If you have an interest in medieval weapons of war such as catapults and trebuchets, you've probably thought about building a miniature version at some point or another. The problem is that you'd need to try to think of all the various sizes of wood and hardware you'd need and then make several trips to the store to buy it all 'cuz you know you wouldn't remember everyone on the first trip!

Instead of all that hassle, why not simply buy a ready-made Wooden War Engine Kit and get down to building your concept? There are currently two kits available, one for making a trebuchet and another for building a classic catapult design. Everything you need is included in the kits except a bit of glue, your fingers, and a cutting device (you probably want a razor saw).

You can get choose a Wooden War Engine Kit (or get both!) for $20 or $35 depending on which you choose. Get those things built and start a war with the guy in the next cube who makes annoying sounds all day!

Ask anyone who drinks alcohol and has a job if they've ever wanted to have a cold one at work and the answer is almost certainly yes (or they're lying ). Almost no company will allow you to have beer at work and very few will allow a personal refrigerator of any type.

Well, this guy got around the problem. He "hacked" a small dorm-fridge by mounting some office-paper boxes on the front so that it looks like nothing but a stack of office supplies. Little does the passer-by know that hidden behind the boxes is a nice, cold 6-pack of beer!

Great idea!

[Thanks]

The Angle-izer may have a questionable name, but it is a tool that is obviously very handy for cutting angles and shapes into raw materials. You can use the tool to fit ceramic tile into an odd corner or bevel a piece of trim to fit your latest DIY furniture masterpiece.

The Angle-izer is made from durable glass-filled-nylon and uses thumbscrews for quick adjustment. A Windows software disc is included to help you fit pieces into circular shapes or arches. The Angle-izer is only $24.50 and will definitely help you with "measure twice, cut once," so it'll pay for itself!

The wooden iPod is part of a larger project where he wants to woodify everything on his desk. However, the iPod mod is one of the better looking projects and actually looks pretty classy with the deeply polished beautiful wood he used.

The entire iPod case has been replaced with a hand-made wood replica -- this is not just a veneer over the old iPod. Since the device maintains the same dimensions as the original, it can still be used with the plethora of iPod accessories and docks. The workmanship is pretty impressive when you look at how he duplicated the plastic case in nearly every way.

Head over to the construction details at Bit-Tech to see lots of great photos and a description of the process.

At first, United Nuclear's magnets appear to be fairly normal, similar to what you'd find by taking apart a hard drive. Those kind are many times more powerful than the average kitchen magnet most people are familiar with.

However, as you scroll about halfway down the page, you hit a section with a big header that says "Supermagnets". That's where things get interesting. These monstrous magnets are so powerful, they will disrupt computer monitors and attract metal objects just be being in the same room. Allowing two of these super-magnets to come together unexpectedly can break your arm or cause serious damage from flying objects. Wow!

I wonder how they ship these things. If they're so powerful, does the UPS guy notice things moving around the truck and do any video tapes on the truck arrive completely ruined?

You can learn more about these ultra powerful magnets at United Nuclear's magnet homepage. The supermagnets start at $75. Smaller, more manageable magnets are much cheaper. They also sell a magnetic-sensitive liquid which can be used to duplicate the cool experiments you may have seen in science class or in video clips. Neat stuff!

A good friend made this for me as a gift. It's an old set of hard drive platters which he cleverly mounted a clock mechanism into. The mechanism extends through the hole that is already present in the spindle, which makes this pretty much a "no tool" project. Applying adhesive numbers to the front gives it a typical clock layout.

This is a really neat idea and shows what you can do with "old junk" you have laying around and a little bit of creativity!

The open-source robot can be controlled via a Java control center over USB or wireless. The wireless module allows a range of up to 300 feet. Interestingly, the on-board digital video camera is capable of 640x480 resolution, but is limited to 320x200 by the software.

You can hack the code or even roll your own to make it do anything you want. The included control software for the ARM processor is written in GNUARM C allowing easy modification.

The SRV-1 is available via ThinkGeek at an out-of-this-world price of $375. And, for that much, it's fully assembled.