How to build an outdoor, homemade fire pit out of an old washing machine drum! It looks great and works fantastic. Fire pits are conventionally made from stone or bricks and as the name suggests, are made into a pit in the ground. The fire pit that l have just built is a little different to that.
Obviously, millionaires like me don't really have to worry about an empty wallet, but for the rest of you out there, having no cash when it comes time to paying a bill can be excruciatingly embarrassing.
In an increasingly mobile and globalized world, it’s not uncommon to lose touch with people we were once close with. Juggling between job demands, family responsibilities and our own personal needs, it’s often hard to put the time to keep all of our relationships going. Nevertheless, every now and then we get to reminiscing and feel the time has come for a reunion with people from the past.
I've had this idea in my head for almost a year now. I knew what I wanted to do, but wasn't sure if it would work. After a long time of armchair-engineering, I decided that the best way to test my idea was with a soldering iron and a screwdriver.
If you can think of a piece of junk, someone has probably found a way to turn it into a lamp. Granted, sometimes the result is more functional than beautiful, but DIY lighting is probably one of the most versatile projects you can take on.
Since the emergence of GoPro, the company's cameras have been been on a steady incline for the past several years. Adventure enthusiasts had difficulty recording their extreme activities without a huge price tag before the GoPro came along in 2002.
Convenience is a big deal these days. You can buy single-serving or single-use sizes of just about anything, from fruits and vegetables to sanitizing wipes, and, apparently, even bananas. Uhh, it already has a wrapper...
Not a lot of people send letters anymore. It could be because our laptops, smartphones, and tablets have taken over and we communicate electronically now. Or, it could be because envelope glue tastes terrible. If you were considering sending out nice, handmade Valentine's Day cards this year, but were so disgusted by the thought of licking all those envelopes that you changed your mind, you're in luck.
One of the issues most commonly complained about with the Google Nexus 7 is speaker defects. Some people have issues with their tablets freezing when using the built-in speakers, others say they were pretty much busted right out of the box.
If you take your camera equipment with you on a pretty frequent basis, having a camera bag can help protect it and makes it much easier to keep everything in one place. A good camera bag can be pretty expensive, but with this tutorial by photographer Allen Mowery, you can turn a cheap canvas messenger bag into a nice looking DIY waxed camera bag for half the price. For this project, you'll need a canvas messenger bag, a camera insert, and some paraffin wax, which can be found in the canning a...
Contrary to popular belief, IKEA can get pretty expensive. You find something that comes pretty cheap, but then, you decide that your GORF will look good with the BLERGH, and you really need the SPLOOF to tie it all together. Pretty soon, your living room looks like an IKEA magazine ad, and your bank account has seen better days. Instead of spending so much money at IKEA, why not build your own pieces of furniture?
When it comes to the quality of a photo, lighting can make or break it. Too much light, and your subject looks washed out. Too little, and you can't even tell what your subject is.
'Tis the season... for cheap (and free!) video games. THQ's Humble Bundle lets you get 7 games for any price you want, and now they're making it even better by offering fans a free Steam copy of Metro 2033 just for liking Metro on Facebook, which is gearing up for the latest Metro: Last Night release.
Christmas sweaters are one of those anomalies that everyone complains about, yet so many are sold every year that someone has to like them (kind of like fruitcake). Whether you're keeping tradition for tradition's sake, or secretly you actually enjoy ugly sweaters (we won't tell anyone), why not at least make this year one to remember?
When you have a lot of equipment, dragging it everywhere with you can be a pain, especially when the weather's bad. Sure, you can put it in a camera bag, but a lot of them don't protect your stuff from water, and waterproof cases can get expensive.
Here's how to make a simple form of a slow burning fuse from materials around the house. WARNING: Ignition of an incendiary or explosive material may not be legal in your area, so check local laws before attempting. Use of this video content is at your own risk.
Eavesdropping from a distance can be tricky because it usually requires some sort of bug or transmitter. It's easy to transmit audio through lasers, but you can also use lasers to build a microphone that picks up audio from a distance. LucidScience built the Laser Spy System for about $20. To make your own, you'll need a cheap laser pointer, an NPN phototransistor, a headphone amp, and a few other small pieces listed below. A light-to-sound circuit is installed in a small plastic box with the...
Remember how the bad guys in Scooby Doo would always use cut-out portraits to spy on people through walls? Well, unless your landlord is super cool, you probably shouldn't start cutting holes in your wall just yet, but you can make a higher tech version, thanks to NASA employee Mark Rober. Mark used a cheap picture frame and a portrait with the eyes cut out to make the "Scoob Cam," which also doubles as a surveillance device. He used an iPhone and an iPad to start a FaceTime chat, then taped ...
There's nothing worst than throwing a party without any music. That's like having watching the Super Bowl without any chips or beers...lame.
Many people drop their phone, resulting in the dreaded cracked screen. Luckily for you, a few of those people end up replacing the screen themselves, and sometimes they even leave behind detailed instructions on how to do it.
Monitoring your storage space is always a nuisance, whether you have a desktop, tablet, or smartphone; having enough space for all of your files, music, and videos is a constant battle. One movie file can take upwards of 1GB of memory, and for people who travel a lot, it becomes extremely impractical to have those huge files on your portable device.
The iPhone is probably one of the best looking phones ever made, but that beauty comes with a price. If you have a 4S or previous version, all it takes is one drop and the back glass is shattered (unless you're incredibly lucky). Replacing it yourself is pretty simple and cheap, but if you're not into DIY repairs, here's an easy alternative solution, as long as you have a white device. Redditor skrillexisokay used highlighters to transform a broken back glass into a work of art. And the best ...
Still have an old tape deck installed in your car? This nifty hack lets you upgrade to the digital age without sacrificing your love for cassettes. There's nothing wrong with some low-fidelity tunes in your car every now and then, but if you want to listen to the tunes on your iPod or smartphone too, it's a lot easier (and cheaper) than buying a new in-dash player that supports line-in connections. Just add some wireless capabilities to you tape deck! All you need is a cheap cassette adapter,...
Here's a way you can turn a mousetrap into a fun little handgun that shoots up to 40 feet! This is a great project because it can be made with simple materials, very basic tools, and in just a few minutes!
Harnessing the power of the sun is something that Captain Planet made cool before it was the go-to for renewable energy. Solar-powered energy is quick and cheap, and can make for some really cool DIY projects. And for those of you wondering what you should do with your old satellite, look no further. Aaron from Sharealikelicence offers up a way to create a DIY outdoor satellite cooker. He started with an old Ku Band dish and covered it with aluminum tape, for better reflection of the sunlight...
Believe it or not, an ammo box can still be of use to you once its rounds are gone. You can use it for storage, as a toolbox, or possibly even as a Faraday cage. But if you want to use it as more than just a container, why not turn it into a portable set of speakers that you can take with you anywhere? The ammo can speaker pictured above was made by Instructables user Dustin White. He started with an empty .50 cal box, though you could probably even use thinner 5.56 or 7.62 mm cans. He remove...
If you haven't met a person that's broken a pair of headphones, you might need to get out more. No matter how expensive or cheap a pair of headphones are, the sound can get buggy, the wire can get cut, or the headphone jack itself can be broken or ripped off the cord. But instead of buying a new set of headphones or borrowing the ones from your cousin with the earwax problem, you can easily fix it yourself.
If you bought the new iPhone 5, you've probably been less than thrilled with the lack of cases and accessories that you can use it with. Docks are no exception—users were disappointed to learn that Apple has no plans to even make one for the newest addition to the Apple family.
A couple of months ago at the Black Hat security conference, hacker Cody Brocious gave the hotel industry a nasty surprise when he figured out how to hack the locks made by Onity that are used in millions of hotels worldwide.
Want to know when you have a visitor, even if you're not home? You could always set up a security system and live-stream it with your iPhone. But if you don't have a spare iPhone, or just don't want to go to the trouble, this simple hack will add text message alerts to your doorbell so that it lets you know when someone's there.
What can you do with a hair dryer besides dry your hair? Lots. You can remove stickers from clothing, clean up crayon marks, and mold your plastic eyeglasses for a better fit. But how about something a little more fun? Well, you can levitate things. Ping pong balls, to be exact.
You can buy special utensils to do just about anything these days, and separating eggs is no exception. If you don't have (or want to buy) a fancy tool to do it, the classic method is simple—just crack the egg and transfer the yolk back and forth between the two halves. But even though egg separators are pretty cheap and using the shell (or just your fingers) isn't hard to do, neither is as fun as this trick by YouTuber jifenzhongDIY.
With gas prices constantly digging into your wallet, biking will always be a cheap and easy alternative for getting around—and it's a perfect way to get in a little exercise. But with the fall season about a week away, it is going to start getting dark a lot earlier and that ride home might be a little more dangerous. So to save yourself an unexpected trip to the ER, take a little time to make your bicycle impossible to overlook.
It can get pretty chaotic when you're gaming. When you're playing a fast-paced game like Black Ops, frustration, urgency, and confusion will lead to a sudden loss of control, i.e. a panic attack. There's an enemy at your six and you try to spin around, but it's too late—and that sudden rush of adrenaline will tear your controller to shreds. It's a step beyond mere button-mashing, because it's not really intentional—you just put a little more force on that thumbstick than needed. And now you'r...
A few weeks ago, we saw a simple 128 inch DIY Projector Screen that looked like a pro built it—and it only cost $200. But this one is even cheaper, and looks just as good. It's also simpler because it's painted right onto the wall. In the video below, How To Lou shows us how to make it with just some white or silverscreen paint, a few pieces of casement molding, and some black velvet for the trim.
So you've made a somersaulting robot, one that delivers your beer, and even a robot you can ride, but you want to try out something really different. Why not add a steam engine?
A tachometer, or RPM counter, is a device that measures the speed of something that's rotating. In a car with a manual transmission, the tachometer can be helpful in determining when to release the clutch and how much gas to give when you're taking off. This DIY Arduino Tachometer by Chris on PyroElectro uses an infrared transmitter and receiver break-beam pair to measure the RPM of a computer fan. When the fan blade passes between the transmitter and receiver, the IR beam counts the interrup...
Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has been one of the most successful film series of all time, so it comes as no surprise that everyone wants their own real-life versions of the Dark Knight's gadgets and vehicles.
Looking to transmit some super-secret audio communications to your other spy buddies? A laser is the perfect tool for getting your sounds heard from a small distance—without anyone intercepting them— even if it's just a cover of your favorite pop song. A laser audio transmitter uses light rather than radio waves to transmit sound. This is a much more secure way to send audio communications because the laser is a focused beam of light, whereas radio waves are not controlled, so they can be pic...
Whether you've got an itch for a mini-flamethrower, a shower of burning sparks, or a exploding ball of flames, these little fireworks-producing lighters may be the answer to your pyrotechnic cravings!
