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?

#571

Post by s1artibartfast » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:24 AM UTC

JackFr wrote: post #140

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…

Best no-word, visual, intuitive explanation of how CAT scans work ever!

I'm not sure I'd be able to figure it out easily if I didn't already know how a CAT scan works, but I agree it's a excellent demonstration of the principle

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

#572

Post by paindiverson » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:30 AM UTC

swighton wrote: post #361

I made a baseball bat that uses explosives to add a bunch of energy to your swing and hit a baseball really far. It uses the explosive blanks normally used to shoot nails into concrete (e.g. ramset). It worked way better than I expected, didn't have a kick, and turned out to be just a really neat thing to look at while sipping a frosty beverage. I also made a video about it if you're interested: https://youtu.be/Puo6…

Love your channel, it has been a true inspiration!

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

#573

Post by sramam » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:33 AM UTC

DaveChild wrote: post #426

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.

Pah, amateur. I made two at once. Well ok, my wife did most of it, but I was definitely a contributing maker.

"instigating" you mean?!

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

#574

Post by dkokelley » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:33 AM UTC

A bit late, but I built a BattleBot back during the original show days. Never finished/competed though - I was in high school and couldn't make anything competitive with my birthday money. Learned a lot about radio controllers and aluminum angle bars! Taught my younger brother and we battled in the driveway.

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

#575

Post by l0b0 » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:34 AM UTC

Probably just a chaise longue surviving the salty, damp air outside like a champ.

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

#576

Post by chasd00 » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:39 AM UTC

I designed, built, and flew rocket to 20k ft. In a year or two I’m trying for 100k Ft.

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

#577

Post by cwbrandsma » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:44 AM UTC

Full side dragon staff from Skyrim.

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

#578

Post by chrischen » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:47 AM UTC

I made a robot that could replicate a painting (that you made using the robot). The robot was controlled by a Wacom tablet so it had 3 dimensions of input (x, y, and z for pen pressure). It was able to replicate its own paintings using just dead reckoning. Was fun programming custom Arduino code to drive the motors.

https://www.instapainting.com/blog/research/2015/09/10/robot...

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

#579

Post by jasbur » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:48 AM UTC

I made a robot that cheers every time the Green Bay Packers score (American football).

https://imgur.com/a/JeiDCYR

The chassis is 3D printed and a Raspberry Pi is hiding, with a couple of speakers, in the base. The Pi connects via WiFi to the local network and checks ESPN’s publicly available JSON for that day’s game to determine if the score has changed.

I gifted it to a friend that owns a bar and wanted him to be able to move to new networks and reconfigure without using a computer. So, I wrote some python scripts that interface with the GPIO pins on the Pi to reset the device and broadcast a WiFi network and web interface that can be used to connect to other networks.

That last bit now has over 500 stars on GitHub!

https://github.com/jasbur/RaspiWiFi

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

#580

Post by mikewarot » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 2:50 AM UTC

A device that levitated tungsten filaments in halogen bulbs so they wouldn't sag as they were "seasoned". I used a DC current and an electromagnet to allow the Lorenz force to cancel out gravity. That was a one off, but I thought it was cool.

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I worked in a shop making gears for a few years... I made most of the drive gears for the Marvel 8 bandsaw between 2016 and 2020. I also made lots of other gears. I'm sure that most of them will be in use for decades.