In spot welding mode

DIY spot welder for sheet steel with OSM-1.0 transformer

The welding apparatus I built is a modernized version of a device that has proven itself well in practice; its description and sketches were published in the magazine Modelist-Konstruktor No. 3, 1966. The main point is that the new “welder” is significantly more powerful than its predecessor, and simpler to build and operate. Without any Read more…

Walking on water

Foam water skis for hunting and fishing in wetlands

I live in Siberia and have been fond of hunting and fishing for a long time. Our places are wonderful. There are many rivers and lakes rich in fish and game. I love hunting waterfowl most of all. But sometimes it is impossible to get it: impassable bogs, floodplains, quaking bogs, impenetrable reeds. I thought Read more…

Magic hammer

Hammer-forming a car body: practical DIY guide

From my own experience I know that after publishing a homemade car in the magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor” (as with mine in the January 1971 issue), authors receive letters from many cities asking them to share their own experience. Now, during the crisis, when the opportunities of amateur builders are as limited as possible, I want to Read more…

Folding workbench

Folding universal workbench for the home workshop

I arrived at the design of this universal (as I believe) workbench — an essential work table for a home craftsman — after several years of technical creativity. I designed it based on my own needs. But I think that most other home handymen have roughly the same requirements for similar workshop equipment. The workbench Read more…

The backpack isn’t a foreigner

School rucksack DIY: materials, pattern and assembly

Students use all kinds of “containers” for textbooks on their way to school — from fashionable backpacks and briefcases to canvas sacks and plastic bags. But while older students are allowed to do this without any restrictions, young children still have clear recommendations from pediatricians: only a rucksack! Because when worn on the back, it Read more…

Solar-powered dryer

Solar fruit dryer: design and operating principle

Fruits are dried in different ways. Most often — by the air-solar method, which, besides obvious advantages (simplicity, availability, etc.), has well-known drawbacks. The proposed solar dryer design is free of many disadvantages inherent in other constructions. The “greenhouse effect” works in it, as they say, at full capacity, providing a temperature under the film Read more…

It lights and “warms”

DIY wooden wall sconce: build guide and charts

In a modern home interior, factory-made and homemade furniture items or other products can blend organically. Moreover, a few unconventional crafts can change the look of a typical apartment, give it individuality, create coziness, and even bring a sense of “warmth.” Moreover, these simple things can serve a utilitarian (practical) purpose, a decorative one, or Read more…

Not a spring, but gravity

Gravity wicket gate that closes itself with no extra parts

The finishing touch of any dacha fence is, as everyone knows, a wicket gate. Country homeowners often equip them with simple devices that automatically close the gate after someone passes through — steel springs, rubber tension cords, counterweight weights… However, all these “automatic” mechanisms have drawbacks, and the main one is that they all require Read more…

The all-terrain vehicle changes its shoes

Pneumatic all-terrain vehicle by B. Ryzhov: 4x4 build

The author of the article and the creator of the all-terrain vehicle discussed here is Boris Nikolayevich Ryzhov — a long-time acquaintance of our magazine’s readers. Photographs of the machines he built (a tracked and a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle) were published in the magazine as early as 1990 (No. 7). But the desire to create Read more…