A Solarium for Cucumbers

DIY school cold frame from slate and plastic film

The development of agriculture depends not only on the work of professionals, but also on the initiative of those who from childhood are fond of technology and experiments. Schoolchildren can also contribute to this cause: growing new crops on training plots, designing agricultural tools, and creating compact mechanized devices that make work on the land Read more…

The Angler’s Gear Box

DIY duralumin ice fishing seat box (kofr)

An equipped ice-fishing enthusiast is easy to spot among other people by a special seat-box, which many nowadays call a “kofr” (tackle seat chest). After all, an ice fisherman without a kofr is like a tourist without a backpack, a mushroom picker without a basket, or a hunter without a game bag. That is why Read more…

Mini Winch

DIY mini-winch: drawings and how it works

After the 1990s, the flood of all kinds of previously scarce goods onto store shelves by no means cooled the imagination and enthusiasm of DIY makers. Proof of that is the “Russkiy Masterovoy” club, founded in 1992 in Chelyabinsk and uniting proactive and creative craftsmen. Over the years, the club has accumulated considerable experience in Read more…

“Snowflake” with a Motor

Snezhinka micro snowmobile with D-5 engine for fishing

What ice-fishing enthusiast doesn’t dream of a convenient, lightweight vehicle to get quickly to those prized perch holes? In one of the issues of Modelist-Konstruktor I read about N. Ibragimov’s motor iceboat design and decided to build a similar machine. I fitted an engine and a wheel from a Tourist motor scooter. During tests the Read more…

Safety Bars

Jawa motorcycle crash bars with oil reserve

I want to share my version of making crash bars, which I installed on a Jawa motorcycle and which have been serving reliably for more than a year now. Fellow motorcyclists became interested in their design: they took measurements, the shape, and so on. So I decided to offer them to the magazine’s readers. Many Read more…

A Flower Bed on Wheels

Mobile demountable flower box on casters

In addition to traditional flower beds on suburban plots, mobile flower gardens that can be moved or relocated when needed are becoming increasingly popular. The designs of such flower gardens can vary widely. An interesting and highly versatile option, and at the same time extremely simple to make, was proposed by the French magazine “Systeme Read more…

Hand-Powered Mower

DIY hand mower for thick-stemmed plants

Everyone knows how corn and sunflowers grow. But few people can picture what harvesting them looks like. On large areas, of course, combines and other machines are used, while on small ones — say, school or experimental plots — lawn shears are still used to this day. Yet such work is very tiring and, more Read more…

A Simple First Snowmobile

Sugrober KM-125 snowmobile: DIY school project

The snowmobile described in this story was built by tenth-grader Sergey Sorokin from the Altai village of Ust-Kamanka. And that is no surprise. The young man has been keen on machinery since childhood — for eight years he has been attending the CDT (Center for Children’s Creativity) in the “Small-Size Machinery” club. Club leader Viktor Read more…

A Flood Protection Valve

DIY anti-flood safety valve for home water supply

Cases of water being shut off in homes for a long time are not uncommon — not only for repairs to the water-supply system, but also to save water. Such interruptions carry the risk of flooding the entire apartment and the neighbors’ because of a faucet left open, which happens not only in a hurry Read more…