Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made? • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by whalesalad » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

I built a new TV stand for myself. I grew up watching my dad, uncle and grandfather do all kinds of woodworking so it was time to dive in myself. It was a lot of work, but also very rewarding and I am really glad with how it turned out. Towards the end I kinda ran out of gas and so I ended up skimping on the legs with some premade ones. I would like to redo the legs at some point.

The most rewarding part was creating various tools out of wood to build the thing. In the same way that we build tools to make programming easier. I made a little jig so that I could cut all the upright pieces the same dimensions using a circular saw.

Here is an album of photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/whalesalad/albums/721777203103...

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

#152

Post by dismalpedigree » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

robviren wrote: post #18

This one is physical and digital. I personally patented, designed, built, and deployed a novel ultrasonic inspection device that encoded position/orientation using IR (Just like motion capture in movies). Actually used it in the field at a nuclear plant. The value pitch is that is allowed for fast deployment (manual scanning), but could also record coverage ensuring nothing was missed. Fast deployment was important t…

This is really interesting. Id love to hear more about it.

Also agree quaternions are the worst. You should check out n-vectors. Solves most of the same problems and way easier to work with.

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

#153

Post by atorodius » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

Not sure if it counts but my Eurorack modular synth is definitly my most loved phyiscal thing and it’s kind of built (from modules). Still habe to get into soldering my own modules..

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

#154

Post by bombcar » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

ricardo81 wrote: post #73

h2odragon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you had assistance. Altho if it was a wholly individual achievement, there should be a lot more celebration.

The process was not biblical, though it was fun.

That process is entirely biblical, insofar as it's often referred to as "knowing in a biblical way".

It's just not that particular one that's biblically famous.

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

#155

Post by pengaru » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

csixty4 wrote: post #91

I 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.

[flagged]

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

#156

Post by Simon_O_Rourke » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

kmm wrote: post #77

A few years ago I made a "string art" portrait for my girlfriend at the time. It's made from a continuous† 2 km long black thread, woven around a loom made from a bicycle wheel rim. I'm still very proud of how it turned out. †OK fine, it broke at a few points and I had to knot the ends together, but it's the principle that counts. https://imgur.com/gallery/ljoJeal I really wanted to make something creative for her, b…

Beautiful piece of art, sorry the whole relationship side of it didn't work out... Onward and upward!

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

#157

Post by dopheide » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

I made a soccerball vase out of maple and walnut: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Qh2RQiRmdRPjZdQ8

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

#158

Post by luizfzs » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

I 'designed' and built a small trebuchet at 15yo. It was fun. Inspired by Age of Empires II.

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

#159

Post by passion__desire » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

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…

Get normal public involved in your adventures like this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCrJ3NflOpE

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

#160

Post by bombcar » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

kotaKat wrote: post #45

The silliest thing I built was a hot-tub water heater system for one of those inflatable Intex hot tubs. Running the heat off 1500W was stupidly inefficient, so I went out and acquired one of those tankless propane-powered hot water heaters and rigged it to a commercial RV water pump and a 20# propane tank to circulate water into the hot tub that way. It heated the tub up from ~50* faucet to 104* hot in about 3 hours…

"Redneck hottubs" are a relatively common thing and you can get some amazing looking ones, from a fire under a cast iron bathtub to a complex system involving miles of copper tubing and burn barrels.