Showing posts with label do it yourself. Show all posts
Showing posts with label do it yourself. Show all posts
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Best How-To and DIY Sites
Looking for answers, tips, or instructions? These Web sites have them. They can show you how to do just about anything.
Instructables
www.instructables.com
Instructables is like a worldwide science fair. There are the offbeat projects like a K'NEX sniper rifle, and then some more practical projects like the ATX-to-DC power supply converter. The site is massive and varied, both in subject matter and instructional depth (text, photos, video, or a combination of all three). It also features an "answers" section with a forum for questions of all shapes and sizes.
Recommended: How to Make Cake Pops
ExpertVillage.com
www.expertvillage.com
With a total 131,362 how-to videos, Expert Village is not only prolific but well organized. From guitar lessons to Google calculator tips, the site has top-notch instructional videos, which, the site points out, "are professionally created and researched." The "video series" lists are especially helpful (like "related videos" sidebars, but more specific). You can also browse videos by category and popularity, and peg your favorites on a playlist.
Recommended: How to Force a Card During Magic Card Tricks
wikiHow
www.wikihow.com
Like Wikipedia, wikiHow is a collaborative project that can be written and edited by anybody. Pessimists might turn their noses up at a boundless how-to manual, but the 55,506 thorough articles speak for themselves. wikiHow is more text-heavy than a lot of DIY sites, but the format and quality of the entries are consistent, with neatly partitioned sections for steps, warnings, things you'll need, and so forth.
Recommended: How to Pick a Lock
Howcast
www.howcast.com
Howcast just might be the future of online how-tos. The site has plenty of community DIY videos, but the impressive pieces are those produced by Howcast Studios and Emerging Filmmaker, of which there is a surprising plenitude. These videos feature labeled jump dots on the duration bar so you can skip right to "Step 3" if you feel like it. There are warning, fact, and tip dots as well. You can also print off an accompanying "Easy Steps" page with condensed instructions and thumbnails.
Recommended: How to Detect a Lie —
5min
www.5min.com
The "Life Videopedia" features tens of thousands of instructional videos spanning arts, video games, parenting, and everything in between. Despite the "5min" moniker, the videos vary in duration (and include a 15-second ad per video). Everything plays through 5min's Smart Player, which can directly post to 24 different social sites. You can also use its customizable VideoSeed to seed relevant videos to your own blog or site.
Recommended: How to Make Fire Without Matches or a Lighter
WonderHowTo
www.wonderhowto.com
Culling from over 1,700 Web sites, WonderHowTo has gathered a whopping 225,000 videos so far through human- and auto-selection. On the one hand, you've got a mammoth collection to peruse, but on the other, there are a few duds floating around. In any event, the site is neat and tidy, so the occasional overabundance of videos and their differing media players should not be an obstacle in your pursuit of mastering any given subject.
Recommended: How to Crack an Apple In Half With Your Bare Hands
DoItYourself.com
www.doityourself.com
The days of hopelessly wandering the Home Depot aisles without a clue are over. DoItYourself.com is an invaluable resource for home improvement and repair, with thousands of DIY articles with comprehensive steps, schematics, and some videos. You can also chat with savvy homeowners on the forum, shop for materials (the site provides dealer locations), and get free contractor estimates for your more unwieldy projects.
Recommended: Easy and Effective Ways to Increase Your Car's Gas Mileage
eHow
www.ehow.com
eHow's database houses over 500,000 articles and videos. The site is clean and consistent throughout, with concise, numbered steps and a difficulty rating so you know what you're getting yourself into. Self-described as "How To Do Just About Everything," it's got articles for anything from "How to Question Witnesses in a Custody Case" to "How to Win Every Time in Monopoly." You can also contribute by submitting your own video or article.
Recommended: How to Increase Your Vertical Leap
How-to tip:
There are plenty of smaller niche sites, such as Howtocleananything.com, so do some digging if you have specific themes in mind. Searching "DIY" and "how-to" on larger sites—say, YouTube, Metacafe—will produce some good options, as well (Kip Kedersha, or user Kipkay, has quite a tech/prank-DIY following on YouTube, for example).
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Guy Builds Electric Motorcycle From Junk
Tony Parker Has Built An Electric Bike Made From Junk. He Also Made A Solar And Wind-Powered Charging Station For The Bike.
Tony Parker has built an electric motorbike completely from found junk.
Why? The laid-off worker found himself with a lot of time and just began tinkering around the house.
“Honda parts, washing machine parts, Yamaha parts,” Parker noted about occupying his time.
I’d probably just be eating Frittos and watching reruns of the A-team. Each to his own, I guess.
Of course, his friends and family though he was nuts to try it. But the Omaha-based DIYer not only built an electric bike, he also built a charging station for the bike.
The charging station consists of both solar and a small windmill. The wind generator can charge the bike at 250 watts per hour. Whereas the solar cell will only do 1.5 watts an hour.
A lot of time and innovation was put into reusing materials. Like the bike seat was originally made from an old office chair! But what kept him going?
“If you can do this and keep yourself going, you can finish this thing and use it as at teaching tool to inspire other people,” Parker said.
The bike is powered by a 2.5KW 48V motor and gets up to 50 mph. He calls the bike the Electra Green and you can find more info on it here.
Source: Unconsumption
Friday, May 15, 2009
Man Builds World’s First Fully Solar-Powered Motorcycle
Richard Gryzch has built what he claims is the world’s first fully sun-powered electric motorbike.
A project that has taken him more than two years. In fact, to finance building the bike Cryzch sold his other motorbikes and even a house.
He calls the bike a Solar Flyer. A name inspired by those Radio Flyer wagons.
“Everyone told me I was crazy for doing it,” he said. “But I’m riding it and it works. And it could change everything. No gas, just hit the throttle and go,” he boasted.
Details about the bike are scarce, but it travels up to 50 miles on a full charge and has a top speed of 90 mph.
“People look at me at the stop light and just say, ‘What is that?” Gryzch said. “I just shrug my shoulders and tell them, ‘it’s solar powered.”‘
Still, Gryzch plans to outdo himself. He hopes to hit a travel range of 300 miles. I hope he does too!
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