Designing internal stairs — for example, attic stairs — is often troublesome. For comfortable, large flights there is usually not enough room, and they end up very steep, which is quite dangerous, especially for older people. In one issue of an old Czechoslovak magazine, an interesting compromise design was proposed, which we offer to our Read more…
I offer readers of our favorite magazine an automatic plant watering and spraying system of my own design, which has proven itself both indoors and in a greenhouse, winter garden, and flower bed. It consists of two interconnected subsystems: “sensor — water supply” (fig. 1) and an electronic control unit (fig. 2). While the first Read more…
This mini-tractor was built in the Pavlov family’s amateur design bureau: under the head of the family, Valery Vasilyevich, it was assembled by his sons Sergey and Andrei. All three are long-time regular readers of «Modelist-Konstruktor» magazine. The compact tractor, named SAP (S. and A. Pavlov) by its makers, was developed as a universal agricultural Read more…
The so-called architecture of small forms is undeservedly forgotten on garden plots. For example, pergolas and trellises are light openwork structures, usually covered with plants and forming freestanding “green” walls, gazebos, or covered alleys. Blending organically into the surrounding plantings, they create cozy corners sheltered from direct sunlight. In this KDM issue we want to Read more…
No matter how small a rural plot may be, cultivating it takes a fair amount of work and daily chores. One moment you need to plant something, the next you need to loosen the soil or hill plants up. And all of this usually has to be done bent over or squatting, which makes your Read more…
In two evenings I built a simple but productive concrete mixer that makes work on country-site construction much easier and faster. I was building a garage from 400x200x200 mm concrete blocks that I formed myself using formwork and this very mixer. It is made from an old 50–60 litre barrel. Anyone can assemble something similar Read more…
More and more often the editorial office receives letters and phone calls with the same request — to publish drawings and explain how to build a simple flour mill with your own hands. The need for such a device is felt not only by rural residents but also by city dwellers. “Modelist-Constructor” has already written Read more…
This is not about dancing in the garden beds, but about an original garden-and-vegetable tool that makes labor-intensive work—performed for ages with a spade (at best—with special forks)—possible even for elderly people (the author and test person of this design is already over seventy). Despite the “tortured” “formula of invention” by the patent office—“A device Read more…
The magazine “Modelist-Konstruktor” has published many thematic selections about simple but effective homemade devices that no smallholding can do without (see, for example, issues 7’92, 5’95, 6’97, 6’99). However, interest in such designs has not faded even today, as shown by the editorial mail. V. Solonin — inventor and rationalizer, one of our magazine’s active Read more…
In “M-K” No. 4 for 1989, an article devoted to skis-boats… was published. I read it and regretted that I hadn’t written to the editors earlier, nor shared my developments with the readers of “M-K”. Of course, the idea of float-skis is not new. But enthusiasts of this “vehicle” constantly repeat the mistakes of their Read more…
