Welding Basics: Joining Plate Steel

Renowned metal artist Kevin Caron shows you to properly joint two pieces of plate steel using a TIG welder. Caron is a hardcore Youtube user, posting over 100 videos which include a wide range of topics from picking up steel, using tools, installing art sculptures and even showing the process of creating some of his commissioned art works.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Gadgets: USB Bottle Opener Flash Drive

Do you ever find yourself sitting at BBQ and needing to swap some data with someone? If so, check out this convenient little bottle opener flash drive sold by Brando.

This stylish gadget comes in storage capacities 2GB, 4GB, 8GB with prices ranging from $19.00 – $33.00.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Obama’s High Tech Presidential Limo Made By Cadillac

President Obama will roll into the White House is a new luxury limo made by Cadillac. Sporting high tech security features, the 44th President can rest assured his road trips will be as safe as possible.

Popularity: 100% [?]

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Hexapod Robotic Walking CNC Router

This incredible little 6 leg walking CNC Router demonstrates by carving a little head out of foam. For the details on the Robot check out this forum post.

Popularity: 76% [?]

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Video: Playing Tetris On A Oscilloscope

Funny video of some guys playing tetris on what looks like a oscilloscope.


Popularity: 18% [?]

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Hackers Toolbox: Function Generator

function generator
One essential tool needed for experimenting with electronics is a Function Generator. A function Generator outputs various waveforms which can be used in your experiments. Common waveforms are sine, square, triangle and sawtooth which are illustrated in the below picture. The waveforms can be adjusted by frequency’s, amplitude, and shape. The function generator has a rating of how high it can create a waveform. The rating is usually in Mhz. So if you have a 20Mhz function generator, you could adjust the frequency as high as 20 Mhz.

function generator waveforms

Function generator can be helpful when you need to create a wave for a circuit you are testing. A good function generator should have a sweep setting that will go though a frequency range. This can be helpful when you are looking for how your circuit will respond to different frequency’s. An example, let say you have a low-pass filter and you need to know what are its cutoff points. You can just set the function generator to sweep though a predefined frequency range. As it sweeps you will see at what frequency the low-pass filter cuts off. Another use would be to have a function generator power a 555 timer circuit.

Function generators are a must have in any electronic lab.

DIY Function Generator Circuit

Popularity: 24% [?]

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DIY Function Generator Project

PCB function generator

Nice project guide that walks you though building your own function generator. The guide goes thought the electronic theory, the parts selection, the building, testing, and final mock-up of a function generator. If do any electronic work, you will definitely need a good function generator.

Read the Function Generator guide here…………

Popularity: 15% [?]

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Laptop Laser Engraving (digg logo)

Phillip Torrone from MAKE magazine helps Kevin Rose of Digg engrave the digg logo on to his laptop. That is one fast laser. If you want to see Kevin’s take on the process download the diggnation podcast.


read more | digg story

Popularity: 12% [?]

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Hacking a Toaster Oven into a reflow Oven

reflow toster oven prototyping

Surface mounted Electronics are becoming the more and more popular. They are small, cheap and are the preferred method used in most electronics. For the average electronic hobbyist, they also are a challenge to work with. Most the time you need a magnifying glass and tweezers just to handle them. They also don’t fit into solderless breadboards with out a carrier board. When you need to solder them on a PCB you will need some special tools. In the commercial world they’re are reflow soldering guns and reflow ovens. Commercial reflow ovens can run in the thousands of dollars.

Along came this tutorial from Spark Fun Electronics, that converts a cheep toaster oven into a re-flow oven. The tutorial also goes in depth on designing a controller to dial in the temperature on the oven. To the Hack..

Read…

Popularity: 26% [?]

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Beer can padlock opener

padlock shim tool hack
This cool simple hack, allows you to pick a Master Lock padlock, using a beer can. The hack involves making the beer into a flat sheet of aluminum, then cutting out a simple pattern. Once the pattern is made it can be bent to work as a padlock shim. This is a very simple hack and it works very well, i have tried it. No more worrying about forgetting the combination to your padlocks anymore.

Read the guide…

Popularity: 32% [?]

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