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Blow stuff up?

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10,000V transformer, nice little base

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This year I was asked to speak at the Career Education Council’s Annual Business & Education Partnership Breakfast, where I gave one of my biggest speeches yet — on the topic of Innovation and Inspiration!

It was my first serious speech in front of a big audience, and I think it went quite well!

I definitely have lots to improve on for public speaking, but the audience response was fantastic.

And since I vlog everything… I  actually had the keynote recorded and have also included the transcript with graphics below for everyone else to check it out!

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Good morning everyone! Thanks for the kind introduction Stephen. In case you haven’t guessed yet – I’m a bit eccentric. In my free time I run a company called Hacksmith Industries — Because, sometimes I do things for shits and giggles. In fact — that’s my companies tag line. Who would of thought that could be profitable.

Anyway, let’s see a show of hands – who actually knows who I am? Haha, I guessed as much. Well if you search “Kitchener’s Mad Scientist” on Google, you’ll see anarticle the Record wrote about a project I did recently…

But first I’d like to clear something up – the paper might have been a bit overzealous in describing me as a mad scientist. I think this comic sums it up nicely. 

You see, I’d kind of consider myself a poor-man’s Tony Stark crossed with MacGyver. I’m an entrepreneur, an innovator, a writer, and I guess, a Mad Engineer. I’m not saying I want to take over the world… yet… But I do love technology. I can hardly separate myself from it — I’ve even got one of those smart watches — which is how I can tell you that my heart rate is only 89BPM and my perspiration levels are normal! For now… anyway — I mean the presentation has only just started… I’m also wearing a state of the art gesture control device. It’s called the Myo, and it’s from a Kitchener company called Thalmic Labs. 

It has EMG sensors that can tell what I’m doing with my arm and turn that into digital signals to control just about anything. But I’m not here to talk about the Myo. I’m just Beta testing a new presentation app for it. Which in case you’re interested, can be purchased on Amazon.

The reason I’m here to talk to you about is how to inspire innovation through passion for your work. 

It seems like a lot of people shy away from having big ideas because they’re stuck in the mindset that they don’t have what it takes or think they don’t have the right resources to become an inventor. But that’s a terribly negative mindset to have. Anyone can innovate. You just have to start somewhere. It doesn’t matter how small. I’ve never heard anyone say they wasted their life innovating and wished they had watched more TV. The point is — find your passion and do it.

I hear a lot of “well, I can’t re-invent the wheel” and you know what, you’re right. But you can innovate the wheel. 

Here’s an expanding wheel, here’s a wheel with no air and can’t be punctured… here’s a paddle tire for marine applications — the list goes on. We live in a day and age where so much technology already exists — many of the basic elements of technology have already been invented — but that’s not what you’re trying to invent. Never before has the human race had so much access to knowledge, ideas, and designs as we do now thanks to the internet. This means we’re all in the right place in order to innovate.

And that also means you don’t have to be backed by a multi-million-dollar company to do so, either! Let’s watch a quick clip about my exoskeleton.

Pretty cool right? Eh, I’ll be the first to tell you that this exoskeleton I made is nothing special. Seriously. It’s made from components and technology that has been around for well over 50 years. Many better prototypes exist. But for whatever reason, it caught people’s attention. A lot of people’s attention. 

I even ended up on the Daily Planet where I lifted almost twice as much weight as my original test — a 275lb barbell curl! Which I think is pretty close to the world record for a human.

Is it because it’s a revolutionary design? No — it’s literally something I threw together in my small garage. But that’s what makes it special. I’m bridging that gap where people think “I can’t do that — only big companies can do that!” and proving it is possible. The amount of kids on YouTube who have told me I’ve inspired them to become engineers is amazing — it seems to be working.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that you don’t have to invent the next big thing to make a splash — you just have to take something and repurpose it. It’s not about reinventing the wheel — it’s about slapping some new things on the wheel and seeing if it works any better.

The frustrating part is, you can’t expect to succeed with your first try, or even your second. It’s important to be confident in yourself, while at the same time it’s also important to be realistic and to entertain the idea of failure.

Confidence is great. It helps you take bigger risks, step outside of your comfort zone, and generally, achieve more – but confidence is a double-edged sword.  Over-confidence is one of the most common reasons for failure.

I learned this the hard way about 8 years ago. I co-lead my high school’s robotics team for Skills Canada. It was the first year we competed. We built this remote controlled soccer playing robot that would have to face off against two other robots per match. 

We won the regional competition… then the provincial… and then absolutely demolished the competition at nationals.

The following year, we competed again. We built an even better robot with the knowledge we gained from our first competitions. It was a tank. No seriously, it was literally a tank. 

We won Regionals, and went on to Provincials. Our robot was easily one of the most capable robots at the competition.

But at the end the day, we didn’t practice as much as we should have – it is remote controlled after all. We were eliminated in one of the final matches due to human error – on our part. It didn’t matter how good our robot was if we didn’t practice everything together. Were we arrogant? Possibly.

At the time, it sucked. But I learned first-hand the dangers of arrogance and over-confidence. It’s okay to be confident. But make sure that confidence is rooted in both yourself and your environment – not just in things you can control — there’s always the unknown.

That’s another thing about failure. Before considering any opportunity, consider the worst case outcome. 

Does anyone here remember Prison Break? It was a great show about a structural engineer who intentionally gets himself incarcerated to prison, to save his innocent brother on death row. He planned out the whole thing beforehand, complete with contingency plans for almost every possibility. You have your main plan, which you hope succeeds – it’s the preferable one. But then you have your fallback plan. If Plan A fails, Plan B takes over.

What most people don’t realize is that it is important to treat both your education and career with contingency plans. Doing this creates immense confidence in yourself – it reduces the risk, and in turn, encourages you to take those bigger risks, which can lead to bigger rewards, more easily.

Failure is just another hard lesson, but it’s one that will stick with you for life. But trust me, if you plan for it — it won’t be nearly as bad.

Over-confidence and contingency planning aside I guess the real question is how can you, as local business leaders and educators, help promote innovation and support the next generation of thinkers? 

Did anyone see this video clip in the news recently? 

There’s a movement of makers in the US that make prosthetics for children using 3D printing technology. Sometimes they make the prosthetics superhero themed. When Robert Downey Jr.’s people heard about an Iron Man themed prosthetic for a 7 year old boy named Alex, they orchestrated Tony Stark himself to give Alex his new arm. Talk about inspiring!

Now obviously we can’t all be Robert Downey Jr. and inspire people just by acting like a fictional character — and of course taking credit for some engineer’s work behind the scenes… but we can help promote innovation through education. Which is why I’d like to talk to you a bit about the company that I work for, and why I think they’re doing just that.

Ever heard of Christie Digital? No? I think we’re one of Kitchener’s best kept secrets, we’re actually a world-leader in digital projection and display technology. And one of the largest employers in Kitchener. All engineering and manufacturing is done on Wellington street with around 800 employees. It’s where Electrohome used to be — in fact, Christie bought Electrohome back in the 90s.

Galaxy cinemas uses Christie Digital exclusively, many of the universities and colleges do — theme parks, training facilities and huge outdoor venues too.

Any Star Trek buffs in the audience? We actually manufacture something we call the Cave —  you might be more familiar with the term Holodeck. Yup. We make that too. 

We also do projection mapping, where we can turn almost anything into a projection surface — like buildings or even cars!

But enough talking about it — how about I show you a little clip of some of our coolest tech?

InfoComm 2014 – Christie has all that jazz! from Christie on Vimeo.

We even have a medical department and produce a device called the VeinViewer — it can actually see under your skin — x-ray vision? Not quite. 

You see, how it works is actually quite simple. Skin reflects infrared light, but the hemoglobin in your blood absorbs it. This means if you take an infrared image of someone’s skin — the skin will actually appear kind of transparent. What we’ve done is created a device with an infrared camera that can project a real-time image of what it’s seeing — on your skin. Quite literally giving you that x-ray effect we used to see in old cartoons — here stand behind this screen…

Now as you can imagine, Christie is a pretty innovative company — but not just in what they manufacture, but in their workforce too. Christie has had a co-op program since 2006, hiring over 100 post-secondary students a year into our workforce. We’re highly involved in the co-op experience. We go to job fairs, do networking events, and even host mock interviews to help students hone their skills. And it’s not just for engineering students. We also hire business, finance, and even marketing students in the company. Most recently we’ve even opened up the co-op program to include high school students! Co-op learning is integral to preparing students for the real world, with real job experience. An actual taste of your potential future career.

We don’t stop there either. Like universities’ co-op programs, we also have our own internal lesson plan for our students. We provide training and multiple check in points during the term — not to mention a final presentation the students are required to give the company and upper management on the projects they have worked on and what they have learned during the term. It puts a name to a face working on a particular project. It also allows the company to benefit from the co-ops work experience and lessons learned. It’s an excellent opportunity for learning — and if the students impress management in their presentations, they might even get a permanent position out of it — like I did.

So what about that exoskeleton? 

Well, besides being used for promotional media for Conestoga College — where I did my engineering degree — my 15-minutes of internet fame actually helped get some funding towards developing an exoskeleton that I might eventually commercialize. I also hope to get into more medical applications for this kind of technology. I’m actually going to be working with someone I met through YouTube from BC who has muscular atrophy — we’re starting work on a kind of exoskeleton-neck upgrade for his wheelchair. And I’m also happy to announce I just mortgaged my very first garage  — I mean house… Well, I bought it for the garage. 

So if you’re interested future exoskeleton development, and seeing the transformation of this slightly run down building into what I hope will be a world-class engineering facility  — in my very own backyard — I’m thinking it’ll be a cross between Tony Stark’s basement and the Batcave, as you can see, I’ve already started designing it… 

Please follow me on YouTube for updates — there’s a link on my website at www.thehacksmith.ca

So, to recap — don’t be afraid to innovate — you can do it. Have confidence in yourself, but be prepared for a few surprises. I hope I’ve helped you realize that it doesn’t matter what your passion is — as long as you’re doing it. Just as I hope my creativity has inspired you, allow your creativity and energy to inspire and educate others and we’ll have a world full of innovators.   

I would like to leave you with a quote by T.E. Laurence which I believe very strongly in.

Don’t be afraid to dream big. Relish in your daydreams and fantasies of the future. If you truly believe in the dream, and yourself, you might just find the universe will bend to your will and make it happen.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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By buying an awesome Game of Thrones style bamboo cutting board!

 Head on over to our
Etsy shop
to find out more information! Starting at just $20!

 

33cm x 17cm

26cm x 38cm

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The following is an excerpt from a book I haven’t written yet, about my first big plunge as an entrepreneur, and the difficulties in leaving a stable job for the unknown. Enjoy!

———————————————-

As I stared at my resignation letter, many thoughts and feelings rushed through my head. Should I hit send? Is now the right time? Will it ever be the right time?

I had been thinking about it for weeks, months, or maybe even the entire time I’ve been here. It was always the plan to eventually leave — the only question was when. But until now it had always just been a little itch in the back of my head. It was always a few months away, maybe even years. But in the past few weeks I had hit a point of desperation, where it seemed like my only step forward.

So why is it I was having such a hard time hitting the send button?

I had toyed with setting up the email to automatically deliver on a certain date, at a certain time. That way my inaction to cancel the script would result in my resignation. A cheap trick to see how serious I really am about the whole thing. But I never set up the script. Yet now, as I sit at my desk, mouse hovering over the send button I still have my doubts. 

My hand slipped. 

The mouse skittered away from the send button, as erratic as a fruit fly. 

Why couldn’t I do it? I read the letter again. Did I phrase it right? I didn’t want to burn any bridges. I doubt it would’ve mattered if I did. But as a matter of principle, I wanted to leave on good terms. Even though I doubt I’ll ever come back. 

Two weeks notice would set me free in early November. What would I do for those two weeks? Can I even put in two weeks of work in my current state? As I saw it, no. But if I don’t hand in the resignation, I’m just wasting my time here anyway — and the company’s time. Maybe I owe it to them to leave.

Maybe they’d accept only a one week notice.

As I pondered my options my eyes drifted up the grey cubicle walls. I used to have them covered in certificates, pictures, and reference materials, but ever since I moved desks a few months ago I had never got around to putting them back up. All but one. I had my newspaper article posted as a reminder of what I could be capable of, if I only tried. The headline read:

“Far-out engineering projects energize him”. 

It wasn’t like we didn’t do cool projects here at work. But I was never a real part of them — it’s just the nature of big companies — can’t make everyone happy. I always volunteered to run tours through the company though. As I would lead groups of professionals or students through the halls I’d explain energetically about all the wonderful technology we were creating and the power of innovation. 

Was it a lie? 

No. I really did love this company — ever since I had my first co-op here I had thought, this is a great place to work. And it has been. I guess it’s just not for me anymore. 

My hand shifted. My eyes refocused. The mouse hovered over the send button once again.

I pressed down on the mouse. It made a satisfying *click*.

The decision was made.

———————————————-

My last day of working for “the man” was November 11th, 2015.  My friends and coworkers were very supportive of my decision, recognizing I can and will do more working for myself — and maybe even make a difference in this world:

Since my last day, I’ve focused on expanding my own business ventures, and things have gone surprisingly well.

I look forward to 2016 and what new adventures it will bring me! Happy Holidays!

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We did it! For more information watch the entire 12 part series leading up to this test, or check out our coverage on Hackaday! Video after the break:

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We made our very own stainless steel Batarangs for under $5 each!

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice just came out so we decided to do some batman themed gadgets. It was a lot of fun to make and the best part is that it actually worked.

Click here for the full video playlist.

Project design goals

• Build a working grappling hook and rappel device that will detach and wind up for reuse.
• Functional. Batman gadgets need to be reliable; because your life depends on it.
• Small. These gadgets must be able to be carried easily or worn on a belt
• Aesthetically pleasing. Bruce Wayne has a lot of money to waste and requires all of his gadgets to look awesome.

We started by designing and building a clamp linkage inspired by a pallet clamp.

And then we made it bat themed…

We got this laser cut out of 1/8″ stainless steel at Ontario Laser Cutting Inc.

Next was the rappel device. There are rappel devices on the marked such as ATCs or GriGri but they are designed to use with 9-11mm diameter ropes. Ropes this large are too large for batman to use so instead, we used Kevlar rope and had to design our own belay device.

It was a little tricky and took a few iterations to get the belay device to work properly. Turns out, it is a lot more difficult to grip a 2.5mm kevlar rope than a 10mm climbing rope. This lead to some failed descents as well as some rope burn.

If you’re interested in making your own grappling hook, we sell DIY kits, and fully assembled deluxe versions on our Etsy store. Oh, we also sell Batarangs too!

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You know that electromagnet Captain America uses in Age of Ultron to retract his shield? Yeah, we made that! And it actually works with our replica Captain America shield.

As soon as I saw Age of Ultron, I knew I had to make this! Now, with the release of Civil War, I decided I had waited long enough.

Not being an actual superhero, my arm needs padding, lots and lots of padding. So we started with a pair shin / knee pads that happen to fit my arm pretty well, provide good padding, and good structure to mount to. Next, we welded up a frame around the bracer with a handle to hold onto. A good strong handle is essential for holding the 30lbs of magnets and shield. The handle is also a good place for the button so we cut out a pocket and dropped in a 50A momentary push button. A little bit of hockey tape and was good to go.

It was then time for the magnets. We first experimented with the primary coil of a microwave transformer and these worked pretty well. Good strength but a lot of current and a lot of heat which is a problem for wearable tech. Magnetic force if linearly proportional to both the number of coils and current. Therefore by increasing the number of coils, we can reduce the current and heat while maintaining the same magnetic force. Instead of winding thousands of coils ourselves, we bought some industrial electromagnets from Amazon.  These things are powerful! At just 12v and 1.5A they will lift over 260 lbs. That means by running them at 72V, each magnet will pull close to 1600lbs… for a short period of time before they overheat and burn out. I love safety factors. Conveniently, they also come with an m8 threaded hole on the back so we bolted them right onto the arm bracer.  For the purpose of expedience, we ignored the fact that electromagnets are large inductors will probably destroy our 50A power button. It’s ok. They are cheap.

We are powering this monster with 3 lithium polymer battery packs from hobby king. Lithium batteries are awesome. Each of these batteries can pump out up to 175A at 24V.

Captain America is nothing without his shield… Well, nothing more than a super soldier. Luckily, MachinaProps makes solid aluminum replica shields. These things are the real deal. Check out how they make them below.

We also got a replica Captain American leather jacket from SleekHides on Amazon. This is a motorcycle jacket with removable armor. This is important because we mounted magnets in the back so we can holster the shield. Wicked!

The projects not quite done yet — stay tuned (and better yet, subscribe to our YouTube channel) for the next video where we really test this shield to its limits!

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I recently had the opportunity to give a TEDx talk in Kansas City, completing a life goal of mine in the process!

TEDxKC is one of the largest TEDx events in the world, and the biggest in the USA — it’s almost as large as most full TED events!

Below is the transcript of my speech if you’re interested in reading instead of watching:

Fiction, Reality, or Both?

It’s a common observation that the biggest challenge for fantasy and science fiction writers is to create worlds more fantastic than this one – to stay ahead of reality, keeping things larger than life.

Writers can dream up entire cities, worlds, universes, filled with amazing characters, thrilling events, and new technologies. There really is no limit to their imagination. They don’t have to explain, or even know how something works – just that it does. As an engineer I wish technological invention was that simple! But it’s not.

That being said, what if we could take some of those ideas, and actually make them work in real life? If you’re a speculative fiction writer or filmmaker, I’m trying to make your work outdated. Because what I do — though sometimes impractical — is turn fiction into reality.

It’s a YouTube channel called the Hacksmith — and we have a video series called Make it Real. We take ideas from comic books, video games, movies, or even TV shows — and then make real working prototypes. In fact, I quit my job as a Product Developer for a tech company almost a year ago to pursue these zany inventions — and my YouTube channel full-time.

Anyway, before I show you that work, I’d like to talk briefly about Arthur C. Clarke, a British science fiction writer. You may know him from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He formulated three prediction-related adages that are known as Clarke’s Three Laws:

Clarke’s first law
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

This suggests that the advance of science increases possibility and decreases impossibility. We all know this. Many things we believed were impossible just a few decades ago are now not only possible, but commonly accepted realities that we all depend on. To sum it up, don’t write stuff off as impossible at first glance.

Clarke’s second law
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

The technologies available to us today are just asking to be combined in new ways not thought of before — this is a time for innovators to thrive. I love making crazy stuff, just to see if I can get it to work. And I’m not alone. I’m sure many of you are the same way.  The beauty is, you don’t have to have a reason to do this. Attracting VC funding or building a business may not be your goal at all.

Clarke’s third law
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Think about television. Imagine you’d gone into a coma 100 years ago and awakened today to find people watching videos on a screen, you’d surely think it was some kind of magic. Even if someone explained how it works, clearly and accurately, the engineering marvel that we all take for granted, you might still believe there must be magic involved. Who could blame you? It’s nuts.

Television content has often seemed indistinguishable from magic, too. “Beam me up” might as well be “abra-cadabra” – and while a TV may just be “teleporting” electrical signals to create an image — how far off are we from teleporting physical things, or even, living things? Do you really believe that teleportation is absolutely impossible? If so, are you an elderly scientist?

How many ideas have been written as fiction, only to become reality years later? Star Trek is a precursor to many consumer electronics that we all know. So much so, you could even call it… Star Treknology.

Bad puns aside, the most ubiquitous example is the Communicator – or, as we like to call it – the cell phone. From Star Trek Command Tablets to iPads. We might not have spaceship tractor beams, but there’s a technology called Acoustic Levitation that uses soundwaves to suspend and move objects in air. They even invented the bluetooth earbud… sadly 30 years later and it still looks silly. From a universal translation wand, to Google Translate — available on any phone or computer. Heck, I used to work at a company that made Holodecks! And Virtual Reality tech is soon to revolutionize the entire market. Honestly, I’m kind of jealous of today’s youth, because they are going to see more technological advancement than any other generation before.

Now, all of those examples are genuinely useful products. But what about all the other outlandish inventions dreamt up that really have no commercial viability? This is a real shame for those of us who grew up wishing, hoping and dreaming for the things we saw on TV, in movies and in comics to be real.  

Fortunately, I and many other people don’t care about commercial viability. We just want to build cool science fiction inventions. We are working hard every day to turn science fiction into reality, just for the hell of it.

And funny enough, we’ve found our home on the internet, where we can document our projects for the world to see. We’re not concerned with people copying our ideas and trying to make a quick buck – we encourage it.  Creating these inventions is not for capital gain, it’s for the pursuit of innovation, inspiration and entertainment – pushing the envelope to see just how far it can stretch. How can we know what’s impossible, if we don’t at least try? We’ve received countless messages, emails, and comments from youth around the world telling us how we’ve inspired them to look into technology and engineering related careers — which is reward itself for what we’re doing.

I personally run a series on YouTube called Make it Real, where we take fictional ideas from comics, movies, and video games, and make real working prototypes.

I started with Wolverine claws, built a pneumatic exoskeleton based off the movie Elysium, that evolved into an exoskeleton based off of the game Call of Duty, made a Batman-style grappling hook and rappelling device, an electromagnetic Captain America shield, and I’m even crazy enough to strap solid fuel rockets to my wrists in order to try flying like Iron Man – if only for a few seconds.

And if you think I’m crazy, well, I’m not alone. There are many inventors and innovators out there doing just the same thing.  Allen Pan, a friend of mine, made a working Mjolnir – uh, Thor’s Hammer. In Norse mythology, it was said only those who possessed the power of Thor could lift said hammer. Allen took this literally, and added an electronic fingerprint scanner to the device. Most importantly, a high-powered electromagnet ensures that not even the world’s strongest man can wield the power of Thor.

Oh, and remember the third law? Allen’s YouTube channel is called “Sufficiently Advanced”.

We can’t forget about the most unconventional inventor of us all, a British ex-plumber by the name of Colin Furze. Colin puts Engineers to shame with his self taught design and fabrication skills that are second to none. One of his latest inventions includes designing and building a hoverbike — in just a few short weeks. Now granted, it’s not the safest hoverbike ever dreamed up… but at least he is wearing his safety tie.

Now Colin was able to build this because he is an absolute master fabricator, expert welder and all around… mad genius. But what he’s not, is someone with experience in aerodynamics. And I think this is a testament to today’s advancing technology. He was able to create a vehicle capable of flight in a matter of weeks — versus the years it took the Wright Brothers. All he needed was the crazy idea to build it — and the technology to power it.

Humanity has never had as much technology readily available as we do today. Allowing anyone to innovate and create their wildest dreams — just by ordering a few components online and putting them together in a new way.

If that’s not inspiring — I don’t know what is. So what are you waiting for?

Follow your most out-there creative impulses. Help us blur the line between fiction and reality. Most of the people in your life are not going to get it. They won’t understand how you could possibly spend so much time making things for no other reason than that you want to see if they can actually be made. Those people will not help you. But for every out-there idea, you may also find co-conspirators out there. These are really your people.

They’re after the same thing you are: a future that seems like magic.

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This video was made in collaboration with Jairus’. Check out his awesome channel  here: https://www.youtube.com/user/jairust.

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Every once in a while we like to take an idea from a video game… and make a real working prototype. On this week’s episode of MAKE IT REAL we’re building Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer — and then we’re going to test it out in the most destructive way possible!

And let’s see how it does against a junkyard car!

The hammer was made out of cold rolled steel. Plasma cut to shape, grinded, and then welded and painted. It took about 15 hours in total to build. The rockets we’re using are G-Class rockets that produce around 30lbs of thrust. They are the largest rocket you can buy without a rocketry license!

The hammer weighs about 50lbs and with the handle fully extended measures 4′ — it’s pretty hard to wield!

We also smashed up a broken Organ pretty good. Omar Isuf, a fitness YouTuber from Toronto came down to help swing the hammer:

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On this week’s episode of Make it Real, we made Wolverine’s Adamantium claws for the release of the movie Logan! They really work, and are better than CGI effects.

Unfortunately we’re not biomedical engineers so we weren’t able to make them come out of our hands… But they can be used to recreate many scenes from the movies — without the need for CGI!

We originally built the claws quite a few years ago when the Hacksmith was doing an internship at a local machine shop. Basing them off of the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), the claws measure 33CM (13”) and are made of high carbon steel, nickel plated for a mirror finish.

They took approximately 20 hours to manufacture. The outline was waterjet cut, the blade details were machined on a CNC, it was hand ground to shape, and then TIG welded together. The entire assembly was then nickel plated to create a mirror finish. To see the full process watch the original video below.

Since Logan just released, we decided to revisit this project with a bit of electricity. We electrified the claws to give them a realistic sparking effect — in our opinion, a little bit better than CGI.

To create a sparking effect better than the original CGI in X-Men Origins, a car battery was connected to the claws, positive on one claw, negative on the other. When connecting the claws together, the car battery is short-circuited, resulting in big sparks! These sparks can draw anywhere from 200-300A, which the car battery can safely provide (rated for over 1000A cranking). The sparks are actually tiny bits of superheated metal coming from the claws – so the effect does slightly damage the props. Basically, the claws are acting like a resistor – becoming red hot, melting, and shooting little bits of molten metal away at high-speed for a glorious effect.

They get hot enough to even melt through certain materials!

While we have no intention of making more of these for collectors, we’ve found a great pair that are available online in case you want to buy your own! And don’t forget to pick up a custom Wolverine jacket too!

If you liked this project, check out some of our others!

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After playing around with EDFs (electric ducted fans) for the Iron Man Flight project, the Hacksmith has already tested using EDFs for propulsion on both a bicycle, and a longboard!

With winter well underway, he’s successfully implemented the EDFs onto a snowboard, for high speed fun in the powder. Capable of speeds of over 40km/h, it can even go up slight inclines, though gathering momentum first certainly helps.

After producing the first build video, a local Ski Resort (Glenn Eden) actually invited the team to their slope and closed off a run to test out the snowboard. It worked exactly as expected. Ridiculously difficult to control, balance, and steer – but the test pilots managed to get some good footage of the jet powered snowboard in action.

For any other questions about the project, please email contact@thehacksmith.com

Specs:

• 2x 120mm EDF from Hobby King, 8000W input power, 8Kg Thrust (Equivalent to 10.5HP per motor)
• 8x 6200maH 6s Lithium Polymer Batteries (22.2V each)
• System voltage 44.4V
• Battery life… 5 minutes
• 3D printed brackets

Welded steel frame

The post How Fast Does a 21HP Jet Powered Snowboard Go? appeared first on Hacksmith Industries.

We took a Nerf Longstrike… and turned it into a Plasma Rifle from Mass effect.

A plasma rifle is not an easy task but the Hacksmith team took it a step further and did it as a One Day Build. This build was part of their Make it Real YouTube series where they take fictional ideas from comics, movies, and video games and make real working prototypes!

So how do you build a plasma rifle anyways? Well, it doesn’t actually shoot plasma. But that is alright because what it does shoot is just as cool; red hot ferrocerium which explodes on impact into a cloud of sparkling shrapnel in excess of 3000 degrees Celcius (5430 F)!

So how does a mad scientist go about superheating a combustible ferrous compound then shoot it without blowing themselves up? It’s quite simple really. Just make an air gun that shoots a custom over the barrel ferrocerium dart, heat the ferrocerium with a 1000W induction coil until it is glowing red hot and then shoot. The only problem is that if you let it get too hot, it will explode in your face which the Hacksmith experienced first hand.

The Hacksmith team is planning a big test video to really see how much damage their Mass Effect Plasma Gun can do. I can’t wait to see what they blow up in their tests.

Parts list:

• Longstrike  Nerf gun http://amzn.to/2mQnSXP
• 1000W Induction heater http://amzn.to/2mQvjOU
• 2 x Zippy 6s 6.4Ah 40C lipo batteries https://goo.gl/aeSDei
• ZIPPY Compact 1000mAh 3S 25C Lipo battery https://goo.gl/8pjJde
• Turnigy 8AWG Silicone Wire https://goo.gl/ZH5fi0
• Turnigy power meter https://goo.gl/slr3nH
• XT150 Wire connectors https://goo.gl/yGhxWh
• Slide Valve ½“ NPT http://amzn.to/2mWY9Pf
• Ball Valve ½” NPT http://amzn.to/2nhrapR
• Quick-Connect Plug, 1/2″ NPT http://amzn.to/2mCFCFo
• Steel Pipe Nipple, 1/2″ NPT http://amzn.to/2nMKWpE
• Ferrocerium http://amzn.to/2mD19xD

Building Steps

1. Take a nerf gun, gut it, paint it, and throw a mass effect logo on it
2. Make a custom over the barrel pneumatic gun.
3. Put air gun in gutted nerf gun
4. Use a string from the nerf trigger to trip the quick release valve
5. Mount an induction heater on the end of the nerf gun
6. Slap some batteries on to power the induction coil
7. Mill a custom aluminum dart with a Tormach PCNC 440
8. Add some ferrocerium onto the end of the dart
9. Use the induction coil to heat the ferrocerium
10. Shoot and watch the awesome sparking light show.

The post MASS EFFECT PLASMA RIFLE NERF MOD appeared first on Hacksmith Industries.

The celebrated Swedish engineer Torbjorn — from the Blizzard game Overwatch — lays low his foes in-game with the assistance of his upgrade-able turret. That has ‘Make It Real’ written all over it for Hacksmith Industries. So, what do you do when an ambitious new employee wants to build Torbjörn’s autonomous turret? You damn well let them build Torbjörn’s autonomous turret!

Spearheading the build, Bogdan managed to resurrect a broken stage gimbal that had been languishing in the corner of the shop, shrouded in unfulfilled potential for a few years. With his command of technological wizardry, swift work was made of the turret’s tech hurdles. The necessary application of fire was not forgotten during the process.

Behold!- the materialization of Bogdan’s prowess!

The turret’s manual mode takes advantage of an FPV setup and laser sight so you can make…. specific targeting choices. If that sounds like too much work, the automated targeting mode uses a Pixy camera that tracks a target colour with fearsome accuracy; right now it’s tracking blue, but that’ll likely change on a weekly(or daily — who knows?!) basis to keep the staff on their toes as they enter the shop. Constant vigilance is a fundamental quality James and Ian demand of their employees!

Two beefy 24V D/C motors, using huge chains, turn and pitch the turret’s paintball gun which is held in place with 3D printed mounts. One could — in theory — ride this turret as it spins about, though at present that’s ill-advised considering its power. All the electronic components were supplied by Digi-Key, the cosmetic additions — installed using Hacksmith movie magic — were made from molded and painted foam, and clever use of the laser cutter helped round out a homage to the Torbjörn’s original.

Stay tuned for the demonstration video where we show off just what this thing is capable of!

The post Make It Real: Torbjörn’s Turret (Overwatch) appeared first on Hacksmith Industries.

As you may know, the Iron Man EDF flight system has been the central project around Hacksmith Industries for quite some time now. In the meantime, the crew could use a fun project once in a while to blow off some steam, and James needs to log some flight hours in preparation. Zip lines are easier than outright flight and still super fun, so the team has set about installing a zip line that runs from the back of the workshop to the derelict princess castle at the far end of the lot.

The zip line itself is made from kevlar string, rated up to about 2000 pounds of tension.  Some quick math suggests that with James flying along, the string will sag about five feet, and the resulting tension will be about 1800 pounds – 200 pounds shy of breaking while James’ body is on the line. Not exactly a safe margin for error, right?

That settles that. I guess it’s time to set it up and test it out.

The first attempts ran into a few –literal– snags, but obstacles in the runway aside, the zip line works and is as fun as expected. Still, that’s not quite enough for Hacksmith Industries. Sometimes, you still have to up the ante. How would a Hacksmith go about doing that?

Fire. Fire is the answer, obviously. Would zip lining THROUGH fire be cool? Trick question — but you get bonus points for trying! The correct answer is it would be freaking awesome.

Consider the ante upped. Your move, backyard zip line enthusiasts!  Wait – don’t have your own? Well, like the video and we’ll post a tutorial on how to build a far safer version of for your backyard. Just, please, leave the fire to the professionals.

The post Zip Line Made With Kevlar String ! appeared first on Hacksmith Industries.

Just in time for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 we decided to try our hand at making one of Star-Lord’s most iconic gadgets — his new jet pack!

The post Make it Real: Star-Lord’s Jet Pack appeared first on Hacksmith Industries.