Now that you can get duct tape in just about any color imaginable, why not make your Valentine some roses that are darn near indestructible? As a commenter at Metafilter said,

Because nothing says “Let’s stick together,” like a “realis-stick” rose made of duct tape.

See how it’s done at Instructables. Link -via Metafilter

You may remember Instructables user mezcraft from her amazing Harry Potter-themed gingerbread house. Believe it or not, she’s actually topped that achievement. Mezcraft’s cuckoo clock isn’t just gingerbread on the outside. The gears are gingerbread, too! Mind you, it doesn’t actually function as a clock. But gingerbread engineering has advanced so rapidly in the past few years that surely such a clock will be available in the near future.

Link -via Craft

Traveling all the way from Wayne Manor to the Gotham City Police Department headquarters takes the wind out of a crimefighter. Sit down and rest a bit before taking on the next case. Instructables user Orvis has just what an aging Dark Knight needs.

Link

Instructables user General Eggs has step-by-step instructions on how to make a model of the double helix. Besides a fun crafting activity, it’s a learning opportunity for biology students. Then it’s only a short step to breeding a race of genetically engineered workers.

Link -via Make

Instructables user urant built a self contained espresso machine that fits in his pocket. An alcohol stove provides the heat. That part required a lot of tinkering in order to be both safe and effective. The end result is a portable machine that brews a cup of espresso in just a few minutes.

Link -via Make

Any size hot dog can be a bun-length hot dog when you spiral-cut them! Instructables member dreamberry shows us how, using a drill bit and a knife. Commenters suggested using a bamboo skewer instead of a drill bit, so you can boil, grill, or deep-fry the dog in no time. Link -via Laughing Squid

PS: Once you master the technique, you’ll want to try the double-spiral cut. Link

Let’s say that you ride a city bus, and you’d like to get more personal attention. Wear boots, a utilikilt, these claws, and nothing else. Watch all eyes turn on you. Instructables user Jonathan Elwell doesn’t say outright that that’s what these are for, but it seems to be an obvious application.

Link -via Fashionably Geek

Lest you think that Instructables user randofo just wanted a creative crafting project, he explicitly says that his button-controlled jack-o’-lantern is designed to deal with the trick-or-treater menace. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes.

Link -via Gizmodo

Instructables user makendo built this magnificent Rubik’s Cube for his kids. The three horizontal layers rotate on a vertical axis. If you can figure out where the hidden locks are, you can open the drawers. So this is definitely not the place to store the fire extinguisher.

Watch a video of the cube at the link.

Link -via Make

You can buy a grappling hook launcher, but they’re expensive. Instructables member and MIT mechanical engineering student crreed figured that he could build his own. The force is provided by a paintball gun CO2 canister and the barrel is a copper pipe held in place by the frame of a Nerf gun.

Link -via Technabob | Maker’s Blog

Instructables member Nylanan is currently building a full-size replica of R2D2. As a result, he’s been seeing visions of the droid in everyday objects, such as this lamp. He cut vinyl panels to size and stuck them on the lamp. Link -via Geek Crafts

The first time I got my eyes to move independently, it made me recoil.

Close one eye and you get to watch it open again with the other. Tilting or turning your head causes the mirror image to move the opposite way; it reflects you as other people actually see you, apart from the missing chunk of face between your eyes. Tilt the Looty 45 degrees and your reflection turns through 90. It also emphasizes differences in color perception.

It seems to be a source of brief amusement for anyone who picks it up. Yesterday, a guest turned it on its side and used it to inspect his nose hair.

If you’ve ever made or played with one of these, let us know what you think. Link -via reddit

You’re still using a chocolate iPad? Pfft. That’s so old-fashioned. The new thing is the chocolate iPad 2, which is so much more Apple than the chocolate iPad. Get with the times! Instructables user stevequag tells you how to make one.

Link via Craft

Instructables user spookylean, who previously taught us how to turn an Altoids tin into a martini kit, now shows us how to make a model of an X-Wing fighter using common office supplies. You’ll need a chisel Sharpie, two large and two small binder clips, a SM card, four pens, four brass fasteners, a pencil sharpener, hot glue, and poster putty.

Link via Walyou

Is it possible to improve upon a work by Van Gogh? Instructables user CopperTwist proves, beyond all doubt, that the answer is ‘yes’. Just substitute various pork products for paint.

Link via Craft

Consider this puzzle: how can you make a staircase out of a single sheet of plywood and have as little wood left over as possible? That was the task of Instructables user Pilgrim55. It looks like he has only four pieces of scrap.

Link via Make

Remember the video of the impossible waterfall? Even after you saw how it was done, you were still impressed. Now Instructables has step-by-step instructions for you to make your own 3D version of the famous illusion! It’s not exactly simple, but it can be done. And if you can pull it off, you’ll flummox everyone who sees it. Link -via Boing Boing

Instructables user bbstudio doesn’t reveal how he does it, but the results of his egg carving are amazing! He’s participating in a competition using the Egg-bot, so presumably that factors into the process.

Link via Make | Previously: Nutritional Labels for Eggs

Instructables user lizzomarek made an amazing model of the castle from the anime movie Howl’s Moving Castle. It’s made in the Japanese pottery tradition of raku-yaki and given a steampunk flair. There’s a really neat video about halfway down the page at the link showing the castle, still glowing red hot, coming out of the kiln.

Link via Make

Previously: Two models of Howl’s Moving Castle in paper

Modern love is best expressed with bacon, but for the traditionalist, there are always bacon roses. Instructables user kaptaink_cg explains how to make them. You’ll need a broiling pan, a mini muffin pan, marbles, and a drill. It’ll be necessary to actually destroy the muffin pan, but it’ll be worth it.

Link via Geekosystem

You ever feel a need for a little boost? Punch the underside of this wall-mounted box made by Instructables user Bruno Pasquini. It spits quarters (with appropriate sound effects) out of the top, just like the coin boxes in Super Mario Bros. You can watch a video of it working at the link.

Link via Make | Maker’s Personal Website

An ice luge, a quick Google search informs me, is an ice sculpture which is carved so that one can drink alcohol from a channel from inside or on top of it. In this case, pour liquor into the top of the Star Destroyer model. It flows over the middle and to the front, awaiting your lips. Instructables user Incrxtc made this one from a 300-lb. block of ice.

Link via Geekologie

Instructables user Britt Michelsen has lately been experimenting with fluorescent materials, including riboflavin. She decided to use it to make a food that looks like kryptonite. Michelsen made a mold out of aluminum foil, cooked riboflavin into sugar, and poured it into the mold. The result was a glowing candy that looked quite like the lethal substance in the Superman mythos.

Link via Make

Previously by Britt Michelsen:
Pixelated Trash Can
“You Killed Kenny!” Doorstop

Ordinary LEGO bricks just aren’t heavy enough to hold back a door (although you can wedge them in between the door and the floor). So Instructables user lizzyastro knitted a cover for a brick, using bottle caps to form the knobs.

Link via GeekDad

We’ve previously featured Instructables user BrittLiv’s “You Killed Kenny!” doorstop. She’s back with a new project. This time, it’s a pixelated trash can. No, that’s not a computer generated image. It’s a wooden trashcan carved and painted to look like an image from a video game.

Link via Technabob

Instructables user rabidiga made this pan flute. It was his entry in a contest to build a post-apocalyptic musical instrument for under $30. He didn’t spent a penny, but only used materials that he already owned:

Super easy to make. Took me about an hour even though I am clumsy as hell when it comes to working with wire. Depending on your choice of supplies it could have easily been finished in half the time. And while they don’t sound perfect I was able to belt out a killer ‘Ode to Joy’ even if it was a bit out of tune.

Link via Everyday, No Days Off | Previously: Tampon Pan Flute

As you collected all those Altoid tins for various projects, you may have developed a taste for the “curiously strong peppermints.” Instructables has the recipe so that you can make them at home, with only four ingredients and one extra tool. The flavor is your choice. Link -via Lifehacker

Our friends at The Art of Manliness rounded up 22 creative uses for empty Altoids tins, such as the above portable grill made by Instructables user =SMART=. The steel rods come from a coat hanger.

Other mods at the link include a router plane, a dart gun, and a s’mores maker.

Link | Previously: Wonderful Altoids Hacks

Isn’t this an adorable house? You almost expect to see Frodo coming out of it! Owen Geiger built this earthen dome in Thailand in 2007. The main component is bags of soil. You can build your own with his tutorial at Instructables. Link -via The Daily What

Does it seem like your lunchbreak goes too quickly? It’s time to reverse the effect with the Lunchtime Clock by Instructables user randofo. This clock slows down during the lunch hour so that you can relax a little:

Thanks to great in advances in clock technology, I present to you a clock that speeds up 20% every day at 11:00 and slows down 20% every day at 11:48, giving you an extra twelve minutes of lunch to enjoy. Twelve minutes may not seem like a lot but, to put it into perspective, this is a full additional hour of lunchtime gained every week.

Link via DVICE

Not only is this super cool, it’s homemade! Instructables user chr posted the entire process, with pictures. This project is entered into a contest where the rules were “Make something awesome”. I think he did. Link -via The Daily What

Instructables user sdudley created a frame for his Dremel rotary tool that makes it an effective, if tiny, table saw. He’s provided a stencil that you can print out and use as a guide when cutting the wood.

Link via Make

Instructables user BrittLiv made a doorstop that looks like the ever-dying, ever-resurrecting South Park character Kenny McCormick. The legs, boots, and pool of blood are made out of sugru, a moldable type of silicone. The rest is composed of a thin rubber mat, wood, and modeling clay.

Link via Great White Snark

Instructables user seamster made a duck model out of tape, cardboard, newspaper, marbles, and dowels. He writes:

I used colored packing tape to cover the head. Black tape was used first and then covered with green. I tried a couple of other things but liked the way this looked the best, based on what I had to work with.

I used yellow electrical tape to cover the beak.

Black marbles were glued into small holes cut into the head above the cheeks.

Link via Make

Instructables user spookylean turned an Altoids mint box into a portable martini kit. This way, he’s prepared for a martini emergency. He writes:

All you will need to be prepared in any emergency is an Altoids or equivalent tin, some tiny bottles (the smallest one is from a miniature Tabasco sauce bottle), a tiny ziploc bag, a folding paper cup (about the easiest origami there is), and the stopper cannibalized from a dollar store water pistol. Oh, and of course gin (I favour Plymouth) and vermouth (Noilly Prat).

Link via Weer’d World

Instructables user Mangetout turned an aluminum drink can into a very nicely embossed metal box. In this video, he provides step-by-step instructions on how you can do likewise. Once you look at the finished product, you’ll be amazed to think that it was originally an energy drink can.

Link via Make

Watch as Instructables member fungus amungus demonstrates surgical techniques n Gummi bears. Witness tumor excision, heart transplants (shown), brain transplants, and progressively sillier experimental operations. As one commenter pointed out, it couldn’t be as traumatic as being chewed up and swallowed! Link -via Digg

Many people put glow-in-the dark star stickers on a child’s bedroom ceiling. With this Instructable, you can go all the way and have twinkling fiber optic stars! The project is just one of many listed in Instructables’ Best of 2009 list. You’ll find links to the most popular projects of the year broken down by categories (art, home, food, pets, games, etc). Maybe you’ll find something to keep you busy during the after-Christmas doldrums. Link

Inspired by this scene from the BBC show The Young Ones, the how-to blog Instructables turned an old VCR into a functional toaster. It even prints “VHS” on the face of every piece of bread toasted. Video at the link.

Link via Geek Crafts | Image: Instructables

What better way to get kids interested in biology at an early age than to make them their very own plush cell? Instructables has all the info you need to make your very own cuddly block of life.

Link

Instructables has a detailed set of how to’s to let you convert your computer case into a taxidermy beaver. Nothing says quality technology like dead animals. It’s pretty easy, just look at step one:

Purchase a beaver of your very own
There are lots of old taxidermy mounts out there – garage sales, antique stores, ebay are all good sources for older pieces. You’ll probably want a high quality mount since you’ll be removing the bulk of the internal structure, so better quality (ie not falling apart) probably means stronger.

Link

I made these plastic milk bottle lights by embedding LEDs in the caps, hanging them from a bent section of pipe and hooking them up to an Arduino microcontroller.

Not happy with an on-off switch, I thought they might look mesmerising with a rotary control knob turning them on in sequence. It works! They make great low lighting to wind down for sleep, and they’re great to hang in the hall for parties too.

There are complete build instructions on Instructables.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Nachimir.

If you’re confounded by Neatorama’s Upcoming Queue and can’t make heads or tails out of the submission process, Instructable user DIYJosh has got you covered.

Here’s the step-by-step instruction on how to use the Upcoming Queue feature of the blog, in the typical Instructable way:

In this instructable I will outline the steps to get started using the Upcoming Queue along with some common mistakes that keep your post from reaching the front page.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by StuckeyJ.

# I wish I were some other chair
about 15 hours ago from web

# He farted right on me again
about 17 hours ago from web

# allow me to repeat… ppppfffffffffftttttttttttt
about 18 hours ago from web

# Ugh. That was a gross one
about 18 hours ago from web

Link to instructions. Link to Twitter feed. -Thanks, Emily Farris!

Link via Geekologie

Instructable user arcticpenguin unraveled the mystery behind various screw types (what? You think that there are only Phillips and slotted screws?). Take for example, the history of the Phillips screw:

This cross drive screw story starts when Henry Phillips purchased a crude form of a cruciform-recessed screw head concept from an Oregon inventor named J.P. Thompson.

Henry F. Phillips (1890 to 1958), a U.S. businessman from Portland, Oregon, has the honor of having the Phillips head screw and screwdriver named after him.

The cruciform shape can be considered to be a cruciform design with their 90 degree shapes as most have similar physics properties.

Phillips developed Thompsons invention screw into a workable form. Phillips had come up with a recessed cross screw designed for efficiency on an auto assembly line. The idea was that the screwdriver would turn the screw with increasing force until the tip of the driver popped out, called camout. When tightening a Phillips screw with a Phillips screw driver you will notice that when the torque gets to be too strong, the screw driver winds itself out of the screw so the screw head would not be ruined or brake off.

Phillips also founded the Phillips Screw Company in Oregon in 1933, but never actually made screws. He had called on every established screw manufacturer in the US and was told simply that the screw could not be made. Screw makers of the 1930s dismissed the Phillips concept since it calls for a relatively complex recessed socket shape in the head of the screw; as distinct from the simple milled slot of a slotted type screw.

Phillips then called on the American Screw Company, a newcomer to the industry whose new president, Eugene Clark, personally became interested in the new product, despite the opposition of his engineers, who like others in the industry had insisted it could not be made. According to one printed report, the president of American Screw Company said: "I finally told my head men that I would put on pension all who insisted it could not be done. After that an efficient method was evolved to manufacture the fasteners and now we have licensed all other major companies to use it." (Source)

Link – via Make