
Ask HN: What have you built? (not software related) - rokhayakebe
I guess hackers like to just build stuff. What have you built other than sotware? Maybe a crib for your new born child, maybe a house, maybe a bike etc...
======
cscotta
About a year ago, I spent a weekend building a letterpress. It's turned into a
fun hobby.

Printmaking is much more difficult than I'd have expected. One of the biggest
challenges is maintaining a clean, inkless field. It's so easy to get ink on
your hands, at which point it's nearly impossible to pick up a sheet of paper
without smudging it before you're within three feet of the press itself.
Registration (proper alignment) is a challenge as well, but is manageable.
Working slowly and deliberately is difficult but certainly rewarding (though
the reward here is spending an hour with lacquer thinner cleaning off the
type, but I digress).

Even so, it feels great to take a Saturday evening away from the Internet, sit
down with a set of lead 72pt Franklin Gothic, a brayer and ink, and print a
few runs of something that strikes you as amusing at the moment.

Here are a couple photos from the last experiment:

Printed: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/cscotta/5018870586/lightbox/>

Letterpress: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/cscotta/3825133446/>

(See the "luck" tag for a couple in-process shots)

~~~
swah
Anyone else likes to see which books people have when the bookshelf is not the
subject?

------
photon_off
I built a time fountain. I became obsessed with making one after seeing this
video. I knew _absolutely nothing_ about making circuits, so I spent the large
part of a summer troubleshooting all sorts of minor things (it took forever
just to get a blinking light, without toasting it, for example), scrounging
for parts at Radioshack (what a rip-off!) and various online catalogs. I
bought enough parts to make 10, but after making 1 of them, the thrill was
over.

Anybody I show this thing to is instantly amazed. About 10% of people can
actually figure out how it works. And, in general, if they don't understand it
before having it explained to them, they won't understand it afterword (though
they will claim to "get it"). Maybe I'm just not good at explaining the strobe
effect. When people first see it, they momentarily believe that I've managed
to create some sort of anti-gravity device. Then when they see it going
backwards, they sort of lose grip of reality for a moment. It's amazing.

My time fountain kicks the original one's ass. Unlike the one in the video,
mine does a full 30fps and has analog adjustment knobs for forwards,
backwards, etc. It doesn't relay on a "drip detection" circuit, but rather
just two 555 timers. I freakin' love the thing.

Video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvY7NGncCgU> Note: I didn't make the
one in the video, and this wasn't my idea. I simply implemented the same
concept myself with various improvements.

~~~
lutorm
That is awesome, never seen that idea before.

------
roberte3
A monorail.

500 Feet long, held two passengers, guts were a rewired electric wheelchair.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/5008514139/in/set-...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/5008514139/in/set-72157623078910391/)

~~~
benjamind
Ah....Burning Man.

Loved this, was a very very ambitious project, sadly I didn't get to see it
working. :-(

In the same vein I made this this year:

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/bendelarre/5010762637/in/set-72...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bendelarre/5010762637/in/set-72157624511065185/)

A 16x16 array of RGB LEDs on which we ran animations generated by the
community on a website. (Yes, I know, its still software related...I can't
help myself!).

------
wglb
I built a 50-watt ham radio transmitter (copper chassis and all) with an 807
final. And an allied radio receiver kit. And later a VFO kit to drive the
transmitter. And a Q-Multiplier and a BFO for the 1927 Zenith radio from my
dad so I could hear tones in CW. Then, from scratch, when I got my General
Class license, I built an AM modulator on a 14-inch steel chassis to get on
AM. Going almost digital, I built a two-tube 12as7 W9TO keyer for morse code
for the above rig. And an antenna system with two 45 foot poles about 180 feet
apart to put up three dipoles. And I cannot count the number of antennas that
I have built over the years at my various residences.

Later, I built one of the second wave of the Altair computers, and actually
had one or two consulting gigs from that.

And, to brag a little, I pointed my daughter, to a QST article on a code
practice oscillator, and she built it with almost no supervision when she was
in high school.

I built, from a kit, one or three of the amateur packet radio kits, and ran a
radio BBS for too long a time. (You see, the internet is just ham radio 2.0,
but none of you get that fact, but i digress)

I built (strictly was architect for) a medical information system that
gathered electrocardiograms from patients bedsides, transmitted them via
telephone to a datacenter near Chicago, which returned an english-language
report to the hosptial in ten minutes or less. (This one is cheating a bit, as
a large component of this was software.)

But by far and away most of the stuff I have built is software.

Now, my gig is to break software, but that is off-topic. (Hint--you sometimes
need to write software to break other software.)

~~~
wglb
Oh, yes--I built an accounting system in RPG-III. Many today do not consider
this to be software.

------
mrbogle
My dad owns a fab shop, so I grew up making stuff.

I was into cars for a long time. In college, I built strut/tie bars and sold
them on the web. I turboed my car and built the downpipe and the charge
piping. I also made and modified numerous parts for the car and friends' cars
(suspension parts, wiring, brackets, blah blah). I also reverse engineered the
ECU running the engine and wrote an engine management system for it which
required some hardware integration (that count?
<http://benogle.com/projects/bre> ).

All of my furniture that was not upholstered (no couch, etc) until last year
was built by me in high school.

I finished the basement in my house which required making a bunch of stuff at
previously mentioned fab shop. Even for general house maintenance I often
ended up making some small part(s) at the shop (i.e. sprinkler system install,
fixing the garage lean, etc).

------
bond
Full Size Airliner cockpit (Bombardier CRJ):

1 PC 1 Matrox TripleHead(3 monitors-View), 1 Matrox G200(3 monitors-
Instruments)

Built some electronic boards to control LEDs, Switches, Potentiometers for
Throttle, Yoke, Overhead panel, Central console, etc...

Nice project if you have the time....

~~~
jacquesm
> Full Size Airliner cockpit (Bombardier CRJ):

pictures, please?

So many amazing projects in this thread!

------
saundby
Bookshelves, an entertainment center, lots of medieval armor, several homebrew
computers (I'm putting the finishing touches on an 8085 now: saundby.com), a
couple of fish tanks, my computer desk, a parallelogram mount for my
binoculars, several telescopes, including the primary optics.

Building is just another part of hacking. If you asked me what I'd modded, I'd
have an even larger list. I originally got into electronics and computers
because it was a cheaper hobby than model railroading. I couldn't afford
railroading stuff from the hobby shop, but I could always find a broken radio
to get parts out of for electronics projects, and make money repairing radios
and TVs until I could afford a microprocessor. :)

------
supermauerbros
My friend Ben and I built a piece of art that responds to fluctuations in
magnetic fields in the room to move around ferrofluid.

<http://jakemauer.com/work/fields/>

I also built a T-Shirt with EL wire that sync'd to Ableton Live

<http://jakemauer.com/work/electroluminescent-dj/>

~~~
photon_off
What is that instrument, that somebody keeps putting their hand infront of,
detecting? Sometimes it goes up when the hand goes near, and sometimes it
doesn't.

Very cool project. I think if somebody made an installation / toy that did
extreme looking ferrofluid stuff in response to people touching around it
(like those glass spheres with electricity arcs tracing all around), it'd have
commercial value.

------
gallerytungsten
House rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Link to one of the more epic
episodes: <http://www.gallerytungsten.com/archives/000145.php>

------
david_p
My first hack, I was 11 : a tape mixer with two walkmans, a linear
potentiometer and a merged audio output :)

<http://image.bayimg.com/dapehaacf.jpg>

------
cubes
Syzygryd, a 2.5 ton fire breathing collaborative musical instrument. With a
lot of help from friends. <http://www.syzygryd.com>

------
orblivion
When I was a kid I hacked apart my NES controller. I connected wires to each
of the leads, and then made some simple contraptions that would connect two
leads when activated. The main one was a jumping board my dad helped me with.
I also made a punching thing you strapped to your arm. I didn't know how to
solder properly so I don't think it all worked right at any one time, but it
was cool.

Still waiting for royalties from the Wii :)

------
serverdude
If art counts, I have sketched many portraits, did some oil paintings (nothing
to boast of) and also composed a few songs in an unreleased album:)

------
krschultz
2 boats, a guitar, some furniture, and a race car. I'd like build another boat
soon, it has been a while.

~~~
zackola
How did you learn about building the guitar? I'd love to see pics/see design
plans. Electric or acoustic?

~~~
krschultz
Also there are books, googling around there is plenty. I actually have a store
near my house that supports home built guitars and the guy there was really
helpful, but that doesn't scale at all.

<http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/links.htm>

------
crcarlson
I built two CNC machines. The first one essentially from scratch components:
bearings, plates and beams. And a second higher performance machine by
converting a manual machine to servo control. Hardware is fun.

~~~
jacquesm
Pictures?

One of my babies :) :

[http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/17_sep_bill...](http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/windmill/17_sep_billet.jpg.html)

~~~
crcarlson
That is a nice machine. I have been trying to convince myself that if I want
to build a custom set of cabinets that should build a 4x8 router to make the
whole job easier :)

Yes my web page is lame and written by hand 7 years ago, but it does have a
few pics.

<http://www.crcarlson.com/Personal/cnc1/cnc1.html>

<http://www.crcarlson.com/Personal/cnc2/cnc2.html>

~~~
jacquesm
Those are very slick little machines that you've built there.

I've been busy converting this one off-and-on for the last two years, it's
going so slow because the machine is in a warehouse almost 200 miles from
here:

<http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/machines/dscf1225.jpg.html>

But it's actually getting there, just a few more wires and it will be
completely modernized.

------
abraham
An epic beard: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/teich/4828396989/>

~~~
patrickgzill
That beard is almost as epic as Katie Holmes.

~~~
abraham
I didn't realize Katie Holmes was all that epic...

------
ratsbane
When I was (more) young and foolish, I rebuilt the turbodiesel engine in a
1983 Mercedes 300SD. The day after we got it all back together two friends and
I drove it over a thousand miles to a wedding in Philadelphia. In hindsight,
this was really stupid. It turned out fine, though.

<http://douglassims.org/300sd/>

~~~
cellularmitosis
I stuck the engine from a 300SD into my 67 chevy pickup.

<http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=241922>

My next trick will be to transplant a modern variable vane turbocharger onto
it and develop a fly by wire throttle and vane control system.

------
humbledrone
I recently built an arcade cabinet, which houses a PC running MAME so that I
can play lots of arcade games.

I also built the desk on which my workstation currently resides. I couldn't
find a desk that (a) looked decent and (b) was enormous, so I designed a desk
that satisfied both and built it.

------
jacquesm
A windmill, a house, a car, a 3D mill / plasmacutter.

~~~
rokhayakebe
Did you build the house from ground up? How long did that take you?...Lately I
have been reading up about building a small house using shipping containers.

~~~
jacquesm
Actually, it's two houses, one in Canada and one in NL.

The latter was a rebuild, an old farm house, the one in Canada was from 7' in
the ground to two and a half storeys.

The one here in NL was a major project, mostly because I did it all by myself
and it's a brick building. It's a beautiful little house in a very quiet spot
of the country, with a fair bit of ground around it.

It took me two years to get it all done.

~~~
rokhayakebe
You should write about the whole experience with pictures. I am getting more
serious about building a house from the ground up. Two years is a great time
frame. Share pictures if any.

~~~
jacquesm
I sent you mail.

Building a house is absolutely doable, fixing one up with a rich history in a
way is more fun, but comes with more restrictions.

------
lutorm
A working CO2 laser, with enough power to char wood and cut paper and thin
plastic.

------
mtrn
Together with friends I renovated a 4-floor house, which was unhabited. Now we
have a cool house with garden to live and work in, oil-, coal- and gas-free
heating and solar panels for below-the-average rent.

------
udfalkso
I built a device to catch the mail that comes through the slot in my front
door. It had previously been falling on the floor and driving me crazy.

One day I came across this nice product, [http://www.amazon.com/SNAIL-SAKK-
Mail-Receptacle-Slots/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/SNAIL-SAKK-Mail-
Receptacle-Slots/dp/B002W5GI2U), and it seemed more than possible to make my
own. So, using a fabric shopping bag from a local store, some Velcro and a
sewing kit I managed to put my own together in a couple of hours. It works
great! :)

~~~
aberkowitz
What happens if the stack overflows?

~~~
udfalkso
The "sack" holds quite a bit of mail, but the worst case scenario is that the
mailman shoves the overflow stuff in there aggressively and the velcro gives
way causing the mail to fall on the floor again like before.

------
ww520
Built a RFID collection system using RFID reader plus mico Linux computer. Ok,
semi-software related since I needed to write the software to control the
hardware.

------
aristus
I am currently building a peer to peer network of time capsules:
<http://www.paperinternet.org>

------
misterbwong
Semi-recent projects: Bookshelf, desk, plug station, coat hanger antenna,
hollowed out book.

My grandfather was a carpenter and when he passed, he gave our family his
tools. We always have lots of wood and woodworking tools around so that's my
preferred medium (when all you have is a hammer....).

------
wallflower
A 6" Dobsonian reflector telescope. Highly recommend it

~~~
jacquesm
You ground your own lenses? Wow! Patience of a saint.

~~~
confoocious
Reflectors use mirrors; !lenses.

I've ground a few too; Polished fewer and never completed any :)

~~~
wallflower
Congrats! I can't imagine what it'd be like to actually make my own optics.
Probably tough to get it to the right optical tolerances.

------
retroafroman
Wow, I'm very impressed with your projects. If you're a redditor, /r/DIY loves
to see these type of projects, and if you blog, consider submitting to Make
Magazine, or Hack-A-Day, or any of the various other DIY blogs. It's great to
see such creativity.

------
chewbranca
I helped build a house out of spare wood for a family friend. It was really
exciting to see it come together and to think that this wasn't just a random
side project, but something that would be lived in and greatly appreciated.

------
honopu
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/kilohanadesign/page2/>

bunch of weirdness, but my hobby is building sprayed in facecoat glass fiber
reinforced concrete pieces.

Most of my newer pieces are 3/4" thick and have EPS foam cores. My first
attempt is the solid grey double sink in the bathroom which weighs at least
250lbs, I thought there had to be a better way, and there was. The desk with
the imac on it is 28x60 and weighs 90lbs.

Sorry about all the other random pictures, especially if you get to see
t-shirt diaperman on the beach.

------
th0ma5
i built a software radio (or something a lot like one, involves software, but
the device was soldered) it was quite fun, just google "zetasdr" or the gnu
radio project, or softrock sdr .... have fun!

------
dabent
A bed, a blanket chest and lots of other smaller projects. Woodworking helped
me realize that I really like building things, so I've stuck with that on the
software side.

------
GnarfGnarf
A root cellar, 8'×8'

[http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=204054&...](http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=204054&id=733326210)

------
tunaslut
Mostly bits of furniture - bookcases and chairs for my daughter, various
little toys like balance boards and beams, kitchen cabinets.

Oh, and soap. I make soap - does that count? :)

------
dminor
We're moving to a smaller apartment soon so I'm building a platform for our
bed (king size) this weekend, so we can get more storage under it. Should be
fun!

------
lenary
a human sized hamster wheel

it's a long story, to do with a church funding something, but i was the
eventual designer of it despite being an intern, then went and built it in my
own time one weekend. was fucking heavy and never used it, just donated my
time to that client

------
MK5
hmm: -a goban that I still use sometimes -a water filter for my turtles -an
helicopter with Lego and the engine found in the broken typewriter (no, it
can't fly BUT the helices turns :D) -a laser gun with the laser found in my
DVD driver -my BED ! :D <-most proud and if "art" counts, I've made with folks
from my startup this 4-page comics
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5247526/Nouveaux%20soleils.zip> !

------
cwbrandsma
Recently...a tortilla press. Not much, but workable.

------
schindyguy
I just built something that builds something

The makerbot.

------
togasystems
My Self-Esteem

~~~
thomasb
"That's beautiful, man." - Snowball

------
cellurl
I built a side for my POS popup camper. Metal, glue, ants...

------
mybbor
Acoustic panels for my home studio!

<http://www.guitarwithrob.com/images/studio2.png>

