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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?

#381

Post by CoolestBeans »

ben7799 wrote: post #360
hathchip wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds awesome. How does it work exactly? Does the use pluck the strings while the machine turns the knobs?

Theoretically, but Gibson made these and it was a real failure in the market to the point they even destroyed a lot of the stock of guitars they couldn't sell. It might raise from the dead with a non-traditional guitar design like a headless guitar where the mass of the automatic tuners could be hidden inside the guitar body.

Electronic self-tuning machines are still a thing, its just returned to totally aftermarket. Its just too niche and really mostly useful if you use a lot of alternate tunings in a set and can't bring multiple guitars.

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

#382

Post by failrate »

eps wrote: post #142
failrate wrote: post #7

Wooden puzzle boxes.

Oooh, do share some details. I've been meaning to try making them after stumbling upon https://www.pelikanpuzzles.eu

I make them out of inexpensive wood scraps, so they end up looking rustic. Basically, they would be a prototype for someone with actual Woodworking skills. They all include a substitution cipher message and code wheel. They are usually single movement puzzles. The "Sweet as an Onion" cryptex required multiple positions to solve, and the recipient was never able to solve it, so I lean into the simple designs unless my friend is an expert puzzle solver. I usually go for hidden pocket puzzles, but my current favorite design is a variant of the snake cube puzzle that assembles into a functional code wheel to solve the message woodburned into the blocks such that if assembled in a second configuration reveal an encrypted message and instead of letters, I used Cistercian numerals. Each puzzle also tries to embrace the onion philosophy, where each layer is easy to peel, and leads to making the puzzle easier to solve. Clues are usually hidden on the object to eventually guide solvers to solving it instead of trying to frustrate or defeat them.

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

#384

Post by qingcharles »

Putting my DeLorean on the train tracks at the original filming location for Back to the Future III:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBo1DvKzRJ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLU4RPWjTY8

(we'd never tested it before the day, so we didn't realize the train wheels wouldn't fit over the brake calipers... so no brakes lol)

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

#386

Post by kiliantics »

simonsarris wrote: post #347

I built a timber-framed 12x16 barn with a cedar shingle roof with almost no experience. Mostly I read one book and, by strange chance halfway through, an interested person (who loves timber framing) saw me working in my driveway and decided to teach me several things and aid my technique, and supervise the raising process. Some pictures and more details: https://map.simonsarris.com/p/building-the-goose-palace Late th…

I built this same frame from the Sobon plans last summer on a lot of raw land I got with my wife. It's a supremely satisfying building method in so many ways, the simplicity, longevity, locality of materials: mine just sits on some laid stacks of fieldstone I found on the land. I also met local people with timber frame experience through the process and it has led to some great relationships within the community where we bought the land.

I'm currently sitting comfortably inside the structure which I have almost finished enclosing this summer and fitting with some of today's less traditional amenities.

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

#387

Post by 1-more »

md_ wrote: post #89

Dunno why nobody has said anything like this, but I make some awesome bread (baguettes, mainly) and pizza. What's great is not only that you get to eat the results, but whether it turns out well or badly, you get to repeat it all over again--and again, and again, and again.

I made some croissants and pains au chocolat in a class. I was expecting them to be just ok. They were not just ok. They one I had fresh out of the oven was not different by degree but different in kind from any I had had before, and I've had good viennoiserie! These were the platonic pastry all others had been reaching for and missing. I gotta try it again.

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

#388

Post by LesZedCB »

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.

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

#389

Post by tracker1 »

I spent a few years when I was younger learning to cook better... pretty much immersed myself in it when not working. Watched a LOT of cooking videos, the entire Good Eats series, and more. Never made anything especially cool, just got pretty good at sauce work, and understanding how some ingredients and techniques come together. I might have gone to cooking/culinary school in the evenings, but never did well in formalized education environments.

The fairly irony is I now pretty much have to eat very simply, Diabetes, FODMAP and Histamine Intolerance. I eat something I shouldn't at least once a week and usually pay for it for at least a day after.

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

#390

Post by danielvaughn »

I went to art school for college, and one of my internships was working with a guy who did facial prosthetics using medical-grade silicone.

I made a couple of eyes and ears, and kept some of the discarded ones we used during testing. I still show people for fun every now and then because they look extremely realistic.

I don't have any pictures available but I do a link to some of my old artwork (I don't really make art anymore):

https://www.behance.net/gallery/2201575/Drawings-2010-2011

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