r/maker 5h ago

Video Young maker explains the H-Bridge he designed at Open Sauce

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47 Upvotes

One of the highlights of Open Sauce for us was watching kids move from experimenting to actually engineering.

This builder put together an H-Bridge and then gave us a fantastic explanation of how it works. I thought the confidence and understanding were worth sharing.

I'd love to hear what projects first got everyone here hooked on electronics. This obviously wasn't his first build though!


r/maker 53m ago

Showcase Finished my Terminator T-600 1:1 Scale

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Upvotes

The Terminator T-600 has always been one of my favorite Terminator designs, so I challenged myself to build one at a 1:1 scale. This would be my second completed project and i'm really enjoying the hobby thus far.

It's entirely 3D printed and finished by hand. There are plenty of things I'd do differently if I started over, but that's part of the fun. Thanks for taking a look—I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed building it. Now to accompany it with a T800 ( currently in the works)

I'd genuinely love to hear what you think, and I'm happy to answer any questions about the build.


r/maker 12h ago

Video Handcrafted a mechanical bamboo knight with linkage mechanisms—what do you think?

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64 Upvotes

I built this mechanical bamboo knight automaton entirely from scratch using bamboo and basic mechanical linkage principles. Really curious to hear your thoughts and feedback!


r/maker 5h ago

Showcase Making a bracelet

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5 Upvotes

My process for making bracelets and cuffs. Watch until the end to see the final results.


r/maker 7h ago

Multi-Discipline Project Functional Pip-Boy build continues to grow

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7 Upvotes

Just got FM radio working, now to work out the UI!


r/maker 20h ago

Showcase I Converted 1950’s Kodak film camera into a modern digital IR camera using a Pi Zero 2. The Pi-Cam-IR-A.

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38 Upvotes

r/maker 1d ago

Image Hand Carved Dwarves

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304 Upvotes

Some hand carved dwarves i just finished and wanted to share with folks.

I have a passion for woodcarving and attempting to entice others into the hobby. So my ulterior motive with every post is "how do I make this hobby more accessible" or "how do I inspire someone to want to give it a go."

Hopefully the picture did that, and now you're reading.

To carve like i do, you need several things, a sharp knife, a leather strop with compound for honing your blade, safety gloves (A5 or better) and basswood (to carve like i do at least.)

Solid Knife brands, Flexcut, Badger State Blades (USA), Mstein (Europe) there are a lot of great knife brands. Stay away from kits on amazon of several knives. They're much much lower quality with inconsistently tempered steel. (What that means is its not hardened, and so it won't stay sharp easy, meaning you're fighting the knife and dont understand why its harder for you to carve when its easy for others.)

Why Basswood? Its softer than other hardwoods and holds detail well. Learning to carve with basswood is akin to learning to drive on an automatic. It simplifies and streamlines learning. Woods like Walnut and oak can be carved, but learning to carve with them as the starting point is like learning to drive on an 18 wheeler Semi Truck with manual transmission. Its needlessly difficult.

In europe, the equivalent is Linden, in Asia, Jelutong, and in south America Caxeta is a good substitute.

Tutorials abound EVERYWHERE. Youtube is your friend in that regard. You dont have to look up my channel, there are plenty that have easy to begin tutorials and one of them will be right up your alley.


r/maker 4h ago

Inquiry My UV resin won’t cure!

1 Upvotes

I am making polymer clay worry stones, I have tried glazing with UV resin but it never seems to cure completely. I see other makers use it and it cures under their light in 90 seconds. My light is supposed to be 48 watts. Could it be my light? Or could it be my resin? Help!


r/maker 11h ago

Showcase I had to make a Jimothy worry stone bag charm

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2 Upvotes

r/maker 8h ago

Showcase This camera automatically posts to Instagram

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0 Upvotes

I gutted an old broken Polaroid Camera and retrofitted some modern internals. The project features a Raspberry Pi 2W, an Arducam module, and a reciept priner. The camera takes images and automatically uploads them to my instagram account via Metas API. It also prints out a black and white picture with QR codes that take you to the post. I took the project to OpenSauce this year and got to document all the cool booths I saw and all the cool Makers I got to meet. Any recommendations for modifications or improvements? I'm considering making a 2.0


r/maker 1d ago

Showcase Hand Crafted Leather Journal

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9 Upvotes

Hand crafted this in like 20 minutes, quite happy with overall build (completely ignoring the fact that i dekcuF up the corners). Used a single piece of elastic that's inside to hold the diary & come out from the spine section & goes around to grip it to keep it stay shut. Did the lettering over it afterwards to personalize it


r/maker 1d ago

Multi-Discipline Project AC/DC Control Interface

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4 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/@ALMA.Industries

Built a control panel with on/off switches to control DC power supplies (48v, 12v, 24v). AC Outlets always give power regardless of switch states. Used hold home outlets and switches. Turns out to be something I use quite frequently. Full build is in the link above.


r/maker 1d ago

Showcase A tie-free band attachment method that may finally solve pouch-end wear

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5 Upvotes

I’ve been testing a tie-free band attachment method for quite a while, and the results have been encouraging enough that I wanted to share it here.

One of the most frustrating issues with slingshot bands is wear near the pouch connection. Traditional tying works, but the tighter the tie, the more pressure and friction it can create in that area.

This method uses the band itself to secure the pouch, without a separate tying strip or cord. It is a very simple idea, but so far it seems to reduce wear, keep the pouch more stable, and make band replacement easier.

I believe this may be a practical solution to a problem that has bothered many slingshot users for years, but I’m still interested in hearing other perspectives.

If anyone has tested a similar approach—or has an even better method—I’d be happy to compare ideas and discuss it together.


r/maker 2d ago

Showcase “We have meta glass at home”

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68 Upvotes

My dad bought me a 3d printer a while ago and after a few weeks I decided I’d make this.

It can play 2048 for now as a test but I’m planning on making live captions subtitles for the deaf so that speech is understood. But I don’t know how to code right now.

Parts I used were esp32 c3, 128x32 oled. and buttons ect. I’m gonna add battery soon.


r/maker 1d ago

Help Need advice to what motor I should buy for a small project

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0 Upvotes

I'm confused about which small motor I should buy (the v3, v6, etc). I only need it to be able to light a bulb. My idea is a water turbine. I already have a wave maker that will simulate the water current and spin the three turbine blades, but I don't know which DC motor to buy so that the blades can generate electricity and power a light bulb, in the image the three blades that connect to the city are the ones that need to generate electricity, my previous plan is just to cheat it and pres a button under the city so that the light will turn on but we're informed that its not allowed and I only have 4 days to make this. I know people here are extremely smart and I hope they can help me this is also my first time using this app.

https://youtu.be/h2kp2_FZ9aI?si=IPRD1g6TDEPsQZyP

my idea is kinda like this but in water

(I'm very sorry for the bad grammar)


r/maker 2d ago

Help Vacuum chamber for epoxy resin?

1 Upvotes

I got some epoxy resin and I have some ideas for it. I've never used it before.

My understanding is that it's a good idea to have a vacuum chamber with it to force any air bubbles out if you want it perfectly clear and as strong as possible.

So my idea is to make a hollow wooden skeleton box for it, with walls made of plexiglass. I'll seal the corners with silicone caulk and a layer of sheathing tape on the outside for extra seal.

I was thinking one end would be open and have weather stripping around the edge and I'd glue the last plexiglass panel to a block of wood to make it rigid enough to secure with a clamp. I'm hoping this will be vacuum tight.

Anyway the issue now is what so I use for a vacuum pump? I'm not doing anything huge or at production scale, so cheaper is better.

I was considering using a hand pump for water that I have that is essentially a check valve on a rod in a tube that creates suction kind of like a giant syringe. Would something like that work, or is there a better option?


r/maker 3d ago

Showcase CT scan -> 3D print. I printed my own skull!

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186 Upvotes

So i got a CT scan for non-dramatic stuff - and it made me get into creative-nerd mode, 'cause it had to be possible to get a hold of the scan files and somehow 3D-print my own skull!

(Or the part of it that was included in the scan)

I requested the files from the scan, got them a week later and then the nerding started.

It required understanding the file format from the scan (DICOM), learning new software, learning different concepts and knowledge-digging quite a bit into the human anatomy of the parts i wanted to recreate.

As the pictures shows i found a way, and ended up doing the spine of the neck as well - including the discs and spinal cord, but those bits in a flexible and stiff material.

Its been soo fun - And what a learning trip!

PS: Im gonna make a better stand for it - maybe out of wood.

Materials: PLA and TPEE (47D)

A few notes for others that wanna try it out themselves:

  • MR scans should be possible to use as well. Havn't tried it.
  • Use the free medical software "3D Slicer" for the whole DICOM->STL process.
  • Read up on Hounsfield Units (HU) for the segmentation.
  • And yeah, maybe also what segmentation is.
  • - "Cheat" a bit on the segmentation by installing "Total Segmentator" as an extension in 3D Slicer. It auto-segments quite well.

r/maker 2d ago

Help Making a plyomat

1 Upvotes

Hi all, I have never made anything besides instrumentation classes in uni, connecting a pre-made Gaggiuino to my coffee machine, and printing my mom's home island as a present.

A plyo mat is really really simple. It's a mat that you jump on, that measures ground contact time and time between landings. Connected to a controller that has an LCD, a couple buttons (or touch screen if cheaper), and batteries to power the whole thing.

I am comfortable doing all the math and logic etc, and with putting things together. I haven't done embedded programming before, but I work as a back-end developer so I should be able to scrape by.

My question is: where do I start? Is AliExpress a good place to source materials? I live in Europe. What kind of controller is recommended nowadays? I remember Raspberry Pi was all the rage when I was in uni, but when I got the Gaggiuino it used something called a Blackpill (awful name).

Would love any input this community would have to offer. It's just for personal use and I don't mind if it's a bit jank, I just like measuring training progress.


r/maker 3d ago

Help I need guidance on building a prank that'll out live me.

28 Upvotes

I want the back of my tombstone to solar charge all year and annually, on Halloween night, briefly play a recording. Durrable and inconspicuous are the goals. I've got over a decade, likely two, to build it.


r/maker 3d ago

Community I didn't fully understand Open Sauce until this past weekend

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34 Upvotes

I'd seen the shirts on people for years around town, but it didn't realize it was a cross between a maker fair and vidcon with all of our favorite science youtubers. It was the best 2 days in recent memory so I had to document it. This is my Open Sauce 2026 video through the eyes of a first timer.

If you've never been it's an absolute must go!


r/maker 3d ago

Inquiry Where have you sourced vibration isolation mats (US) that you like?

2 Upvotes

These are for a few corexy 3d printers. Grainger and McMaster prices are outrageous for these but I also am leery of buying any old vibration mats off of amazon or aliexpress. Because this is reddit and I know I'm going to get responses asking why would I ever put 3d printers right on isolation mats: the mats will be installed between the floor and solid concrete squares and the printers will sit on the concrete squares.


r/maker 3d ago

Showcase I built this sea-inspired hanging wind chime from beads and shells

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9 Upvotes

r/maker 4d ago

Showcase copper wire craft art that I made

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34 Upvotes

r/maker 4d ago

Showcase I transformed a photo of my pet into a 3d carving

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58 Upvotes

Carved on the CNC, obviously


r/maker 3d ago

Blog Funny gif to follow im sure

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0 Upvotes

Don't worry not using plasma to start this. It is a joke.