I think my personal favorite physical thing that I made was a music box that plays of the voyager golden record. I made it as a Christmas present for my girlfriend. It is light actuated so when you open the box it starts playing a track from the record, skipping one track ahead each time it is opened. It mostly uses off the shelf components for the electronics, and found and decorated the box (sanding/staining/varnish on the outside, and a watercolor painting on the inside. It took quite a lot of effort to get the audio formatted and compressed enough to get it all working, but I think it is really a beautiful object on several levels.
Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
101–110 of 694 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#102Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#103Shoes. I've made plenty of clothes, bags, and other more common sewing things. But making shoes is a cut above.
And I recorded the process in an attempt to show that it's not even that hard in this 'Shoes from scratch' series on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1gv5yv3DoZNdz-LJFykg6mMf...
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#104I built a house myself.
do you have any photos?
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I was an absolute beginner (which I am) I would be definitely very wary to do by myself the electrical wiring or the gas connections... while half-assing the rest can only look bad, those can kill you and your loved ones (neighbors need not apply).
Gas? Yes. Electric? Eh, if you are smart enough to program a computer, you are smart enough to read and learn how to do electric properly.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#106Probably the last rally car I had, which I "unrolled" myself. It was a 6+ month project of working on it before and after work. The previous owner had rolled it after owning it for two decades. 1982 Dodge Omni.
It's interesting because rally involves a large rule set for safety, and you also have to make the car survive harsh conditions.
Had to do body work, replaced and rebuilt a couple engines, and redid a lot of the wiring. I did it in a rented RV parking lot. I would take the engine hoist out of storage, assemble it at the lot, and then tear down everything at the end of the day and do it again.
Did a lot of rallycrosses, rally sprints, and a couple stage rallies that it DNFd due to mechanical failures on the last stage on both events. Very frustrating, but that's rally :)
At one point it did a stage with the temp gauge pegged at 400F. The co-driver and I were standing around in start control for the next stage while it idled, and I looked down at the temp gauge (mounted bottom center console) and saw the reading and was concerned - do I shut it off? Will it start back up? This was 12hrs into the event, so I was super tired.
The answer was surprisingly yes, and we fixed the cooling system for the next stage, but it broke halfway and eventually the freeze plugs blew out and we stopped due to concerns of hot steam coming into the cabin.
It drove off the trailer the next day! Headgasket blew across every cylinder.
New head and we entered in HDT. It did okay, but then the rear suspension fell out (!) On the last stage of 1st day. We spent so much time on the front it never occurred to us to check the rear suspension mounts...
When I entered that event I asked the co-driver what he thought and then tried to close his door, but it would not latch. Had to rebuild the mechanism before tech that morning. Foreshadowing at its best.
I think I'll stick to cars made in this century.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#107You guessed it, boats. I have built a stitch and glue (plywood) sea kayak[0], an Aleutian-style skin-on-frame sea kayak[1], and a skin-on-frame canoe[2]. All were fairly approachable and straightforward projects (I built the first two with basically some hand tools, a drill and a jig saw, on my deck, but a table saw is highly recommended for skin on frame). Tons of fun and the feeling of being a couple miles offshore…
Boatbuilding is fantastic. I've done a couple small ones (canoe, kayak), and am preparing to do a sailing dinghy. All stitch-and-glue. I'd really like to do an old-school one of Pete Culler's designs with plank on frame.
In a world full of beeping and booping, working with wood, even plywood, is a welcome relief.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#108A shoe sole cleaner, which I call the "Sole Glo". Made out of mahogany and oak for the body, a small reclaimed motor, a couple toilet brushes, and some basic wiring with a pressure switch. It actuates when you step on it and does a great job of cleaning snow off your shoes. I've made 4 of them, plus the prototype.
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#109I made a person seven years ago. They started out pretty useless, just eating and pooping and crying a lot. But now they can walk, talk, think, read, write, act, sing, and love.
Almost old enough to send into the mines and start paying rent!
Re: Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?
#110Started a company to build chip testers. Didn't go anywhere, but I had a ton of fun doing the hardware and software. One specific example is writing a Linux driver to interact with your IP block running on the FPGA. Got to see what happens on the other side of the kernel.