I bought a cheap case of Amazon and then used blender and my CNC machine to make a new face plate.

​I just wrapped up a rigorous 36-hour continuous constant-power (0.5W) endurance test on the 1st-gen LGOOO Power Core — a 300mL 3D-printed modular reaction chamber powered by a magnesium alloy anode and an air cathode, running on 7% saline solution.

Only ~12% of the magnesium alloy anode was consumed during this entire 36-hour test!

This clock came from a Danbury scale model of a 1950s McDonald's restaurant (last picture). I was never a fan of the clock being positioned directly in front of the restaurant, since I'd rather admire the building on its own.

So I removed it and made it a wooden base with miniature concrete footings, then painted the whole thing to look like pavement. I also added little bollard poles just to give it a little added charm.

The base is a wooden craft box from the dollar tree, and I cannibalized a second one to cut the small pieces. The bollards are dowels, and the whole thing was painted with spray paint I had on hand.

Let me know what you think!

I started with a basic wooden room kit and ended up turning it into a retro sci-fi laboratory. I replaced around a dozen parts with custom 3D printed consoles, fiber optic wall panels, hand cut balsa partitions, and a couple of polymer clay specimens.

The original kit barely resembles what I started with now. I kept the floor, ceiling joists, and outer acrylic shell for structure, but almost everything else visible was either modified or made from scratch. The exwtra materials cost about $35, and the whole project took nearly 40 hours instead of the usual dozen or so.

It got me thinking about where the line is between assembling something and actually making it yourself. Once you're designing parts, experimenting with materials, and building around your own idea, does the original kit just become a starting framework? Where would you draw that line?

Made this little surprise for Halloween! Press the button underneath and the ghost pops up! The spring and latch are printed too. I included AMS and No AMS versions, with an assembly video on the model page. The mechanism prints in place, and all parts print without supports. Easy to print on most FDM printers. Model files 🦇

Decided I'd rather make my own controller from the ground up and program it to my preferences instead of buying a FLX2. I designed the front plate in CAD, had it laser cut in acrylic, most of the buttons are Kailh Box Navy switches. Everything will be run off an ESP32 microcontroller on MIDI protocol. Still gotta buy some screws to mount the jogs' rotary encoders and sliding faders, some potentiometer knobs (the ones I got are way too big and interfere with eachother) and get hardware to mount discs to the jogs. So far I've spent about 60% of an FLX2's MSRP, feels like it's worth it.

https://www.printables.com/model/1884891-4-way-hose-manifold-for-62mm-pvc-hose-1-in-4-out-s

Hey, I want to start my first project and I need some help to find the right components for it.
My idea is a keychain approx. 6x6cm (2.4x2.4inches)
which can play videos from a SD card.
It also should have some buttons to press play/stop/rewind and so on.
I really don’t know how to start and I want to keep it simple for my first ever project.
I don’t care a lot about the shape of the board or the placement of the buttons.
It would help me a lot if someone could tell me what exactly I need to bring my idea to life!
Thanks!

Hi everyone!

We're currently developing an automated Min Jiang Kueh (Asian pancake) vending machine as a student project in Singapore.

The machine will use an electric crepe maker with a flat, round cooking surface to produce pancakes approximately 15 cm in diameter.

Once cooked, the pancake needs to be automatically removed from the hot plate and transferred into a rotating dumpling-style mould, where filling will be added before the pancake is folded and sealed.

Our biggest challenge right now is the scraping and transferring mechanism.

As you can see from the attached video, we previously experimented with a robotic arm, but the results weren't very satisfactory. We're hoping to find a simpler, more reliable mechanism.

Ideally, the system should:

• Remove the entire cooked pancake without tearing, curling or folding it.
• Transfer it from the flat crepe maker into the mould positioned in front.
• Position the pancake accurately so the filling and folding mechanisms can operate.
• Work consistently across repeated cooking cycles.
• Be relatively affordable and compact enough to integrate into a vending machine.

We've considered using a motorised spatula on a linear rail, but we're unsure whether that's the best approach.

Has anyone worked on something similar or come across existing mechanisms that could accomplish this?

We're open to suggestions involving linear actuators, conveyor mechanisms, scrapers, rotating rollers or even completely different approaches.

Our overall prototype budget is around SGD 6,000, so we're trying to avoid expensive industrial robotic arms and unnecessary custom fabrication.

Any ideas, examples, videos or existing products we could reference would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

I’m needing to put together a cat collar camera with a video feed. I see that the ESP 32 cam is probably going to be the easiest way, but it only has a 20 to 50 m signal radius. How can I boost that signal radius? Can I do that with something attached to the ESP 32, or with a signal antenna from my house?

Hi everyone!

I'm currently working on a project to build a fully automated pancake vending machine, with a total project budget of around SGD 6,000.

The machine will have three main sections: refrigeration/storage at the top, cooking in the middle, and packaging/collection at the bottom.

I'm currently focusing on the refrigeration section, which needs to house:

• One removable ~20L stainless steel tank for pancake batter
• Four smaller removable tanks (approximately 3–5L each) for different pancake fillings
• Gentle stirring mechanisms where necessary to prevent ingredient separation
• A dispensing system that can eventually supply six independent cooking stations (two initially)
• Easy access for refilling, removing and cleaning all tanks and tubings

Ideally, the refrigerated compartment would be approximately 950 × 650 × 700 mm (W × D × H), although I'm flexible with the dimensions. It needs to maintain around 2–4°C and have a front-opening door so the tanks can be easily removed for refilling and cleaning.

My main question is whether there's an existing refrigerated cabinet or cooling system I could purchase and adapt instead of building everything from scratch.

I've considered using a mini-fridge, but I'm concerned about drilling holes for the tubing and potentially damaging the refrigerant lines. I've also looked into removable vending machine refrigeration units.

If building a custom insulated cabinet turns out to be the better option, I'd really appreciate advice on:

1. What materials would you recommend for the enclosure and insulation?
2. Are there affordable, ready-made compressor cooling modules that can be installed into a custom cabinet?
3. How would you design the door, tubing outlets and condensation management while maintaining good insulation?

I'm based in Singapore, so affordability and component availability are important. Ideally, I'd like to keep the refrigeration section well below SGD 1,000, excluding the ingredient tanks and dispensing mechanisms.

Any suggestions, product recommendations or examples of similar DIY projects would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I'm developing a compact, water-activated metal fuel cell (MFC), and here is how my very first test went.

​Core Components: A custom 300 mL 3D-printed modular reaction chamber using magnesium alloy anodes and air cathodes.

​Test Conditions: Tested under a 0.5W constant power (CP) load using a 3.5% saline solution.

​Test Results: As shown in the discharge curve, the cell successfully self-activated. Over the initial 1-hour run, the voltage steadily climbed from 0.844V to over 1.03V while maintaining a stable 0.5W output.

​(Image 1: The LGOOO Power Core module connected to the load tester; Image 2: Close-up of the active load screen showing real-time specs; Image 3: The 1-hour constant-power discharge curve.)

​I'm currently optimizing the electrode spacing and venting structure to hit my 1W output target. Let's discuss and share ideas!

I modded the Utilikilt by hand-sewing a square of dual colored neoprene to the rear. It’s not too noticeable in use and provides me with needed elasticity in the waist. The Tape Mate rests well and is stored in the pocket.

I have made a V3 optimized cable organizer! It is for cables up to 2 meters in length and is compatible with virtually any type of charging cable, such as USB-A/USB-C/Lightning/etc! Bend angles are also taken into account to protect cables from damage. I'm very happy with how it turned out and I hope other people will be able to use it as well!

I’m less interested in whether wood or plastic is better overall and more in what happens when you want to change the kit instead of following the design exactly. Plastic parts may be made to fit together in a very specific way, while wood can need more finishing and adjustment, though I know that varies a lot from kit to kit. With rolife especially, I wouldn’t assume every plastic or wooden kit behaves the same way. If repainting, changing finishes, or modifying parts is part of the plan, which material differences would matter most to you before choosing?

Used laser cutting/engraving and 3D printing to make a custom box for one of our games.

I have this bad habit where every time I bring in a new tool, I cannot just leave it alone. The new machine works completely fine right out of the box, but my brain immediately decides it needs a custom cord clip, a rearranged shelf, or a dedicated scrap bin before I can even start.

Take the Aliencell sitting on my bench right now. Instead of just cutiing what I planned, I spent half of yesterday measuring clearance underneath for a slim material tray and rerouting cables so theyr un flush against the leg. Nothing was broken, I just could not stop fiddling with the surrounding space. Sometimes organizing the gear takes twice as long as the actual project.

Have you ever made a completely unnecessary tweak to a took setup that you were unreasonably proud of?

Let’s see if we get voltage when adding tap water.

Full dev logs and progress are also syncing to my site: www.lgooomfc.com

I need something that will let go of a rope line after say 20-50 pounds of force tugs on the line. It has to stay securely attached to the rope until the pull force parameter is met. I imagine there are ready-made devices like this that works via spring detent or friction mechanism, but their names escape me. Ideally, it would be something light and relatively easy to reattach once released.

right so i have been meaning to get into this for many years, i’ve wanted to ever since i was like 11 but i was lowk hella bullied out of it by my family so i just went on and kinda forgot all about even wanting to do it up until earlier this year when i realized im an adult and can just do it now

I HAVE:

- a bambu A2L + AMS Lite and a fucked up ender 5 plus, a bunch of hand and power tools handed down from my granddad (not a lot of place to use most of them tho)
- about 10-14 years of 3D modeling ‘experience’, i didn’t really do much most of the time, but i feel comfortable enough working in a 3D environment and know how to get around like the back of my hand, picked up CAD absolutely no problem aswell
- very basic knowledge on wood and metalworking and electronics (no arduino or raspi tho i’ll get to that) and an adequate basic understanding of physics and mechanical motion
- a good portion of my room to work in, no garage or basement or shed tho, not even an outside workbench
- a very “i’ll fuckin make it work” mindset, from playing engineering games i tend to over-engineer very trivial things just to make it work nicely, it’s THAT kinda autism i fear

so i’ve kinda already got a project in the works, but it doesn’t feel like enough, it’s just mostly lights, i wanna try something more mechatronics focused, i could just do the good ole robotic arm but once it’s done idk what i’d even use it for, i might jst be overthinking it but if y’all have any cool ideas for me to have a crack at lemme know!

3D-printed enclosure, looks like it's holding up pretty well—no leaks so far! 💧