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?

#401

Post by tracker1 » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 8:57 PM UTC

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #211

xyzelement wrote: post #196

This may or may not fit into the OP's intention but some of my favorite physical achievements are repairs that might be impressive for a random suburban dad :) 1. Two years ago our basement flooded a week after we bought the house. I ended up tearing out the now-saturated carpet and put in vinyl plank flooring. Mainly straight forward but requires planning and at some points tricky sawing. It's cool when people come…

Similarly, I have felt huge satisfaction with DIY repairs. Re-plumbing a couple sinks and replacing a garbage disposal and/or adding a dishwasher is not hard to do, the building codes aren't terribly overbearing and its like Lego connecting things together with immediate feedback loop when testing for leaks (modern PVC plumbing, not older copper/metal). When you own a home and have the time, there are some tasks that…

Yeah, that's the spot I'm in right now... contract rates where I live went through the roof over the pandemic and never came back down.

Aside: I wish I could smack whoever did the wiring in my home. They saved a few dollars on a breaker, but if I run my AVR/TV + Microwave (in adjacent kitchen) and the lights are on in the summer, it blows the breaker. And there's a dozen spaces on the box still available even.

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

#402

Post by bityard » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 8:58 PM UTC

rond2911 wrote: post #259

When I was in school back home in India, my mom wouldn't buy a ping pong paddle for me to play with friends since it was expensive. So, I decided to cut down old notebook cardboard covers and I made one for myself by glueing 7-8 hard cardboard notebook covers. I know, sounds lame but this is all I can remember. :D

Not lame at all, I routinely make things that I don't want to buy. Sometimes they even work.

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

#403

Post by kokanee » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 8:58 PM UTC

The coolest thing I made is probably my two-tier, 3-kettle, 240v E-HERMS homebrewing system, but that was probably only about 15% fabrication and 85% integrating off-the-shelf hardware.

For some reason, the thing that still feels the coolest was the RC hovercraft (converted from RC airplane parts) that a friend and I made for a science fair. It was a bit silly because it wasn't cordless, but that attribute doubled as a nice safety feature given that this was being piloted in a gymnasium full of kids.

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

#404

Post by FelipeCortez » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:01 PM UTC

Wooden version of Scrabble! I need to update the site with pictures of the tiles. https://felipecortez.net/woodworking/

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

#405

Post by whalesalad » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:01 PM UTC

xd1936 wrote: post #336

Last spring, I had my dad woodwork a large (cabinet door sized?) solid silhouette of Michigan, where I live. I then drilled holes throughout it, ran WS2811 LEDs through the holes, and coded up live temperature data to be shown as a color spectrum. It's a nice piece of wall art! https://github.com/leoherzog/michigan-temp-map

Hello from Royal Oak :wave:

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

#406

Post by Huhuhn » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:02 PM UTC

I once built an elevator for a vacuum robot in my old dorm which had two floors. The elevator was moving twice per day to each floor. Was as cheap as buying a second vacuum robot.

Video of the device in action: https://youtu.be/F_gTlU9w7dQ

Image documentation of the build: https://imgur.io/gallery/y1dB4zr

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

#407

Post by at_a_remove » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:04 PM UTC

I don't know about cool, but I made this black and gold display of Ra on the solar barque, versus the serpent Apep, for the solar eclipse here.

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

#408

Post by hoofhearthed » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:06 PM UTC

hoofhearted wrote: post #115

I helped build “The Cloud” without really knowing it lol.. I joined a 5 year electrical apprenticeship after highschool. I spent many days between 2006 and 2012 building out crazy electrical systems in these giant warehouse looking buildings in Northern Virginia, for DuPont Fabros and Digital Reality. I had no idea exactly what the purpose of these server farms were for, but they just told us “if we build it they wil…

Cool username

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

#409

Post by miiiiiike » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:07 PM UTC

I started painting miniatures last year. It's fun. This is only the fifth model I've completed. Definitely a novice, just trying to get the techniques down.

https://imgur.com/a/7tBD8AS

My girlfriend used to do research with rats — she asked for a "Spliter" Clanrat.

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

#410

Post by foobarbecue » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 9:10 PM UTC

LesZedCB wrote: post #388

foobarbecue wrote: post #380

The world's first ice-climbing robot https://eos.org/articles/meet-iceworm-nasas-new-ice-climbing... .

that's so cool! what do you do to keep the screw cores from freezing up solid? I've found myself blowing them out, sometimes unsuccessfully to evacuate the ice core.

You are right on the money. We never really solved that problem for cold ice. The fumarolic ice caves we tested in were close to 0C, so it wasn't a problem. But we did a test campaign in a -25C walk-in freezer, and had to use a hot air gun to clear the end effector manually every step. If we got funded to do another version I think we would try to incorporate some kind of heater.