Another useful DIY from instructables could help you resurrect your old iPod without having to shell out FRN’s for a new one.

Via member bryceronie

If you have a broken ipod , with a business card and five minutes it will be fixed!

I enjoy instructionables that are easy to do , short to complete, and will work for anyone!

(!!Please VOTE for me so I can win a prize!!)

This is a common problem among many, many people that have a warranty that has expired.

Now you could just send it back to apple to get a new one, but if your warranty expired, like mine did, they won’t give you a new one. You need to fix this pretty $350 piece of apple!!

Instead of having a nice paperweight (hopefully you didnt throw yours out) , you will need these with three things before starting:

1. a flathead screwdriver
2. a broken ipod and 5 minutes
3. a new and or old, but crisp, business card

p.s. No memory loss either, all songs, data, ect will still be on the iPod.

Step 1. Easy does it

The first thing is to take the iPod apart.

This is not a big deal, there are little plastic holds around the iPod, and the flat head screwdriver will allow you to pry it open at the plastic parts. (see pic)
Once completed, you can just snap the ipod back together so it looks exactly the same, just dont get too frustrated if it takes a few minutes to get the first clip.

Use a MICRO flat head screw driver. Go in from the side as shown in the demo, but to get it started angle the screwdriver down so that it slides in between the plastic and metal, then take a bigger sized micro screw driver to open it the rest of the way.

Step 2. Careful

When all the plastic parts are un-snapped ,  you can pull the ipod apart an inch or so , you only need to do one more step.

Here is where this gets neat:

Fold the business card twice. So it is still springy.

Put the folder business card in the iPod on top of the blue sponge that is inside.

shut and snap the iPod back together.

So now it your iPod is back to normal, and all you needed was a folded business card!!

The blue sponge needed a little more pressure over time.

This time around, Bob breaks down the art and science of building a quick-and-easy teepee (tipi).

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A few days before Christmas I had a sudden hankering for a Teepee. Don’t ask me why. It was just a sudden and strong urge. I had to have one!

It’s been years since I’ve had much to do with teepees. During the summer of ‘78 I spent two weeks high in the Colorado Rockies living in a teepee, and ever since then I’ve had a soft spot for ‘em.

Now the trouble with teepees is they are expensive to buy, and take a lot of sewing to make. Way to much work for this lazy bum. But still, I needed a teepee bad. What to do?

Then it popped into my mind how some folk make tents from cheap tarps and glue ‘em together with contact cement! What a brilliant idea! Could I do something like that with a teepee?

So, the day before Christmas I stopped on the way home from work at Harbor freight to buy a tarp and 100 feet of cheap cord. Another stop at a hardware store for a can of contact cement and I was all set.

I’d already downloaded more traditional teepee fixin’ directions and a diagram from this site.

This is to be a ten foot teepee. Big enough to sleep two adults or a pile of kids. You need a tarp about ten feet wide by twenty feet long to make a teepee this big.

You could get material by the yard and sew it all together, but by buying one big tarp to start with we save most of the work involved in making a teepee!

Teepee fixin’s —

Christmas day I went out to layout my teepee.

First, lay it out and hammer big nails in the corners to hold it in place. The ground was frozen hard and ice covered so ordinary tent stakes were out of the question.

Then, find the middle of the tarp, bang a nail in and tie a cord to it.

With the cord and a magic marker, draw a semicircle on the tarp.

In the corners, draw smoke flaps. Back at the top center, mark two triangles.

Cut it all out, and because it was so cold out I dragged it all inside to glue-up.

I pushed the table back and got to gluing the smoke flaps on, a cord in the bottom hem, and a cord at the top center.

I also cut about a dozen 12″ lenths of cord for stake loops.

Finished!

The next day was the family gathering at the in-laws’ place. Eleven of my nieces and nephews showed up. None had ever seen a teepee, some didn’t know what one was. I commandeered four or five of ‘em and went to the forest to cut poles. I sawed down 12 green grand fir saplings and had the kids drag ‘em up to behind the house.

Then I passed out hatchets, machetes, and other implements of mass destruction and we all set about trimming the branches, piling the brush for a floor, and cutting poles to length.

Up went the poles. The teepee was tied onto one pole and raised up over the frame. We cut slits in the hem for the stake loops, and tied the loops in place. Again, we had to use log spikes for stakes because of the frozen ground. Somewhat surprisingly, nobody lost a finger.

Before long the teepee was up, darkness fell, and we had a fire inside with about eight kids crammed in with me toasting marshmallows on sticks.

I barely made it out alive….

Imagine that many kids stuffed into a small teepee. Half are industriously poking at the fire making it smoke and spark, the rest are waving flaming marshmallows around. I thought I’d get nailed in the head by a flaming marshmallow for sure!

Well, the kids had fun and it kept them out of the house. The adults looked through the windows at the brightly glowing teepee, but didn’t venture forth into the night.

I took the teepee home with me that night, and set it up in the woods at my place the next weekend. It’s been up ever since.

The smoke flaps fell off after a week or two. These flaps are held up by their own poles and staked out. They take allot of stress. If you make one have a care with gluing the smoke flaps. I’d kinda rushed the whole thing and I reckon they might hold up if done right.

The lack of smoke flaps doesn’t seem to make any difference though. Surprisingly, despite several fires inside the tarp shows no burn holes or signs of melting. I’ll leave it up all winter long and see how it fares.

My next project is to build some camp beds of poles, rope or brush to outfit the teepee and wrangle up some of my nephews for a campout.

Now I know this tarp teepee will not last like a canvas one will. I did use a heavy duty tarp and am surprised at how well it is holding up. I reckon it’s fine for camping with the kids, or to set up in the yard for the kids to play in. It’s also nice to know how to make one should an earthquake demolish your home and you need a fast shelter…

All-in-all a fun project.

The poles —

The fire was lit before the teepee was even up! The poles are set up smaller than you think the teepee will be.

Lay the last pole on the cover and tie it on.

Raise the last pole into place and wrap the cover around the poles. Tie the ends together.

From the inside, move the poles out to stretch the cover tight.

This picture was taken at night with a flash. Outside a freezing rain is falling, but it’s nice and cozy inside.

The teepee glowing in the dark of night —

I was worried about the fire damaging the tarp but so far the thing has held up perfectly, except for the loss of the smoke flaps.

This is a shot taken with a flash at night, lying flat on my back looking up. No damage at all to the teepee cover.

It does show how much smoke you get up top. This can be a good thing though. In the spring the smoke keeps the black flies away, in the summer it keeps the mosquitoes away, and you can hang meat up to smoke.

Not sure I’d carry one about in my truck for emergency use though. I think a smaller tarp tent that I could carry in a pack on my back might make more sense. You know, if ya gotta ditch the truck and walk home.

I don’t think if my truck got stuck or broke down back up in the hills that I’d shelter in place for more than one night before I simply grabbed my GHB and started walking. So I prefer to carry the stuff needed to walk home, not homestead on the spot.

There are quite a variety of tents you can make from tarps and contact cement. I’m thinking about experimenting with a “miners” or pyramid type tent. Much easier to cut one pole than a dozen. I’m thinking a small pyramid type tent that you could open up one whole side and set up a fire in front of for heat and cooking.

Or maybe one of Rustums “convertible A” tents, which were intended as lightweight tents that could take advantage of a fire.

A cool technique to start a fire MacGyver style if you have no matces or lighter. Using a condom, balloon or plastic, create a spherical shape to focus sunlight in. These items will have a shorter focal length so will need to hold them 1 to 2 inches form your tinder.

“Big Brother” surveillance systems are growing across the globe at an alarming rate, some people believe it makes them safe, while others believe their privacy is being violated.

This step-by-step article will show you how to cheaply make an IR (infrared) LED mask, that will shield your image to the camera with a bright white spot.

The use of this IR LED device would shield you from unwanted video recording while in public, any criminal activity would still be caught by potential eye witnesses. 

Serious criminals would likely wear a real mask or disguise to thwart any eyewitnesses, so any concerns of contributing to illegal activity are unwarranted. A lot of people like to make gadgets like this for fun and have no grand idea of pulling a heist.

The example below uses a hat to embed the LED’s, but there are more creative designs and uses for this idea that I’m sure people will come up with.

Parts

• Approximate prices are given; this project should cost about $11 USD
• 8 or more High Intensity IR LEDs = $0.30 each that’s $2.40
• 1 Hat/Cap that looks good on you = $6.00 (you may have one already)
  • make sure it’s a hat that all the parts will fit in
  • choose one with a design that will camouflage the LEDs
• 16 thin wires from a 2 meter long UTP cable = $1.00
• 1 Electrical Tape = $0.80
• 1 9v Battery = $1.00

Step 1. Wire the LEDs. Make sure your wires are long enough around (15cm each) depending on how big your hat is. Start wiring up the LEDs one by one, making sure the wires are secured well to each LED and they won’t fall apart. You can even solder to be extra sure but it’s probably not necessary.

Step 2. Mark and cut the hat. This part is also crucial, as you need to pick good spots where you want the LEDs to go. If you place them too far apart from each other, the light beam won’t be strong enough to blind a camera. If you place them too close, they will only hide your face from a certain angle but not others. Think this out and position them well. Mark the spots with a marker, then cut a few holes with a pair of small scissors in the front (middle of the hat) and a few on the sides to get a wide beam. See Tips below.

Step 3. Attach the LEDs. Turn the hat inside out. Take each LED and place it tight in its hole. Make sure each LED is secure and it won’t fall out. You can even use a dab of hot melt glue for extra stability!

Step 4. Secure with tape and power up. Tape all the wires together using electrical tape. Make sure you remember each LED’s plus and minus wire; if you get them wrong, you may burn out some LEDs or risk some of them not working. For example, you can use white wires for each positive terminal and color wires for the negative terminal so you won’t get them wrong later. Connect a small 9v battery to the wires and secured them on there with electrical tape. You can even add a little on/off switch, if you want. In this example, the battery is placed on the inside back of the hat.

Tips

The bright light being on top of the head may still leave at least portions of the face visible. Placing some LEDs in the shirt collar, and/or wearing LED earrings or ear pieces (like fake or modified bluetooth headset) would improve the mask.

Since the infrared is invisible to the naked eye, you will have to use your own video camera to make sure it is working.

Warnings

This method works best in lower light conditions, as in full daylight or brightly lit areas the camera easily adjusts. This can be seen in the video when the finished product is shown. You can clearly see the hat and the individual LEDs, no blinding effect.

Works about as well as shining a light in someones face, except CCTV never blinks. Thus it requires one to be able to continually face the camera at the right angle. Notice almost half of the face is visible in the photo despite good positioning.

Source: Wikihow

Spring is the start of moving season, so I thought I would recommend a tip I learned from my latest moving experience a few years back. A friend suggested that I use boxes from liquor stores to pack with, because they are free and sized perfectly for moving and storing. Alleys behind liquor stores usually have stacks of high quality boxes from their latest shipments. The best days to go get these boxes are weekend nights, due to the amount of stock they go through on the weekend. The size, shape, and colorful design of the boxes, makes loading your truck like playing a life size game of Tetris.

Photo from offtoflorida

In a small but profound way, this teenager’s creation illustrates the triumph of the human spirit; despite all hardship. Via AfriGadget.

Just because you’re short on space, doesn’t mean you have to be short on home-grown produce. The upside-down planter is a low-maintenance, small-footprint method of growing tomatoes and similar plants.

The links below cover different ways to construct these DIY planters, in different sizes, shapes, and looks. Of course, if you’d rather buy one pre-made, there are options listed for that too.

Five DIY Planters:

Using a 5-gallon Bucket [video]:

Learn how to make your own upside down tomato planter. Can also be used for peppers, cucumber, and some squash.

Using an Empty Soda Bottle:

Many people have been growing plants like tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets or hanging baskets for decades. Not having any spare bucket or hanging basket to sacrifice I went with my daughter’s suggestion and used a 2 liter bottle…

Using a Plastic Planter Pot (which can grow other plants on top!):

…here’s a really inexpensive and, I think, more attractive method than the other DIY how-to’s I’ve seen. First, find yourself a large… plastic hanging planter and a tomato plant. I chose a smaller fruit producing variety…

Using a Metal Pail:

They have substance compared to the cheap looking wind sock topsy turvy versions. …these guys have been through a season of classic Midwest thunderstorms, hail storms and tornadoes and are still in fine shape.

Using a Gallon Jug and (of course) Duct Tape:

My husband saw an info-mercial on upside down planters late one night and thought it would be a fun project to do with the kids. It was very easy to make but not very pretty.

Three Pre-made Planters:

The Original Infomercial Variety (warning: site plays video automatically):

Use your Topsy Turvy® tomato planter to grow deliciously ripe tomatoes for homemade sauces, sandwiches, salads and more without harmful pesticides or backbreaking work.

Fancy-pants Ceramic (looks nice indoors):

It’s like the Topsy-Turvy Tomato Planter, but for a way-hipper crowd. The New Zealand company Boskke… launched their Sky Planter project to serve the gardening set.

Upright Stand-Alone (it also can grow other plants on top):

Forget staking tomato vines! Let gravity take over with this innovative Planter that elevates the planting bed. Up to 4 tomato plants grow downward from 4 pop-out holes in the bottom.

(main post photo by Lorri37 on flickr)

He has created a set of amazing and thought-provoking rings out of spent bullets:

The rings that were created remove the bullet from its original function and they surprisingly turn into a bejeweled object and emphasize the beauty and aesthetics of the bullet when it is distanced from its surroundings. Every bullet retains memories and traces of the journey it underwent from the moment it was fired until it was picked up.

Be sure to check out the link for more photos of the rings, as well as other works by Adi Zaffran.

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I had always conceptualized such devices as being reliant on enormous volumes of water in order to get the job done; but the solution that Dick and Jem devised in the episode made use of the unique landscape available at the property, allowing them to harness a relatively small stream to do a large amount of work.

They accomplished this (spoiler alert!) by running a fire hose from a part of the stream that was high up on a hill, down to the generator, which is set next to the slower-running stream at the bottom of the hill.

This concentrated stream took advantage of both gravity and the constriction of the hose, in order to concentrate the stream’s power directly onto the blades of a small, cross-flow water-turbine. Check out a diagram in the video at Planet Green.

In the event that you don’t have a high mountain stream at your disposal, harnessing the power of water is still possible. One method is to use an undershot wheel over a small natural or manmade waterfall. This process is outlined in detail at Build It Solar.

This is a nicely done undershot water wheel project that blends in well with its setting. Much of the project was done with parts recycled from various sources.

The page includes a PDF of the design and building process, an Excel spreadsheet for crunching the necessary numbers — as well as other helpful resources, comments, and updates.

Another possibility is to use the ancient Himalayan technique of harnessing the power of water: ghatta or gharat.

An engineer from MIT, Nathan Eagle, has used this ancient technology combined with more modern electicty generation and batteries to bring power to communities that would otherwise have none.

Nathan’s website outlines the details and process of the construction, as well as methods of potential improvement on the design.

…these mills are used to grind corn, wheat, and other grains for the local agricultural community. The aim of this study is to engineer a way to harness the rotational energy of the traditional mill and transform a ghatta into a community battery charging station.

Finally, here is a simple waterwheel project that’s pretty similar to the undershot example, but claims to have been built for only £30. The post details how the builder expanded and improved upon his original £30 wheel as well, going from about 25W to 50W constant, with a 500W peak.

The demo wheel was made out of some old ply and some Indian stone pallet wood and for a generator I used an old AMETEK dc tape drive motor. To gear it up I used mini-moto chain and sprocket – 70 tooth on Wheel and 9 tooth on the motor. Total cost about £30… It generated about 25W at full chat – mainly because of the restrictions of the AMETEC motor and the size of the wheel it ran for about 1 year and gave me a good grounding for producing the large wheel.

A Chinese peasant has made a solar water heater – using only beers bottles and hoses.

The beer bottles lie on a board in rows, all connected by hoses which allow cold water to flow through them and be heated by the sun.

Yet another one chalked up to the Mother of Invention! And another mother, too…

“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower at any time more comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, a carpenter, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi Province.

If you feel like constructing a similar system, check out the handy little diagram at Make, as well as a couple other alternate methods.

Also, an interesting alternative from my buddy, Tobus:

Man, that seems like a lot of work. A plain old black garden hose will do the job much better. Just lay it out in a frame in a back-n-forth manner like a radiator. The frame can be a wood box with a painted black bottom. Secure the hose inside and cover the top with a pane of glass. That would work so much better than beer bottles or flourescent light bulbs, and it’s a lot less work. Hell, even a regular green garden hose laying in the sunshine usually gets the water hot enough to scald me. If I want to use the water hose, I have to let the water run long enough so that it’s drawing cool well water before doing anything.

If the DIY community had a universal symbol, it most certainly would be a roll of duct tape. Inexpensive, abundant, strong, and ready to stick to nearly anything, this versatile DIY companion is a must in your DIY toolkit.

This LifeHacker post list some of the best (and most unusual) ways people have made use of duct tape over the years. Including:

Heal Warts with Duct Tape
How-To Make an RFID-blocking Duct Tape Wallet
Hang a Hammock with Duct Tape

And, perhaps the most useful prerequisite for all of the above:

How to Make Your Own Pocket Duct Tape Dispenser. Don’t leave home without it.

Along with these useful how-tos, this article delves into the history of our sticky, silver friend – and the love it has inspired in DIY hearts everywhere. Despite all this, an important question remains, as one commenter put it:

…How many [people] (besides myself) have ever used Duct Tape for – well – taping ducts?

Oh! Here’s one use that can’t go without mentioning – duct taping your buddies(?) to the wall. Enjoy, and may the Roll be with you!