Build a Pizza Oven Out of a Weber Grill
We’ve covered building your own pizza oven before, from nice and cheap to really cheap. But none of these were crowned Best Pizza Food Cart by vlog Ah Nom Nom; that title belongs to San Franciscan PizzaHacker and his modified Weber Grill.
Sure, PizzaHacker’s pizza is delicious because it uses choice ingredients and a sourdough recipe to die for—but the other half of the equation is FrankenWeber, his modified Weber-grill-turned-mobile-pizza-oven. If you’re looking for an easy, movable outdoor solution to your DIY pizza needs, this might be the way to go:
Part of what makes this open air culinary spectacle work is the heavily modded Webber 22.5″ grill that’s been outfitted with fireproof blocks and a domed top comprised of refactory cement and perlite that’s been molded in the original Webber top. Using chunks of wood and charcoal, the Franken-Webber quickly reaches 1000F (the ideal temperature for cooking authentic Neopolitan-style pizza).
For a closer look at the FrankenWeber and its inner workings, check out the above video on Pizzahacker by Ah Nom Nom. There’s no specific how-to for building it, but it shouldn’t be difficult with the above materials and the close-up view in the video. If you’ve been hankering for some DIY pizza action but our past options just haven’t done it for you, this might just be the solution.
Add a Fine Focus Knob to Your Camera for $5
Focus rings let you manually adjust the focus of your images—video too, on select DSLRs—but they aren’t particularly smooth. A DIY focus knob gives you finer control over the range of focus.
Photo by lonelysandwhich.
Although most focus rings are mechanically smooth and not deficient in any way, the limitation is the size of your hand. It’s not easy to hold the camera and smoothly turn the focus ring more than a half turn or so. By adding a DIY focus knob, you can increase the range of focus you can cover with a single movement. How does it work? Check out the two videos below, the first demonstrates the view from the camera and the second shows how the actual device is constructed.
The build is simple, inexpensive, and produces great results. The only caution we would offer is to make sure not to over-tighten your hose clamp and damage the focus ring—hose clamps tighten more quickly and with a stronger grip than you’d initially anticipate!
Have a clever camera hack of your own to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Add Some Rumble-Action to Your Mouse
If you like the vibration feedback found in gaming console controllers and want to add a little rumble-action to your mouse, all-things-DIY magazine Make offers a tutorial that may be right up your alley.
The rumble mouse is an electronics project from Make Magazine Vol. 06, put together by Greg Lipscomb. In the video below, Kip Kay demonstrates the process of taking an old cellphone, pager, or other small vibration motor and wiring into a basic $20 mouse.
It’s a pretty neat project, although it does have one shortcoming—there’s no way for the computer to send unique feedback like a game console does to a controller. You’ll get vibration for your own gaming actions, but when things happen to you in the game (like getting shot at instead of doing the shooting), you won’t get impact rumbles or the like. Still, in light of the coding you’d need to do to get it working with different games, this is a fun little hack. Check out the link below to see the digital edition of Make and find additional instructions and schematics.
Have a fun peripherals-hack of your own to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Build a Lego Router
We love the Linksys WRT54GL router for its extreme hackability (it’s what we used to turn our $60 router into a $600 router with DD-WRT or with Tomato), so we couldn’t help but appreciate this fun WRT54GL Lego mod.
Clever DIYer Luke Anderson got an urge to do some building, and realized that his not-so-attractive router would fit nicely and might look rather sleek inside some Lego blocks, so he got building (which you can see in the timelapse video above). His step-by-step guide contains Creative Commons licensed design documents and assembly images, so if you’re looking for a geeky weekend diversion, this may be just the ticket.
While you’re at it, consider doing some more functional DIY WRT54GL router work with our two previous guides.
Giant Gas-Powered Vortex Cannon Destroying Shed Filmed at 1300fps [Cannons]
This is what happens when you build an extremely powerful vortex cannon, loaded with “one of the most dangerous gas mixes in the world,” to fire it against houses made of straw, sticks, and bricks, like the big bad wolf.
Looking at the video—filmed at 1300 frames per second—it seems like the big bad wolf would have had a chance against the three little pigs, and eat the suckers roasted in a wood brick oven, with just salt and a bit of water. If the third pig didn’t use cement, that is.
Otherwise, the 200mph cloud—which is formed by the pressure inside the air vortex condensing the water above the lake—seems powerful enough to knock down a man. Certainly more powerful than the candle cannon. [BBC YouTube Channel via Makezine]
David Bowie Space Oddity iPhone App Lets You Remix the Thin White Duke Anywhere [David Bowie]
Since it’s been 40 years (!!) since Bowie’s classic Space Oddity was released, there’s a fancy new anniversary EP coming out. And with it is an iPhone App that features the original multi-track stems of the song and remix capabilities.
The app, by iKlax, lets you make your own Bowie mix right on your phone. You might have better luck doing a real remix on your computer by just downloading the files on their own, which you can do, but hey, remixing Bowie on your iPhone! You can’t say that isn’t pretty neat. It’ll set you back $2.
DAVID BOWIE AND VIRGIN/EMI CELEBRATE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF “SPACE ODDITY” WITH COMMEMORATIVE DIGITAL EP & APP WITH REMIX FEATURES
“Space Oddity” Digital EP and iPhone/iPod touch App Available Now for Download Purchase; Both Offer Unique Opportunity For Fans To Create Their Own Mixes of Song
Hollywood, California – July 21, 2009 – David Bowie and Virgin/EMI are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” with the release of a commemorative digital EP and a new app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The digital EP, available now for download purchase from all major digital service providers, features four versions of “Space Oddity” plus its original eight multi-track stems, enabling fans to remix the song as they please using their own software or with iKlax software. iKlax’s “Remix David Bowie – Space Oddity” app, available now on the iTunes App Store, also allows fans to become ‘Ground Control’ to remix the track their way.
Originally released on July 11, 1969 to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landings, “Space Oddity” was featured by the BBC in its television coverage of the lunar event, and the song later won an Ivor Novello award. The song’s enigmatic protagonist, Major Tom, has become a recurrent theme throughout Bowie’s work and career, and was revisited in the song “Ashes To Ashes.”
www.davidbowie.ultimatefanpage.com / www.davidbowie.com
DAVID BOWIE: “Space Oddity (40th Anniversary EP)” (digital)
1. Space Oddity (original U.K. mono single edit)
2. Space Oddity (U.S. mono single edit)
3. Space Oddity (U.S. stereo single edit)
4. Space Oddity (1979 re-record)
Terrifying Alpine Roller Coaster Is Just One Faulty Screw Away From Death [Summermodo]
Ah, the Alps. I always enjoyed my vacations there. Fresh air, sun, good food, breathtaking scenery… a perfect place for relaxation, yodeling, and massive jacuzzi orgiesparties. And—looking at the world’s highest roller coaster video—a perfect place to die.
It’s called Alpine Coaster and is located at the Glacier 3000 ski area, with views to the Montblanc, the Matterhorn and the Jungfrau mountains. One kilometer long, the roller coaster races down the slopes with ten curves, six waves, three jumps and two bridges. And plenty of empty space below for you to fall down. There, only $56 stand and a faulty screw between you and sure death. [Techeblog—Thanks Noah !]
Samsung’s New ‘Viral’ Video Doesn’t Even Try to Look Real [Viral Videos]
Maybe I’m a cynic, but this seems like the laziest stab at making a “viral” video yet. Samsung wants to promote their new Jet phone, so they pretended they pulled a crazy stunt in London.
The video shows a very fake-looking UFO coming in over Piccadilly Circus and elephants bungee jump out of it. OK. Then they interview people who are so amazed by the thing they didn’t just see.
If you’re going to do something crazy in public to promote your phone, actually do it. Then again, I’m posting it, so what do I know? [Brainstorm 9 via NotCot]
Look! There’s a Person On The Moon [Apollo 11]
Exactly 40 years ago now—at 10:56pm EDT, July 20, 1969—Neil Armstrong began his descent to the Moon’s surface, slowly sliding down the Eagle’s ladder. It was the pinnacle of the greatest human adventure in history.
That Sunday, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins completed President Kennedy’s plan to put a man on the Moon before the decade was over. 400,000 people and 20,000 companies and institutions worked in the project, putting together insanely great talent, knowledge, and ingenuity to achieve what most thought was impossible.
Today we celebrate three men’s prodigious, almost miraculous trip across the void of space. We celebrate their courage and prowess, as well as the qualities of every single person who made it possible.
It was a small step for a man, but also for mankind. A giant leap, yes, but still a tiny step toward our destiny in the stars… if we could survive ourselves, that is. Here’s hoping that we do. Here’s hoping that we could make it again, and find our place in the Universe.
Or in the words of the Onion:
Idiots Want Robots to Draw Ads On the Moon’s Surface [Robots]
A company wants to “license a technology” to draw advertisements on the Moon’s surface, which according to them could be watched from Earth. If nobody shuts them down, I’ll be there at the launch. With my land-to-air rocket launcher ready.
I thought this was a joke, but apparently this deranged people are serious enough about it to put out a press release and a 3D animation.
Robots to Advertise on the Moon
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, July 20 /PRNewswire/ — It’s one giant leap for robot-kind. New Shadow Shaping technology creates images on the Moon that can be seen from Earth. Robots are used to create several small ridges in the lunar dust over large areas that capture shadows and shape them to form logos, domains names, memorials or even portraits. Talk about the Man in the Moon! You can even carve your initials in a heart to impress your sweetheart.
The advertising potential is mind-boggling. Never in history have companies been able to penetrate every market on Earth, reach every person on the planet, and touch them at an emotional level only possible with the beauty of the Moon on a starlit night. Twelve billion eyeballs looking at your logo in the sky for several days every month. And since there is no atmosphere on the Moon, the images last for thousands of years.
“Finally dependency on government to travel beyond Earth is over,” says inventor David Kent Jones. “This new commercial incentive will turbo charge space technology development. Shadows are just the beginning; eventually robots will be planting crops on other planets.”
Beginning July 20, 2009, the fortieth anniversary of man’s first step on the Moon, exclusive licensing for this patent pending technology is publicly available. Moon Publicity is accepting bids from accredited investors and companies for 44 lunar regions until October 20, 2009. You could license moon-imaging technology potentially worth a fortune in advertising value for about the cost of an SUV. Minimum bids start as low as $46,000. For more information visit MoonPublicity.com.
Of course, anybody can do this. The whole things sounds like a scheme to get easy money, yes. I have a hard time thinking someone may take them seriously, but it’s a matter of time before some idiots actually manage to pull it off. [Moonpublicity]
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