Make a Lego Gun That Works

Chris Burden's latest piece is a portrait of L.A.'s hot mess of traffic, entitled Metropolis II. The artist has constructed a miniature highway system, complete with 1,200 custom-designed cars, 18 lanes, 13 toy trains and tracks, and a landscape of buildings made with wood blo ...more

Look what came in the mail today! The File Cabinet from hell. Die hard Jackass fan and file cabinet mod-junkie Jeff Dahlin tracked us down to drop off this gem at WonderHowTo HQ today. It is his official entry for the Jackass Prank Contest. It has three wheels.... so it's a tr ...more

It is the file cabinet from Hell. Look what came in the mail today! Die hard Jackass fan and file cabinet mod-junkie Jeff Dahlin tracked us down to drop off this gem at WonderHowTo HQ today. It is his official entry for the Jackass Prank Contest. It's a three-wheeler, does tha ...more

Laser gun + killing mosquitoes = lots of little boy fun, but what's it all about? Quite possibly the most entertaining, thrilling, and well, downright life-saving presentation at this year's TED conference was Intellectual Ventures' mosquito death ray. The mosquito death ray ...more

In this article, I'll show you how to create a simple yet effective way of scaring off intruders. Of course, there are methods around this approach, but it's great for office pranks and general fun. The project requires a little background knowledge in electronics and circuitr ...more

In this article, I'll be covering Triggers and Coils, part two of the series (see part one here). Generally, a simple EMP generator consists of four components; a capacitor, a transformer, a trigger and a coil of copper wire. The transformer component can be varied, but the co ...more

For an art-project I'm currently working on I want to design a Gun. As I was trying to figure out how to so this, I stumbeled upon this model. A simplye tube with an L shape. I folded it from one A4 sheet. This is my first attempt, so please forgive me the imperfections of thi ...more

This amazing Star Wars Sand Crawler is built entirely out of legos. Includes lighted eyes of the Jawas and a working crane to life the droids. Youtube User Marshal Banana from Switzerland created it. Here are the details: Minifigscale: 96 cm long, 100.5 cm long (lowered ma ...more

Matt Reed, a web developer at Nashville interactive ad agency Redpepper, built a massive, real life Facebook Like "button" out of Legos, which lights up whenever someone clicks Like on his Facebook page. The programmer loves LEGOs, and draws an affinity between the legendary b ...more

From Boston.com's The Big Picture, what a real-life version of the Green Hornet's gas gun might look like. Taken in Afghanistan in February of this year, an Afghan army recruit is pictured shrouded in a cloud of shocking green smoke as he participates in a graduation parade af ...more

Normally the idea of messing with an electrical outlet makes me squirm, but Apartment Therapy's quick fix for a loose wall outlet means skipping out on a costly electrician bill. Not only is a wiggly wall outlet unsightly, but it can also be a fire hazard. The solution is simp ...more

It takes a special kind of mind to look at an M.C. Escher drawing and see a blueprint. And yet, looking at this working 3D model of Escher's Waterfall, one gets the impression that YouTube's mcwolles may have done just that! One thing's clear: like Escher's famous lithograph, ...more

Traditional Aboriginal didgeridoos are made from trees that have been hollowed out by termites. Finishing work to smooth out surfaces and decorate the didgeridoo would soon follow. Lucky for you, you don't have to spend lots of money or find a hollowed out tree to create a did ...more

"A major hardware update to the masterlock cracking robot. Upgraded the previously non-working latch opening mechanism to be geared down 1:25, allowing it to open the shackle. I also revamped the motor mount to be sturdier, and the base of the unit to hold the lock better and ...more

The Stilzkin Indrik is a mighty, mini LEGO Russian crawler, capable of lugging heavy loads over snowy terrain: "It has a large contact surface, which prevents it from sinking into the snow. It offers great traction on almost any surface, and loads of torque to get out of tight ...more

Lori Nix's teeny, tiny, incredibly laborious, detail-oriented dioramas are, in a word, insane. We've seen an amazing diorama or two... but these are eerily obsessive. And creepy- all the spaces are depressed, abandoned, and in terrible disrepair. Inspired? Start small. (No pu ...more

It's a puzzle. It's a gun. It's awesome. Titled "The Intimidator", this 125-piece puzzle requires a special key to disassemble. Once disassembled, 20 of the 125 pieces can be pieced to form a real working single shot pistol. And that's not all. The puzzle also stores "a cust ...more

Via AntVar's deviantART: "This is the birthday cake my wife made for me this year. We have a teddy bear cake pan that hasn't been used much so I suggested making it an ewok from Star Wars for me this year. She did all the work of baking the cake and decorating it, but it was ...more

100% functional LEGO ATM by Ronald McCrae. This bonafide brick bank performs the following functions: Bill scanner can be calibrated to accept any type of banknote Machine accepts only the type of bill for which it is calibrated Tolerances for bill acceptability are adjustabl ...more

Pretty impressive, as far as LEGO portraiture goes. Via The Telegraph: "Justin Ramsden used more than 3,000 Lego bricks to make the model, which features the singer's trademark beehive hairstyle and a cigarette dangling from her lips. The 19-year-old, who is a member of the ...more

Paul Yperman, you've got some competition (see previous entry, Star Wars LEGO Droid Ship). 15-year old Sven Junga's LEGO Stargate diorama (including a Daedalus from Stargate Atlantis) is nothing to shrug about. Incredibly impressive. See more of Sven's work in his Flickr gall ...more

Whimsical shoe design is by far my favorite kind. Cop stilettos, invisible heels - the more out there, the better. Sarajevo designer Belma Arnautovic's delightfully delectable footwear line definitely takes the cake. "A shoe collection branded Lolice is the graduation work of ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more

TOP MOVIES 2011 The Artist (2011) Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.Dir: Michel Hazanavicius With: Jean Dujard ...more

Pull up outside any construction site and you'll see tools scattered about—hammers, jigsaws, nail guns, hydraulic pipe benders—these are the tools of the trade. You would be hard-pressed to build a home or office building with just your hands! On that same page, security profe ...more

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. Thanks to all of our active moderators and ...more

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. Thanks to all of our active moderators and ...more

In my second article of the laser weapon series (see the first part here on CO2 lasers), I'll be expanding on the potential of pulsed lasers. I'm sure most everyone has seen those green and red laser pulses on Star Wars. Theoretically, those lasers could be built using a conc ...more

This is the third part of my electromagnetic pulse series (see Part One and Part Two). By now, I've covered the hardware and general concept of electromagnetic pulse generators, but how exactly do they disable electronics? How can an invisible field of energy have such a catas ...more

In this series, I'll be exploring electromagnetic weapons, how to build them, their function and application to the future, and the amazing possibilities electromagnetism has to offer. First, the electromagnetic pulse generator, or EMP. You've probably heard of these before, a ...more

Building a DIY Alarm System: The Concept So, you want to protect your property, or maybe a room, car, or even your backyard. The concept of an alarm system is to notify the "alarm administrator" that there is an intruder entering the previously designated boundaries. The trig ...more

Snapseed is a highly regarded and award-winning photo-editing app for iOS devices. Originating out of image manipulation specialist Nik Software in San Diego, Snapseed is Apple’s iPad App of the Year and, after using it for the purposes of this review, I believe it points to t ...more

BioShock is one of the best games of all time. It combines FPS gameplay with RPG storytelling and supports multiple systems better than any other game, that much is for sure. And the setting of its amazing story is a place called Rapture, a high-tech libertarian colony at the ...more

Welcome to the Google+ Insider's Guide to all things Google+. We're dedicated to keeping you updated with all the latest news, tips and tricks on Google+, and this official index will serve as a one-stop catalog of all our How-To articles, as well as all the news & updates we' ...more

In 1988, John Langley created COPS for the fledgling FOX network. 23 years later, the show is still running. It is the Energizer bunny of prime time television. Since John has followed more police officers and witnessed more crime than any human being on earth (absolutely no q ...more

Red Dead Redemption does not do a very good job at teaching people how to duel. It is not intuitive and that leaves many people confused because it's not easy to practice. Sample duel. Once you accept a duel: In the duel, once you see the words "DRAW!" Press and hold LT(360) ...more

This week, I've been working on a project that sort of takes a spin off an old-style potato gun. Using PVC pipe and the rapid combustion of hairspray, we can launch a rocket hundreds of feet into the sky. As usual for my projects, I tried to use only materials and parts that a ...more

I love this project. It involves fire, projectiles, electricity, and is easy to put together from commonly available parts. This mini cannon fires airsoft pellets, is fueled by alcohol, and is made almost entirely from parts found in a standard BBQ lighter. The total cost is u ...more

Let's face it. Minecraft probably wouldn't exist today if not for LEGOs. They are fundamentally the same; building objects out of blocks. Only Minecraft has expanded on the idea, creating a world where nearly anything can be made. It's probably even more accurate to say that M ...more

Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more

Minecraft never ceases to amaze, from programmable pianos to serial killers. But now someone has tackled M. C. Escher's famous Relativity lithograph from 1953 that depicts a world not bound by the normal laws of gravity. It's an amazing puzzle of a three-dimensional world trap ...more

Banksy, Cope2, Invader, Retna, Mr.cartoon, They all have a few things in common. Firstly, they are all extremely talented and well known urban artists. Secondly, they all have very memorable and very, very cool names. Banksy is the most well known of the bunch, and in my opin ...more

Mark Burnett is, financially speaking, perhaps the most successful television producer today. While I had launched America's Most Wanted and COPS a decade earlier, Mark exploded onto network television with Survivor, the glossy and fantastical innovation to reality television. ...more

The Android Megaminxer is mind-bogglingly elaborate, impressively combining multiple geeky mediums to solve an incredibly complex puzzle. ARM, the genius behind the stunt, uses LEGOs (a Mindstorms NXT kit to be exact) to build a robot responsible for the mechanics; they then e ...more

In every nerd, there is a 12-year-old boy just dying to get out. This week, we bring you the ultimate in indulging your inner kid. Make a penis card emblem in Call of Duty: Black Ops The ability to make your own player card emblems in Call of Duty: Black Ops has led to a bur ...more

It took him a year to build and about $30,000 in parts, but Steve Hassenplug has created a truly magnificent robotic chess set, inspired by the magical chessboard in the first Harry Potter movie. Quite a task, but Hassenplug did an incredible job! Via PopSci: "Hassenplug and ...more

Red Dead Redemption is hard to pin down in game play and story. The game offers this massive multi-layered world in which the player can roam freely, offering plenty of challenges, beautiful graphics and atmosphere for the player to experience. Yet after some point the whole w ...more