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Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#61

Post by jacknews »

chantepierre wrote: post #25

My telescope(s). It's a very rewarding hobby, from making the mirror (manual labor + measurements with interferometry), silvering it (a bit of chemistry), designing in CAD and building the actual usable telescope, there are a lot of moving parts to design, and steps that you can either do or delegate. I think anyone who likes manual work can find a piece of a telescope that's enjoyable to work on. The feeling you get…

I designed and made a 'cheapscope' out of PVC pipe, 3d printed parts, and cheap aliexpress 76mm mirror, mounted on a camera tripod.

It works well enough for the moon etc, and, as I'm based in a developing country, many people have never seen the sky except with the naked eye, so the gasps and oohs, etc are priceless.

I had intended to document and open-source the whole thing, but was busy at the time, and the PLA prints have since completely disintegrated in the hot humidity, lol. Maybe I'll get back to it again, with PET or nylon this time.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#62

Post by geocrasher »

chantepierre wrote: post #25

My telescope(s). It's a very rewarding hobby, from making the mirror (manual labor + measurements with interferometry), silvering it (a bit of chemistry), designing in CAD and building the actual usable telescope, there are a lot of moving parts to design, and steps that you can either do or delegate. I think anyone who likes manual work can find a piece of a telescope that's enjoyable to work on. The feeling you get…

Cool! I have built Hadley, a 114mm Newtonian that is mostly 3d printed.

https://miscdotgeek.com/3d-printing-the-hadley-114mm-newtoni...

It's done now, and has produced some nice images, but I need to spend more time with it to get planetary images etc.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#64

Post by jermaustin1 »

I make a lot of marijuana paraphernalia (stash boxes, rolling trays, pipes) all from wood. Its a great stress reliever (the wood work, not the weed - never mix the two), and people love them and buy them.

With each new product, I try to add a new skill to it. So for my stash boxes [1] (I've only made 3 so far -- all prototypes), I have an "air-tight" lid that requires being within 0.001-inches, and the lid incorporates a rolling tray on the underside, so you open it, flip it over, it reseats inside the box, and you have a stable tray to grind you herbs and roll a joint. I haven't figured out mass production on it yet, though, so each one takes me about 2 hours of work, and none of them are perfect, but that is the fun part of it. Figuring out how to make something is easy, figuring out how to make it more than once and quickly is a challenge.

1: https://instagram.com/p/CvpUKVBLph3/

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#65

Post by chantepierre »

geocrasher wrote: post #62
chantepierre wrote: post #25

My telescope(s). It's a very rewarding hobby, from making the mirror (manual labor + measurements with interferometry), silvering it (a bit of chemistry), designing in CAD and building the actual usable telescope, there are a lot of moving parts to design, and steps that you can either do or delegate. I think anyone who likes manual work can find a piece of a telescope that's enjoyable to work on. The feeling you get…

Cool! I have built Hadley, a 114mm Newtonian that is mostly 3d printed. https://miscdotgeek.com/3d-printing-the-hadley-114mm-newtoni... It's done now, and has produced some nice images, but I need to spend more time with it to get planetary images etc.

Nice, Maff (& people who joined him) has done wonders to spread low-cost capable scopes with this project ! Best of luck for your future sessions

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#66

Post by chantepierre »

jacknews wrote: post #61
chantepierre wrote: post #25

My telescope(s). It's a very rewarding hobby, from making the mirror (manual labor + measurements with interferometry), silvering it (a bit of chemistry), designing in CAD and building the actual usable telescope, there are a lot of moving parts to design, and steps that you can either do or delegate. I think anyone who likes manual work can find a piece of a telescope that's enjoyable to work on. The feeling you get…

I designed and made a 'cheapscope' out of PVC pipe, 3d printed parts, and cheap aliexpress 76mm mirror, mounted on a camera tripod. It works well enough for the moon etc, and, as I'm based in a developing country, many people have never seen the sky except with the naked eye, so the gasps and oohs, etc are priceless. I had intended to document and open-source the whole thing, but was busy at the time, and the PLA pri…

That's very nice. All DIY efforts to make visual astronomy more accessible are more than welcome as consumer products are priced for the global market.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#67

Post by cassianoleal »

nicolaslem wrote: post #46
leemcalilly wrote: post #31

Guitar straps made with handwoven Peruvian textiles: https://originalfuzz.com/collections/peruvian-guitar-straps

Speaking of guitars, I am currently restoring a Korean superstrat I have since I am a teenager that seriously needed love. I am learning a ton of things like fret work, electronics and light wood work.

I have a Vintage V62 ICON that I modded heavily. All new electronics (including pickups), replaced the bridge with a Babicz full contact, and I had to do a lot of work on the neck, especially fret sanding, aligning and polishing.

It's really cool to see your work improve an instrument. That's now my favourite guitar to play. Pretty low action with zero buzz, pickups can give me everything from full dynamics and great range, to easily distortable power solos.

I'm now in the process of building a new guitar with a 3D printed body. I bought an unfinished neck, so I'm also learning about applying lacquer which is interesting.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#68

Post by IggleSniggle »

ricardo81 wrote: post #3

Cliche response but has to be said, a daughter.

I came here to say the same. And let me just say, that with special needs children, it truly is the hardest thing I've ever done. I remember older people saying that sort of thing before I was a parent and I was SO DISMISSIVE. Like, "oh yeah sure, you put you heart into it, it's important to you," whatever. But holy fuck. It's actually really really hard. Love is NOT enough. Strategy is NOT enough. Patience is NOT enough. It takes everything you've got.

Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

#70

Post by CasualAttila »

I assembled an Airbus A380-800 model. I had no prior experience in assembling models however I used to play Lego as a kid. This model took about 2 weeks to complete and I did it during my sabbatical. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be and I did unrecoverable mistakes when gluing and using the stickers but overall it was a great feeling to have it done. Now it has its dedicated space in the living room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBwNPSXeh1A

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