Category Archives: Builds

Hackett’s Bike Generator

By Becky Stern | Published: October 28, 2013

Hackett shows you how to build a bike charger for a deep cycle battery so you can power your life during the next natural disaster. Mike Davis’ 555 chip charging circuit

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Dueling Mechanical Bulls at Google I/O 2012

By Hackett | Published: July 2, 2012

Bull-riding is considered a super tough-guy activity, a chance for cowboys, rodeo queens, and wannabees to prove that they have what it takes to triumph in this quintessentially American pastime. In our minds, all mechanical bulls fall short of being truly American in that they lack competition, the opportunity to directly humiliate another person. To […]

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Dueling Mechanical Bulls in progress

By Becky Stern | Published: June 13, 2012

The bulls are getting ready to go to the Google I/O afterparty in San Francisco later this month, and here’s the recent progress. Above is the first test of the upper deck motor/bucking mechanism. At first it’s solidon, then Hackett started to start/stop the motor manually. Then Colin got on it to see how it’d […]

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Propane Propelled Gyroscopes – The Ride of the Future

By Boris Klompus | Published: November 23, 2010

Looking to add a little thrill to your chrome future? My next project is an amusement device, based on those from the past also wishing to push the envelope (be sure to snoop around the referenced by links for some great stuff): http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT846925, http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=TChzAAAAEBAJ&dq=3141669, http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=Dcc0AAAAEBAJ, with a fiery twist. It will be a gyroscope ride […]

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Gaylen Hamilton: DIY Surgeon in action!

By hans | Published: September 17, 2010
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Surgery at Mada!

By hans | Published: September 16, 2010

Hackett cut himself. Bad. He was attacked by a piece a metal. A sharp piece of metal. A sharp and mean piece of metal. Gaylen can now add “surgeon” to his resume. Coming soon: new class! Gaylen teaches DIY Surgery!

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Chariot

By lnzy | Published: September 15, 2010

Max runs off with the chariot.

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Monday, Sept. 13, 10am

By stalker52 | Published: September 15, 2010

  Subject was observed being very badass.

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playing with scale

By hans | Published: September 14, 2010

Here’s some pics of the signage that my Queens Museum english class has produced so far:

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Work on Voo-Doo Lilly

By stalker52 | Published: September 14, 2010

Lindsay and I spent a quiet afternoon developing new poisons and dangerous contrivances for the delight and enlightenment of the children.

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signs/banners/backdrops update

By hans | Published: September 6, 2010

So, we had a lovely day arting in tents outside the Queens Museum… Here’s an update and some images of what we did, we’ll be continuing to work next week Sunday from 1pm-5pm and it would be most awesome if any of you joined. Banners (posters) Jet Ponies – underway Voodoo Lily – underway 360 […]

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today was a day of motors

By hans | Published: September 5, 2010

Jhosef and I started off taking apart the tiny carb for the go-ped little mini scooter, that had a former life serving Erok as his playa ride. We got the thing apart into lots of tiny little pieces and pulled all the mystery bits of red rubber out, and re-assembled it back on to the […]

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Voodoo Lily

By lnzy | Published: September 4, 2010

The VooDoo Lily is well under way thanks to our fabulous crew. We have many parts cut out and the shop is starting to crawl with snake like flaming buds and biting venus fly traps. Jacquie, Townsend, and Nina were the first to jump in and make things happen. The photos don’t live up to […]

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plant wheels

By hans | Published: September 4, 2010

New layers are being added to the carousel, and its slowly transforming into a man-eating plant!

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the next carousel test, now with fire and LEDs!a

By hans | Published: May 4, 2010

Thanks to J&M Special Effects just down the Gowanus four blocks, we ran a completely legal test of the entire carousel complete with 4 propane cannons and a tower of LEDs, all powered from the electricity generated by the generator on the middle. That means it all works! Sure, there were some kinks so now […]

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how do we get this damn thing together?

By hans | Published: April 19, 2010

After a big production push in the mada shop, we moved over to the super big Gowanus Hotel space for the final assembly. Up until this very moment, we had a clear, simple idea of how these 8 custom plywood-wheeled bike things would go together. We threw that all out the window when we got […]

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It’s alive!

By hans | Published: April 18, 2010

Yesterday, we finally figured out the angle on one section, so we had to take it for a spin. The whole thing was just held together with C-clamps so we were fucking stupid to be going that fast. Everyone survived and much fun was had. Today was the first test of the whole thing bolted […]

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carousel progress

By hans | Published: April 16, 2010

The carousel is coming along, tomorrow is the big first test! Here’s where we were as of last night:

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first carousel wheel test

By hans | Published: March 23, 2010

We ran a test of the whole plywood wheel/axle/frame assembly and no one lost their balls in the process. Next carousel work shift: this Thursday afternoon 5-10pm. (video by Rivka) (video by Lindsay)

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Working on Jet Ponies

By cautionMike | Published: October 15, 2009

Some peeps in the shop working on jet ponies.

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