Daily DIY

After five years in a university computer lab, this mouse wouldn’t respond to clicks very well, but after this two minute repair job, it’s as sharp as it’s first day!



All you need is a bad clicky mouse, like the one pictured, a phillips screwdriver, and a nail file.


By: pir8p3t3

Thrift stores are drowning in old records so go use ‘em! Give them a second life and send them through the mail. You risk a couple bucks and the payoff can be great.


By: fungus amungus

Want to help your vain friend that you want to stay in touch? Send a mirror postcard to them. The next time he decides to gaze upon his own heart-stopping beauty to make sure no slight imperfection has slipped in he will both remember where he lives for a safe journey home as well as your own address in case he should ever decide to forsake the transient electronic messages for a more solid form of communication.


By: fungus amungus

They say that form follows function and I suppose that’s true. Most mail is rectangular for easy machine handling, but for me the function is just the three elements of the postcard: two addresses and a stamp. Most people have a fourth element, content, but I’ve been letting the materials do that talking lately. This way I’m guaranteed to get a phone call where I’m asked, "OK, I got it… does it do anything?"



With the three elements providing the constraints I formed an amoebic connection between them and got rid of the rest. Why take the emphasis away from them? It’s better to imagine that they each have their own equal weight in this world and the rest can fall away for all they care since it’s their intertwined nature that determines their group fate.



As an unintended result, the finished piece is comfy to hold in your hand. You almost want to start glopping some paint on it to work on your masterpiece. Now if only my favorite paint applicator was a brush instead of a spraycan that might be the case. Or maybe this is a good time to start, who knows?



NOTE: The name is a bit wrong. This was never meant to rekindle memories of Walt’s brilliant creation. It just kinda happened even if the proportions are wrong for the little guy.


By: fungus amungus

Ok, I thought the Laser Vortex was the coolest Halloween project yet. So this project pays homage to it. For my project, however I needed to make it small and portable to fit into a pumpkin. I also needed to make the laser and spinning mirror all 1 unit. So with a couple of mods, the Jack-o-Laser of Doom was born.


By: vatosupreme

I have been making the laser vortex for several years as a Halloween affect on my front porch, everyone loves the affect. Finally, this year I created a Halloween site showing others how to make one of these. The video of this can be found on http://haunted.hyperreactor.com. Its made with a laser pointer, small motor, and a mirror creating an affect similar to what you might see at Halloween Horror Nights but on a smaller scale and much cheaper.


By: mever

CheapGeek way to Clean a Printer. This Dirty Old Laser printer was the deal in 1996.

6 pages per minute of blazing fast monchrome printing. Document quality and the price was $350.00

I however, got the printer for $150.00 (in 1996 a deal for sure). This printer served us well and as time progressed, it sat neglected on the top the desk. A new color printer took over the job as print master.

Sad- to see this dirty old warrior silent, un-used. Every reboot, the printer would rachet to life, grinding, grunting and wheeze, then wait. Poor lonely printer waiting for a print job.

Print jobs that until recently, did not come.

It’s time to resurrect you- Old Printer of the Monochrome, Grandpa Laser.

Some cleaning and maintenance should do it.

Here’s how I cleaned the printer, to bring it back to life…..


By: cheapgeek

Using a basic laser pointer and a sensative amplifier it is possible to listen in on conversations through exterior windows! The price of $20 is simply an estimate, in my case I did not need to buy anything.



The system described in this instructable works on the same principle as commercial projects like this:

http://www.electromax.com/laser.htmlhttp://www.electromax.com/laser.html



(This photo is of a military laser exparament, but its the best laser picture I could drum up.)


By: navaburo

Here is yet another thing to do with those promotional laser pointers: send music (or data) from point A to point B over the laser beam using amplitude modulation. All it takes is pointing the moded laser at a detector, and music can be heard from an attached amplifier. The range and quality (or data speed) can vary, but I have gotten a HALF MILE of range with excellent audio quality and around 300bps of throughput.



The image shown here is the transmitter and reciever working across my desk during a test.



Much inspiration for this project came from http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/light.html#laser_communicator


By: navaburo

An inexpensive hand-tool and not-a-lot-of-skills can have you cutting glass in no time!
By: howtern