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Ask HN: What have you built? (not software related)
I guess hackers like to just build stuff. What have you built other than sotware? Maybe a crib for your new born child, maybe a house, maybe a bike etc...
- togasystems 16y agoMy Self-Esteem
- krschultz 16y ago2 boats, a guitar, some furniture, and a race car. I'd like build another boat soon, it has been a while.
- zackola 16y agoHow did you learn about building the guitar? I'd love to see pics/see design plans. Electric or acoustic?
- krschultz 16y agoAlso there are books, googling around there is plenty. I actually have a store near my house that supports home built guitars and the guy there was really helpful, but that doesn't scale at all. http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/links.htm http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/links.htm
- krschultz 16y agoWell my father has built about 10 guitars (acoustic and electric), so that is kind of cheating. Electric are definitely easier. Much like a computer the hardest part is figuring out what to buy because there are so many options. Figure out what kind of wood, what kind of neck, what kind of pickups etc to get the sound you want. A lot of people just knock off a common setup like a Les Paul or something well known. I'd recommend buying the neck off the shelf, then it really comes down to just making the body which is general woodworking type stuff. (The block of wood heavily influences the sound so obviously you order one specifically for guitar building). The electronics are straightforward. The most technical part is the paint. You probably want to spray, I guess you could stain but in my case we had an aircompressor and a spray gun so it was too hard. If you want to get more advanced, you can start to inlay stuff, I inlaid my name in mother of pearl on the neck, that was tough, but that is not necessary to build your own guitar, that was just for fun. Actual build time is not that bad. If you have the tools it is cheaper than buying one, if you don't have the tools it is more expensive.
- wjr 16y agoI`d love to hear what kind of boat or what you future sailing project would be.
- krschultz 16y agoi550 or a Farrier F-22, both are pretty fast sailboats that are pretty straightforward builds.
- serverdude 16y agoIf art counts, I have sketched many portraits, did some oil paintings (nothing to boast of) and also composed a few songs in an unreleased album:)
- saundby 16y agoBookshelves, an entertainment center, lots of medieval armor, several homebrew computers (I'm putting the finishing touches on an 8085 now: saundby.com), a couple of fish tanks, my computer desk, a parallelogram mount for my binoculars, several telescopes, including the primary optics. Building is just another part of hacking. If you asked me what I'd modded, I'd have an even larger list. I originally got into electronics and computers because it was a cheaper hobby than model railroading. I couldn't afford railroading stuff from the hobby shop, but I could always find a broken radio to get parts out of for electronics projects, and make money repairing radios and TVs until I could afford a microprocessor. :)
- ww520 16y agoBuilt a RFID collection system using RFID reader plus mico Linux computer. Ok, semi-software related since I needed to write the software to control the hardware.
- david_p 16y agoMy first hack, I was 11 : a tape mixer with two walkmans, a linear potentiometer and a merged audio output :) http://image.bayimg.com/dapehaacf.jpg http://image.bayimg.com/dapehaacf.jpg
- roberte3 16y agoA monorail. 500 Feet long, held two passengers, guts were a rewired electric wheelchair. http://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/5008514139/in/set-72157623078910391/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/5008514139/in/set-...
- jacquesm 16y agoVery cool! This picture is neat: http://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/5008514139/in/set-72157623078910391/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/5008514139/in/set-...
- benjamind 16y agoAh....Burning Man. Loved this, was a very very ambitious project, sadly I didn't get to see it working. :-( In the same vein I made this this year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bendelarre/5010762637/in/set-72157624511065185/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bendelarre/5010762637/in/set-72... A 16x16 array of RGB LEDs on which we ran animations generated by the community on a website. (Yes, I know, its still software related...I can't help myself!).
- crcarlson 16y agoI built two CNC machines. The first one essentially from scratch components: bearings, plates and beams. And a second higher performance machine by converting a manual machine to servo control. Hardware is fun.
- jacquesm 16y agoPictures? One of my babies :) : http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/17_sep_billet.jpg.html http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/17_sep_bill...
- crcarlson 16y agoThat is a nice machine. I have been trying to convince myself that if I want to build a custom set of cabinets that should build a 4x8 router to make the whole job easier :) Yes my web page is lame and written by hand 7 years ago, but it does have a few pics. http://www.crcarlson.com/Personal/cnc1/cnc1.html http://www.crcarlson.com/Personal/cnc1/cnc1.html http://www.crcarlson.com/Personal/cnc2/cnc2.html http://www.crcarlson.com/Personal/cnc2/cnc2.html
- jacquesm 16y agoThose are very slick little machines that you've built there. I've been busy converting this one off-and-on for the last two years, it's going so slow because the machine is in a warehouse almost 200 miles from here: http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/machines/dscf1225.jpg.html http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/machines/dscf1225.jpg.html But it's actually getting there, just a few more wires and it will be completely modernized.
- bond 16y agoFull Size Airliner cockpit (Bombardier CRJ): 1 PC 1 Matrox TripleHead(3 monitors-View), 1 Matrox G200(3 monitors-Instruments) Built some electronic boards to control LEDs, Switches, Potentiometers for Throttle, Yoke, Overhead panel, Central console, etc... Nice project if you have the time....
- cellurl 16y agoI built a side for my POS popup camper. Metal, glue, ants...
- cubes 16y agoSyzygryd, a 2.5 ton fire breathing collaborative musical instrument. With a lot of help from friends. http://www.syzygryd.com http://www.syzygryd.com
- gallerytungsten 16y agoHouse rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Link to one of the more epic episodes: http://www.gallerytungsten.com/archives/000145.php http://www.gallerytungsten.com/archives/000145.php
- dabent 16y agoA bed, a blanket chest and lots of other smaller projects. Woodworking helped me realize that I really like building things, so I've stuck with that on the software side.
- orblivion 16y agoWhen I was a kid I hacked apart my NES controller. I connected wires to each of the leads, and then made some simple contraptions that would connect two leads when activated. The main one was a jumping board my dad helped me with. I also made a punching thing you strapped to your arm. I didn't know how to solder properly so I don't think it all worked right at any one time, but it was cool. Still waiting for royalties from the Wii :)
- retroafroman 16y agoWow, I'm very impressed with your projects. If you're a redditor, /r/DIY loves to see these type of projects, and if you blog, consider submitting to Make Magazine, or Hack-A-Day, or any of the various other DIY blogs. It's great to see such creativity.
- humbledrone 16y agoI recently built an arcade cabinet, which houses a PC running MAME so that I can play lots of arcade games. I also built the desk on which my workstation currently resides. I couldn't find a desk that (a) looked decent and (b) was enormous, so I designed a desk that satisfied both and built it.
- mybbor 16y agoAcoustic panels for my home studio! http://www.guitarwithrob.com/images/studio2.png http://www.guitarwithrob.com/images/studio2.png
- mtrn 16y agoTogether with friends I renovated a 4-floor house, which was unhabited. Now we have a cool house with garden to live and work in, oil-, coal- and gas-free heating and solar panels for below-the-average rent.
- th0ma5 16y agoi built a software radio (or something a lot like one, involves software, but the device was soldered) it was quite fun, just google "zetasdr" or the gnu radio project, or softrock sdr .... have fun!
- dminor 16y agoWe're moving to a smaller apartment soon so I'm building a platform for our bed (king size) this weekend, so we can get more storage under it. Should be fun!
- aristus 16y agoI am currently building a peer to peer network of time capsules: http://www.paperinternet.org http://www.paperinternet.org
- jacquesm 16y agoA windmill, a house, a car, a 3D mill / plasmacutter.
- dminor 16y agoAny photos of the windmill? That sounds pretty cool.
- jacquesm 16y agolots of photos in here: http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/ http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/
- joshu 16y agoIs that HDF? I want to start building a machine shop in the basement.
- jacquesm 16y agoThe blades are actually milled out of knot free white pine, alternately laminated to reduce warp. Machine shops in basements are nice once they are stocked but getting your gear in there is a real pain, best to stay on the ground floor if you can, preferably in a place that is not directly connected to your house, the vibration can be quite a nuisance to other occupants. It also helps if you bolt your stuff to the floor (concrete).
- rokhayakebe 16y agoDid you build the house from ground up? How long did that take you?...Lately I have been reading up about building a small house using shipping containers.
- jacquesm 16y agoActually, it's two houses, one in Canada and one in NL. The latter was a rebuild, an old farm house, the one in Canada was from 7' in the ground to two and a half storeys. The one here in NL was a major project, mostly because I did it all by myself and it's a brick building. It's a beautiful little house in a very quiet spot of the country, with a fair bit of ground around it. It took me two years to get it all done.
- supermauerbros 16y agoMy friend Ben and I built a piece of art that responds to fluctuations in magnetic fields in the room to move around ferrofluid. http://jakemauer.com/work/fields/ http://jakemauer.com/work/fields/ I also built a T-Shirt with EL wire that sync'd to Ableton Live http://jakemauer.com/work/electroluminescent-dj/ http://jakemauer.com/work/electroluminescent-dj/
- photon_off 16y agoWhat is that instrument, that somebody keeps putting their hand infront of, detecting? Sometimes it goes up when the hand goes near, and sometimes it doesn't. Very cool project. I think if somebody made an installation / toy that did extreme looking ferrofluid stuff in response to people touching around it (like those glass spheres with electricity arcs tracing all around), it'd have commercial value.
- mrbogle 16y agoMy dad owns a fab shop, so I grew up making stuff. I was into cars for a long time. In college, I built strut/tie bars and sold them on the web. I turboed my car and built the downpipe and the charge piping. I also made and modified numerous parts for the car and friends' cars (suspension parts, wiring, brackets, blah blah). I also reverse engineered the ECU running the engine and wrote an engine management system for it which required some hardware integration (that count? http://benogle.com/projects/bre http://benogle.com/projects/bre ). All of my furniture that was not upholstered (no couch, etc) until last year was built by me in high school. I finished the basement in my house which required making a bunch of stuff at previously mentioned fab shop. Even for general house maintenance I often ended up making some small part(s) at the shop (i.e. sprinkler system install, fixing the garage lean, etc).
- misterbwong 16y agoSemi-recent projects: Bookshelf, desk, plug station, coat hanger antenna, hollowed out book. My grandfather was a carpenter and when he passed, he gave our family his tools. We always have lots of wood and woodworking tools around so that's my preferred medium (when all you have is a hammer....).
- lutorm 16y agoA working CO2 laser, with enough power to char wood and cut paper and thin plastic.
- cscotta 16y agoAbout a year ago, I spent a weekend building a letterpress. It's turned into a fun hobby. Printmaking is much more difficult than I'd have expected. One of the biggest challenges is maintaining a clean, inkless field. It's so easy to get ink on your hands, at which point it's nearly impossible to pick up a sheet of paper without smudging it before you're within three feet of the press itself. Registration (proper alignment) is a challenge as well, but is manageable. Working slowly and deliberately is difficult but certainly rewarding (though the reward here is spending an hour with lacquer thinner cleaning off the type, but I digress). Even so, it feels great to take a Saturday evening away from the Internet, sit down with a set of lead 72pt Franklin Gothic, a brayer and ink, and print a few runs of something that strikes you as amusing at the moment. Here are a couple photos from the last experiment: Printed: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cscotta/5018870586/lightbox/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cscotta/5018870586/lightbox/ Letterpress: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cscotta/3825133446/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cscotta/3825133446/ (See the "luck" tag for a couple in-process shots)
- rokhayakebe 16y agoI work for a printing company during the day. I must say, this is quite impressive.
- swah 16y agoAnyone else likes to see which books people have when the bookshelf is not the subject?
- GnarfGnarf 16y agoA root cellar, 8'×8' http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=204054&id=733326210 http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=204054&...
- lenary 16y agoa human sized hamster wheel it's a long story, to do with a church funding something, but i was the eventual designer of it despite being an intern, then went and built it in my own time one weekend. was fucking heavy and never used it, just donated my time to that client
- chewbranca 16y agoI helped build a house out of spare wood for a family friend. It was really exciting to see it come together and to think that this wasn't just a random side project, but something that would be lived in and greatly appreciated.
- abraham 16y agoAn epic beard: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teich/4828396989/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/teich/4828396989/
- patrickgzill 16y agoThat beard is almost as epic as Katie Holmes.
- abraham 16y agoI didn't realize Katie Holmes was all that epic...
- ratsbane 16y agoWhen I was (more) young and foolish, I rebuilt the turbodiesel engine in a 1983 Mercedes 300SD. The day after we got it all back together two friends and I drove it over a thousand miles to a wedding in Philadelphia. In hindsight, this was really stupid. It turned out fine, though. http://douglassims.org/300sd/ http://douglassims.org/300sd/
- cellularmitosis 16y agoI stuck the engine from a 300SD into my 67 chevy pickup. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=241922 http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=241922 My next trick will be to transplant a modern variable vane turbocharger onto it and develop a fly by wire throttle and vane control system.
- udfalkso 16y agoI built a device to catch the mail that comes through the slot in my front door. It had previously been falling on the floor and driving me crazy. One day I came across this nice product, http://www.amazon.com/SNAIL-SAKK-Mail-Receptacle-Slots/dp/B002W5GI2U http://www.amazon.com/SNAIL-SAKK-Mail-Receptacle-Slots/dp/B0..., and it seemed more than possible to make my own. So, using a fabric shopping bag from a local store, some Velcro and a sewing kit I managed to put my own together in a couple of hours. It works great! :)
- aberkowitz 16y agoWhat happens if the stack overflows?
- udfalkso 16y agoThe "sack" holds quite a bit of mail, but the worst case scenario is that the mailman shoves the overflow stuff in there aggressively and the velcro gives way causing the mail to fall on the floor again like before.
- wglb 16y agoI built a 50-watt ham radio transmitter (copper chassis and all) with an 807 final. And an allied radio receiver kit. And later a VFO kit to drive the transmitter. And a Q-Multiplier and a BFO for the 1927 Zenith radio from my dad so I could hear tones in CW. Then, from scratch, when I got my General Class license, I built an AM modulator on a 14-inch steel chassis to get on AM. Going almost digital, I built a two-tube 12as7 W9TO keyer for morse code for the above rig. And an antenna system with two 45 foot poles about 180 feet apart to put up three dipoles. And I cannot count the number of antennas that I have built over the years at my various residences. Later, I built one of the second wave of the Altair computers, and actually had one or two consulting gigs from that. And, to brag a little, I pointed my daughter, to a QST article on a code practice oscillator, and she built it with almost no supervision when she was in high school. I built, from a kit, one or three of the amateur packet radio kits, and ran a radio BBS for too long a time. (You see, the internet is just ham radio 2.0, but none of you get that fact, but i digress) I built (strictly was architect for) a medical information system that gathered electrocardiograms from patients bedsides, transmitted them via telephone to a datacenter near Chicago, which returned an english-language report to the hosptial in ten minutes or less. (This one is cheating a bit, as a large component of this was software.) But by far and away most of the stuff I have built is software. Now, my gig is to break software, but that is off-topic. (Hint--you sometimes need to write software to break other software.)
- wglb 16y agoOh, yes--I built an accounting system in RPG-III. Many today do not consider this to be software.
- wallflower 16y agoA 6" Dobsonian reflector telescope. Highly recommend it
- jacquesm 16y agoYou ground your own lenses? Wow! Patience of a saint.
- confoocious 16y agoReflectors use mirrors; !lenses. I've ground a few too; Polished fewer and never completed any :)
- wallflower 16y agoCongrats! I can't imagine what it'd be like to actually make my own optics. Probably tough to get it to the right optical tolerances.
- wallflower 16y agoNo, I did not grind or polish my mirrors. The telescope by itself was a long-running project. It's almost masochistic to go from coarse to finer to finer finer grit.
- cwbrandsma 16y agoRecently...a tortilla press. Not much, but workable.
- photon_off 16y agoI built a time fountain. I became obsessed with making one after seeing this video. I knew absolutely nothing about making circuits, so I spent the large part of a summer troubleshooting all sorts of minor things (it took forever just to get a blinking light, without toasting it, for example), scrounging for parts at Radioshack (what a rip-off!) and various online catalogs. I bought enough parts to make 10, but after making 1 of them, the thrill was over. Anybody I show this thing to is instantly amazed. About 10% of people can actually figure out how it works. And, in general, if they don't understand it before having it explained to them, they won't understand it afterword (though they will claim to "get it"). Maybe I'm just not good at explaining the strobe effect. When people first see it, they momentarily believe that I've managed to create some sort of anti-gravity device. Then when they see it going backwards, they sort of lose grip of reality for a moment. It's amazing. My time fountain kicks the original one's ass. Unlike the one in the video, mine does a full 30fps and has analog adjustment knobs for forwards, backwards, etc. It doesn't relay on a "drip detection" circuit, but rather just two 555 timers. I freakin' love the thing. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvY7NGncCgU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvY7NGncCgU Note: I didn't make the one in the video, and this wasn't my idea. I simply implemented the same concept myself with various improvements.
- lutorm 16y agoThat is awesome, never seen that idea before.
- tunaslut 16y agoMostly bits of furniture - bookcases and chairs for my daughter, various little toys like balance boards and beams, kitchen cabinets. Oh, and soap. I make soap - does that count? :)
- honopu 16y agohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/kilohanadesign/page2/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/kilohanadesign/page2/ bunch of weirdness, but my hobby is building sprayed in facecoat glass fiber reinforced concrete pieces. Most of my newer pieces are 3/4" thick and have EPS foam cores. My first attempt is the solid grey double sink in the bathroom which weighs at least 250lbs, I thought there had to be a better way, and there was. The desk with the imac on it is 28x60 and weighs 90lbs. Sorry about all the other random pictures, especially if you get to see t-shirt diaperman on the beach.
- schindyguy 16y agoI just built something that builds something The makerbot.
- MK5 16y agohmm: -a goban that I still use sometimes -a water filter for my turtles -an helicopter with Lego and the engine found in the broken typewriter (no, it can't fly BUT the helices turns :D) -a laser gun with the laser found in my DVD driver -my BED ! :D <-most proud and if "art" counts, I've made with folks from my startup this 4-page comics http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5247526/Nouveaux%20soleils.zip http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5247526/Nouveaux%20soleils.zip !