint your existing walls and add on to them. There's no need to strip back down to the basics before attempting this. Lance70 | Instructables A good chunk of the project…

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Plug Your Headphones Right Into Your Desk

Headphone jack. 3.5 mm. Aux port. It has many names, but serves one very important purpose. It delivers audio from our devices to our ears. If you frequently use your headphones from your computer, as a gamer or editor for example, your audio jack may not always be in the best spot. Maybe it's at the back of your monitor or behind your computer tower. If you're like me, maybe you tend to bring your headphones with you to different jobs. Now before you get all "just buy wireless bro" on me, understand that wireless is not the solution for everyone. I personally prefer wired…

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Gorgeous Homemade Guitar Pedal Board

So, you're a guitarist right? That probably means you have at least a couple of effects pedals. Sure it's simple enough to pack and unpack, plug and unplug each time you use them, but wouldn't it be great if you just didn't have to? That's where a pedalboard comes in! If you aren't familiar with pedalboards, their primary purpose is to provide a box where all of your pedals can live, always connected and ready to be plugged into. You can buy pedalboards at just about any musical instrument store, but good-looking and long-lasting ones can come with a hefty price tag. If you have…

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Grow Produce Indoors Year-round with an Aquaponics System

First off, no that is NOT what we are growing here (yet)! Hydroponics is a plant-growing method that eschews soil for nutrient-filled water. The water can be infused with artificial fertilizers, or it can be a natural miniature ecosystem where fish thrive off the roots and vice-versa. Lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers can be relatively easy to grow hydroponically. Hydroponic growing has many benefits over traditional soil growing. First and foremost, it's safer and healthier. By eliminating the soil, you also eliminate many of the possible bugs and vermin that could get at your plants, as well as any diseases these pests could potentially be…

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Folding Workbench for Space-challenged Shops

Not everyone has a massive shop to work in. It's likely that, if you're reading this, you probably have a bit of a space problem. Don't we all! Whether we have to share our space with another person or a whole bunch of "we'll get to it someday" storage items, we could all benefit from a little more space. This handy little build from the lovely and talented Elisha over at Pneumatic Addict can really save you a ton of space (assuming you're not doing anything too heavy-duty). She starts with a design from American Woodworking Magazine (now Popular Woodworking Magazine), which uses plenty of…

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Handy Pull-Out Hardware Bins with Muffin Tins

It's easy for your workbench to get cluttered with miscellaneous bits like nails, screws, electrical connectors and fasteners but these inexpensive pull-out muffin trays are the perfect solution to keeping them out-of-sight yet right at your fingertips. The Family Handyman advises using heavy gauge muffin tins that won't bend when full. Attach them to the underside of your work surface using a machine head screw (as the pivot point) with fender washers above and below the tin and two nuts against each other on the underneath so the assembly won't loosen. Now load up the bins and admire that pivoting action! Hardware Bins Made from…

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