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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Dec, 1953
Posted in: DIY
Posted: 08/08/2006
6 Comments
Build a Streamlined Bobsled (Dec, 1953)

Where would you even use a homemade bobsled?

Streamlined Bobsled

Chills, thrills, and spills make the sport of bobsledding a zestful experience you’ll never forget, and this two-man job will enable you and a friend to share exciting rides.

THE chief objective in the design of this bobsled was to provide a streamlined canopy that completely encloses the driver and brakeman. I had made some rough calculations using some data based on the use of an unstreamlined sled which indicated that a substantial increase in speed could be expected from even a moderate amount of streamlining.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Jul, 1936
Posted in: DIY, Music
Posted: 08/07/2006
1 Comment
MUSICAL FREAKS Win Fame for MAJOR BOWES’ Amateurs (Jul, 1936)

MUSICAL FREAKS Win Fame for MAJOR BOWES’ Amateurs

All right, all right! Wire, glass, tin cans— anything. It was all the same to these boys, who made jobs grow from their mechanical ingenuity. This article relates what you didn’t hear on the radio.

IT’S marvelous how a home workshop fan can make himself famous with a broom, a saw, a dozen tin cans or a few dingy bottles picked up from a junk pile.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Dec, 1953
Posted in: DIY
Posted: 08/01/2006
33 Comments
Build a Hunter’s Crossbow (Dec, 1953)

Hunter’s Crossbow

This old-time weapon has the hitting power and accuracy of a modern rifle.

By E. Milton Grassell

THIS crossbow, with all the romance and charm of a medieval weapon, is so powerful and accurate that it is used extensively for hunting and precision target shooting. It’s a deadly weapon, not a toy, exceptionally fine for hunting rabbits, pheasants, squirrels, and even capable of killing big game like deer, elk, antelope, and cougar when used by one skilled in its handling. Therefore it is most imperative that the crossbow be handled carefully. Never hold it in a position where it might endanger anyone if fired accidently, and always reckon with the area beyond the target or game in the event you should miss hitting the object aimed at.

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Popular Mechanics
Issue: Sep, 1955
Posted in: DIY, Photography
Posted: 07/29/2006
21 Comments
HOW TO MAKE INCREDIBLE PICTURES (Sep, 1955)

This stuff was a bit harder before photoshop.

HOW TO MAKE INCREDIBLE PICTURES

LAUGH-PROVOKING trick pictures are fun to make and more fun to show. Contrary to popular belief, such pictures can be produced by the amateur photographer, even though he has only limited equipment. Trick shots involve two steps: cutouts and pasteups. The equipment required for them, in addition to a camera and enlarger, is a sharp knife, a sheet of clear glass large enough to hold an 8 x 10 glossy print, and a piece of heavy cardboard of the same size.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Jun, 1932
Posted in: Communications, DIY
Posted: 07/25/2006
4 Comments
Build a (rather bad) Salmon Can Fax Machine (Jun, 1932)

It seems like having to have a belt drive connect both the transmitter and receiver might be a bit of a limitation, but this is still pretty neat. I wonder what the results looked like?

Simplified Electric Picture Transmitter

A COUPLE of sardine and salmon cans, a few bits of brass and several pieces of wood are all the materials that are needed to assemble an experimental but very practical picture transmitter and receiver.

Two of each of the cans will be needed. The salmon cans should be of the small or half can size and the end that has been opened should be replaced by soldering in water tight, a new disc of tin.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Jul, 1932
Posted in: DIY
Tags:
Posted: 07/24/2006
1 Comment
Use Old Phonograph as Grindstone (Jul, 1932)

Use Old Phonograph as Grindstone
OLD phonographs can be made to do double duty by changing the turntable into a novel grindstone for sharpening knives, chisels and other small cutting tools.

This home-made sharpener is rigged up by cutting a piece of emery cloth of the circumference of the turn-table and slipping it over the revolving axis. When the motor is started, emery wheel turns.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Apr, 1938
Posted in: DIY, Photography
Posted: 07/23/2006
No Comments
TRICK Drawings From PHOTOS (Apr, 1938)

Wow, he looks 20 years younger in the drawing. Will you be his valentine?

TRICK Drawings From PHOTOS

MANY novel effects can be obtained by means of a simple process of converting ordinary photographic prints into black-and-white or colored line drawings. For engineering and other technical purposes, unnecessary or unimportant parts of machinery can be eliminated from a picture and the main structure thus given increased emphasis. For purposes of general illustration—serious or humorous—the faces or figures of people can be exaggerated or caricatured, double pictures built up, extra features inserted, etc. Comparatively little drawing ability is required, as the original print serves as a guide.

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Popular Science
Issue: Mar, 1945
Posted in: DIY, Toys and Games
Posted: 07/23/2006
3 Comments
TOY WALKIE-TALKIE THRILLS YOUNG COMMANDOS (Mar, 1945)

TOY WALKIE-TALKIE THRILLS YOUNG COMMANDOS
THAT young “commando” in your home will be the envy of the neighborhood when he goes out to play war with a toy walkie-talkie like that shown above. For all its G.I. look, the toy is built of scrap stock and a length of webbing or a belt.

The rectangular case is a 2-1/2″ by 3″ by 10″ closed box, with rounded top and bottom pieces overhanging the sides 1/8″ all around. Make the body of two 1/2″ by 2″ by 9″ pieces and two that are 1/2″ by 2-1/2″ by 9″, gluing and nailing the simple butt joints for strength. The mouth and ear pieces shown are turned in a lathe and then sawed off on a diagonal, as shown in the drawing, but if you are good at whittling there is no reason why you can’t shape them by hand. Two dowels form dummy controls on one side.

How the telescoping antenna is put together is shown in the drawing. Drilling the 1/2″ diameter dowel takes great care, and it is best to drill from both ends.
Finish with khaki paint and trim with white as in the photo.—Frank Mccarty.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Apr, 1946
Posted in: Cool, DIY
Posted: 07/21/2006
5 Comments
Magic Garden (Apr, 1946)

Magic Garden

Dissolve a few chemical salts in waterglass and—presto!

CHEMICAL magic in one of its most spectacular forms can be practiced by any amateur who will borrow a leaf from his high school “chem” book and conjure up a few “crystal gardens.”

These aren’t difficult to make, and require no more material than the necessary chemicals, a good size aquarium and enough sand or fine gravel to cover the bottom to a depth of about 1 inch. The aquarium is filled with a solution of water-glass (sodium silicate), and the chemicals are dropped in it. As they settle to the bottom, they grow into a colorful pattern of intertwining clusters which might resemble a submarine forest in some as yet unexplored deep.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Aug, 1950
Posted in: DIY, Toys and Games
Posted: 07/19/2006
3 Comments
Electronic Tick-Tack-Toe (Aug, 1950)

How do you cheat in Tick-Tack-Toe?

Tick-Tack-Toe brain is invention of 18-year-old Noel Elliott, finalist in the Westinghouse science talent search. After three years’ work, involving a study of the 362,882 possible variations, he perfected the machine so that it either wins or ties every game. It responds with a light flash when you pull a switch in any square. Sometimes it’s caught cheating a little.

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