what are the most bizarre/unusual/stupid and weird projects you guys have ever done?

ID LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT THEM......a couple of years back i built a huge demolished city (stalingrad for a wargame) on a large makeshift table that filled the lounge,it took months.....looking back i must have been insane but it was fun and really cool when it was done.

Comments

[Jack A Lopez]

I covered an old fiberglass satellite dish with aluminum foil tape. Some pictures of this project are attached.

[afridave]

i like it ...in really like it all that for a miserable looking hot dog .....excellent.

[afridave]

i tell you what that cinder block that it all stands on is a real high tech revolution .

[seandogue]

Stupid?

5 years old, tunnel to china. We got about 3-1/2 feet down before we hit an almost impenetrable layer of clay, then my friend's dad found out and we all got spanked by our respective parents for destroying a chunk of his back yard. (the hole was about 8 feet wide)

Unusual? a tiny 9V battery driven 3KHz arc generator used for igniting low concentration gas mixtures in microgravity. I can't tell you how many times I shocked myself while testing it. But it made a really cool plasma generator too, when you introduced a steam of non combustible gas into the arc

[afridave]

excuse my ignorance but im generally a pretty low tech kinda guy.......why would you wanna "ignite gasses in microgravity"?.......im totally illiterate when it comes to electronics,and the queen has forbidden me to go on the internet at home after the last expensive computer disaster (im at work here).....but since ive been on instructibles (not long) ive started noticing this auduino (havent even learned how to spell it yet) breadboard thing and my fancy has been tickled.,I had never heard of this before ive never seen one,have no idea where to get one and no idea what to do with it but a seed has fallen in my very fertile head and i think its gonna germinate.

i would imagine playing with LEDS is good place to start? ive got an idea to try a simple paper,scissor ,rock game as an entry level experiment (i could infact do this with nails and wire) there is only 2 set of 3 possible option and only 3 possible outcomes.i know there is a mathimatical formula for this but im not versed in that medium of expresion either.

im not concerned about bieng ignorant on these things as it is only those who are ignorant of there ignorance who are truly ignorant.

[seandogue]

LEDs are probably a safe starting point. They're in general inexpensive, a basic led circuit requires only three components; an led, a resistor, and a power source, and you get immediate reward from the lighting of the led... Moreover, except for the high powered ones, they can easily be powered by common "household" batteries, which makes the power supply a simple thing almost anyone can obtain.

The reasoning behind ignition of low concentration gas mixtures in microgravity is a bit beyond the scope of this venue, but in a nutshell, studying combustion in microgravity isolates the combustion process from gravity, and so from convection, allowing study of the other, less obvious portion of the combustion process, which is diffusion.

[seandogue]

Wanna know the sick thing? It's been ten years since I was there, and I was just a support engineer (electronics) rather than a principle investigator. I don't know how I remember this stuff.

[AngryRedhead]

Must. start. employing. 5 y/o's. in. the. garden.

[seandogue]

:-)

Hard to find enough these days.

[afridave]

dont bother i promise you its easier to just do it yourself.

[framistan]

I spent DAYS building a 25-cent 741 op-amp using standard components and a PAPER circuit board! It didn't work. I still have it somewhere in the basement but couldn't find it. also... I and my brother built a 3 wheel trike bicycle for adults-- using 3 GIRLS bicycles and an office chair. It worked but was a few inches too small so we set it out for the trash and someone took it... not the trashman. I once sprayed insulation into my attic and built a breathing apparatus using a vacuum cleaner, garden hose, and scubamask so i could breathe fresh-air while blowing the dusty insulation. The vacuum was connected to the garden hose so air would blow OUT to the mask on my face. The picture shows a hose in my hand which was the insulation blowing hose. The apparatus worked but it looked extra goofy. I have pictures of some of these so you can see them. I have other samples stupid ideas... but ... i prefer people think i am CREATIVE.

[seandogue]

Methinks you forgot the conductive ink!

[afridave]

an i thought that instructibles was only for people on earth.......excellent

[afridave]

not sure i should tell you all this ...but here goes....i was working with fibreglass and some resin dripped on the floor which i then walked in....i had a split in the seat of my overalls and went down on my haunches and my heel went you know where and deposited a large amount of resin right in the sensitive spot......i strongly suggest you dont try this as it is most uncomfortable.

[lemonie]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Buttons-an-experiment-with-cheese/

L

[afridave]

hmmmmm ........im not quite sure what to say...........make no mistake i love cheese and i make cheese but cheese clothing????????well it takes all types i suppose...can i suggest that you try making body armour our of pasta.

[afridave]

and ladies and gentlemen here we have a exquisite pasta weave mans suit with elegant cheddar buttons to match...........

[afridave]

from here onwards you are to be known as hansell

[rickharris]

Man sized steady hand game for a village party.

Flight simulator - Magic trick to cut off people heads - Electronic project to keep pests out of the garden (didn't work)

[gruffalo child]

A few years ago a built an electronic mosquito repellent, tried it out in the garden one evening (I was sure it worked) and then went hiking for 2 weeks with it in my backpack (it wasn't very small or very light) an turning it on every night. When I came back, I realised that I've muddled something up, so if COULDN"T HAVE BEEN WOEKING!!!

[afridave]

ive got this mosquito thing that basically constists of a bowl with water in it with a kind of floating tray thing on it attatched to some form of a sensor
the idea is basically that the mozzies lay there eggs in/or on the water while the tray is submerged and as the sun comes out the sensor lifts the tray and the eggs go with it and get roasted in the sun i live right on a large body of water so it is totally useless for me but in a dryer area i think it might well work.

[afridave]

that reminds me i once made a pair of rudder pedals for microsofts combat flight simulator with a plank of wood on a swivel drilled into the computer stand and coat hanger pedals so that the levers on the plank actually pressed the buttons on the keyboard,quite a pathetic looking contraption but it worked in a limited sort of way.
you sound almost as nutty as me.(kidding) these thing add spice to life dont you think.

[rickharris]

I also have a half finished motion platform for FSX in the garage - I have recently got hooked on F! 2010 and am playing with the idea of a driving simulator on similar lines.

[seandogue]

Cool. MS flight simulator was my first experience with personal computers, aside from some low level programming I'd done on an Apple IIe in a college class.

My uncle had a PC and I was visiting with my dad. had nothing better to do and he sat me down in front of it. Once I got the hang of the controls (keyboard only at the time) I flew from NY city all the way to LA in a virtual Cesna

[Burf]

When I was 11 years old I built an airplane out of an old wooden box and several pieces of 1' x 12' barn siding. A really good looking aircraft it was too. I even painted U.S. Air Force insignia on the wings.
My cousin and I carried it up into the barn loft and after some maneuvering, we were able to get it through a dormer and out onto the corrugated tin roof of the barn.
My cousin won the wet rock toss (spit on one side of a flat rock, then toss it like a coin flip. Wet side up, he won.) so he got to take the first ride.
He climbed into the Lindbergh II and I gave it a shove to get it going. It gathered speed as it approached the edge of the roof, zipped over the edge and fell directly to the ground about 15 feet below.
My cousin received a broken wrist and sympathy from everyone and I got my butt spanked.
I reconsidered my ambitions about becoming an aeronautical engineer, and studied civil engineering instead.

[afridave]

the joys of bieng a young boy ,wish i could go back an do it all again,and again and again......let boys forever be boys amen

[steveastrouk]

10 foot x 8 foot electronic snakes and ladders game that played a bent game for all but three people ?

[afridave]

come to think of it the "bill and ben the flower pot men" costumes that the lady an i when to the xmas doo in were somewhat ludicrous,ive got some pics of those that i may post when i figure out how.

[steveastrouk]

120 foot long wire anodising plant ?